NHED worked with various partners to advocate for preventing and treating severe acute malnutrition (SAM) in Nigeria. These efforts included policy-level advocacy to increase government funding and private sector participation in addressing SAM. The first phase of the project was led by UNICEF Nigeria to improve the quality of service provision. However, it ended in December 2018. Program assessment showed that more aggressive, targeted advocacy, media engagement and mobilisation of civil society organisation were required to influence stronger policies, improve funding, and harmonisation of nutrition services in Nigeria’s health system for improved sustainability.
The second phase of the project – Advocacy Support for Prevention and Treatment of SAM; was a follow-up to the inception phase. We implemented this project in a coalition of the following health advocates, and health and policy governance experts: Aisha Buhari Foundation (ABF), International Society for Media in Public Health (ISMPH), & Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC). This advocacy project was implemented for over 2 years at the Federal level and in 5 States (Kano, Gombe, Bauchi, Sokoto, Jigawa & Katsina). Our major goals were to mainstream the prevention and treatment of Severe Acute Malnutrition through funding from the Nigerian government, and to deliver key sustainable products and services at scale to improve the health and development of children.
We successfully secured budget commitments from the National Assembly worth 800 Million Naira annually for nutrition in the 2020 Budget; Kano, Jigawa and Kastina procured RUTF (ready-to-use therapeutic foods) worth 50 Million, 100 Milion and 250 Million Naira respectively; also approved Kano, Bauchi and Gombe approved 307 Million, 370 Million and 280 Million respectively for nutrition in each states 2020 Budget.
