The Accelerating Nutrition Result in Nigeria (ANRiN) project will strengthen preventive intervention against malnutrition among children, women and adolescents in Kaduna state, the programme coordinator has said.
Dr Zainab Muhammad-Idris said the project, which would cover the 23 local government areas of the state, is a five-year World Bank-funded project secured by Kaduna state government, for preventive activities against malnutrition.
She stated that, the project is designed to protect children from the devastating and lifelong effects of stunting malnutrition through the scale-up of cost-effective interventions.
“It is designed to strengthen the role of the state to plan, finance, implement and monitor large-scale nutrition programmes, through effective coordination of all nutrition activities in the state,’’ she said.
Zainab also stated that the project was structured to increase access to quality and cost-effective health and nutrition services to vulnerable groups like pregnant and lactating women, adolescent girls and children under five years old.
She stated further that, “the programme will enhance behavioural change around nutritional practices and the way people handled food right from the farm to the point of consumption. It will promote preventive activities through improving nutritional practice in the state.
“This will ensure that the targeted group, including other community members, has the right nutrients that will reduce chronic malnutrition. It will also reduce maternal and child mortality rates in the state.
“This, in the long run, will improve the nutrition indices in the state, increase school completion rate and performance, as well as improve the productivity of the state’s labour force. The project would also initiate a programme for micro nutrients deficiency.”
She said the state was yet to begin a formal programme on micronutrient powder provision.
