By Kwin Israel, The Sight News
The Federal Government has called for a stronger role for the education sector in tackling child malnutrition, with school feeding, school health services and nutrition education identified as key interventions under the Nutrition 774 Initiative.
Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, made the call at the Ethiopia-Nigeria Leadership Exchange on Moving the Needle on Nutrition in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. He stressed the need for stronger collaboration among government ministries and across the three tiers of government to ensure nutrition interventions reach children and families at the grassroots.
Dr. Alausa said education, health, agriculture and other relevant sectors must work together, backed by adequate funding, clear responsibilities and effective monitoring. He identified school feeding as a practical intervention that can improve children’s nutrition while encouraging school enrolment, attendance and retention.
The Minister also highlighted the integration of nutrition-related studies into Nigeria’s revised school curriculum, saying it would equip children with knowledge of healthy eating, wellbeing and healthy lifestyles. He added that the proposed education-sector interventions under Nutrition 774 would be incorporated into local government food and nutrition action plans and monitored through relevant education indicators.
He further stressed the importance of extending nutrition and developmental support beyond the first 1,000 days of a child’s life, as well as improving the integration of government data to identify vulnerable children and communities and track the impact of interventions.
The minister reaffirmed the Federal Ministry of Education’s commitment to working with state and local governments, development partners and other stakeholders to strengthen school-based nutrition interventions, in line with the Renewed Hope Agenda and the National Policy on Food and Nutrition.
He said improving children’s nutrition alongside access to quality education remains critical to building a healthier, better-educated and more productive population.
