IN an effort to sustain its progress in improving nutrition outcomes, the Oyo State government has released $150,000 (over 200 million naira) as its counterpart funding for the UNICEF Child Nutrition Fund to purchase medications and ready-to-use therapeutic foods to enhance the nutritional status of under-5 children and combat malnutrition in the state.
Oyo State Commissioner for the Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning, Professor Musibau Babatunde, disclosed at a breakfast meeting with stakeholders and political office holders on the adoption of the Child Nutrition Fund (CNF) and the implementation of six-month paid maternity leave in Oyo State. This initiative is supported by CS-SUNN and UNICEF.
Prof. Babatunde Ayanleke, represented by the Chairman of the Oyo State Committee on Food and Nutrition, Mr Tunde Ayanleke, stated that the CNF is intended to purchase drugs and other life-saving commodities, such as ready-to-eat therapeutic food, to reduce malnutrition in Oyo State.
He stated that pregnant women will also benefit from these life-saving commodities, which help address anemia, worm infestations, and other related issues.
The Oyo State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Oluwaserimi Ajetunmobi, who was represented by Dr. Khadija Alarape, the Director of Nutrition at the Oyo State Primary Health Care Board and the project coordinator for the recently concluded ANRiN project, stated that the state’s stunting prevalence had decreased from 34.5 percent to 23.4 percent by the end of the project.
Dr Ajetunmobi stated: “Since the beginning of the initiative, the wasting rate has increased from 4.4 percent to 14.4 percent. We are not a cause for concern because wasting is easier to manage, whereas stunting requires a minimum of five years to address.
“Within three months, you can manage waste and reduce it to 5 percent, which is the global target. With the cooperation of CNF, UNICEF, and the state, we are pleased to say that we can effectively manage our waste. We have already started working on it.”
Dr Ajetunmobi added that to sustain improvements in nutritional indices in the state, the government, in collaboration with other agencies and partners, is planning to build the capacity of its health workers in nutrition-specific interventions and social behaviour change activities to empower mothers and caregivers.
Earlier, Mr Boluwatife Ogunjimi, an officer with the Nutrition Section of the UNICEF Lagos Field Office, stated that the CNF became necessary because there is no platform to support global donors in coordinating their investments in high-impact nutrition actions, no dedicated mechanism to incentivize the transition from global funding to domestic funding and none that supports local manufacturing of essential nutrition supplies.
According to him, through the CNF’s match window, state governments can double their investments in essential nutrition supplies to prevent and treat malnutrition, thereby maximizing impact and accelerating the scale-up of critical interventions to sustainably reach vulnerable children and women.
Mr Ogunjimi stated that the CNF supports government-led initiatives in maternal nutrition, breastfeeding promotion, complementary feeding, micronutrient supplementation, and treatment of child wasting.
He said that 15 states, including Kano, Kwara, Niger, and Oyo, have invested N4 billion to date in CNF.
“Oyo State is the first state in the Southwest to have contributed over 200 million naira to these funds, enabling the procurement of various supplements and interventions aimed at treating wasting and eradicating malnutrition in the state,” he declared.
The State Coordinator for Civil Society Scaling Up Nutrition in Nigeria, Dr. Adio Oluwasegun, praised the state administration for improving the state’s nutritional indicators and called for increased domestic financing for nutrition.
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