By Philip Yatai

The Kaduna State Ministry of Health, supported by the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has begun a process for the adaptation of National Policy on Maternal, Infant and Young Child Nutrition (MIYCN).

The Chief of Field Office, UNICEF Kaduna, Dr Zakari Adam, made this known at a one-day stakeholders’ engagement and sensitisation for the adaptation of the policy in Kaduna on Tuesday.

represented by Mrs Chinwe Ezeife, the Nutrition Specialist, Adam said that the move was to improve the nutritional status of vulnerable groups, particularly women and children in the state.

He noted that although the nutrition indices of vulnerable groups in Kaduna State continue to improve, there was need for increased efforts to ensure that the indices improved to global acceptable level.

He identified some of the efforts as creating enabling environment such as policy and strategic documents and guidelines to ensure that implementation of nutrition programmes were in line with global guidelines and standards.

According to him, the policy document will spell out what the Federal Government wants to see at the state level and expected impact in Kaduna State based on peculiarities.

He added that “whatever we adopt from the national policy will be implemented within the context of the state, national and global standard.

“UNICEF will continue to support Kaduna State Government toward building the nutrition and wellbeing of vulnerable groups, especially women and children.”

Mrs Zainab Haruna, the Nutrition Desk Officer, Ministry of Health, said that the objective of the meeting was to provide an overview of the national MIYCN policy and status of MIYCN intervention in the state.

Haruna added that the meeting was to also build stakeholders’ consensus on priority areas for adaptation and agree on the next step toward adopting the policy.

Providing an overview of the policy, Dr Zainab Muhammad-Idris, the Project Manager, Accelerating Nutrition Results in Nigeria (ANRiN), said that the policy would provide the basis for effective delivery of nutrition, curative and preventive interventions.

She said that the goal of the policy was to ensure adequate nutrition for the survival, optimal growth and development of every child, adolescent girls and women.

Mrs Hauwa Usman, the Nutrition Specialist, ANRiN, pointed out that MIYCN practices remained unsatisfactory with the rate of timely breastfeeding initiation as low as 35.9 per cent.

Usman said that so far, only 27.2 per cent of children were exclusively breastfeed, and only 12.7 per cent of children ages six to 23 months were being fed appropriately.

She recalled that the nutrition situation in the state had been very poor until 2015 when a state of emergency was declared in the sector.

She said that the government’s efforts in the last six years had been massive, with over N40.5 billion allocated for nutrition intervention between 2015 and 2021.

She added that partners also made substantial contribution of N667 million within the period.

The ANRiN nutrition specialist said that the MIYCN intervention would complement ongoing intervention on Community-Infant and Young Child Feeding practices.

She said that ANRiN was currently providing nutrition and related-services in 100 health facilities across 12 local government areas and would soon be scaled up to the remaining councils.

Mr Umar Bambale, the Project Manager, Kaduna State Emergency Nutrition Action Plan, commended the Ministry of Health and UNICEF for the initiative to adapt the MIYNC policy in the state.

According to him, the policy, if adopted, will strengthen the delivery of MIYCF intervention in the state.

Mrs Sarah Kwasu, the Team Lead, Alive and Thrive (Fhi 360) in the state, said that the move was timely to address the problem of malnutrition among women, infants, young children and adolescent girls in the state.

Also, Ms Funmilayo Adeoye, the Chair, Evidence Committee, Civil Society Scaling Up Nutrition in Nigeria (CS-SUNN), commended the state government for the effort to improve the nutrition indices.