FG, States Move to Bridge Funding Gaps on Nutrition Supplements for Pregnant Women

Onyebuchi Ezigbo in Abuja

The federal government has commenced engagement with key stakeholders, including representatives of Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare; Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs); development partners, such as UNICEF and the Gates Foundation; and other nutrition actors, to review findings and validate technical recommendations from the anaemia intervention baseline study conducted across 19 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

The development emerged at a two-day Project Report Validation Workshop on formative study to establish the baseline for anaemia funding commitment through Child Nutrition Funds and level of MMS uptake across PNNS and UNICEF-supported states, held in Abuja on Thursday.

 Chairman, Steering Committee on Nutrition, at Civil Society-Scaling Up Nutrition in Nigeria (CS-SUNN), Mr. Sodangi Chindo, said government had been implementing strategies for anaemia prevention and was now introducing Multiple Micronutrient Supplementation (MMS) in Nigeria.

Explaining the new direction of Nigeria’s campaign against anaemia in pregnant women, Chindo said the country was currently transitioning from use of Iron Folic Acid (IFA) to Multiple Micronutrient Supplementation (MMS), which was more expensive but beneficial.

He said one of the key objectives of the workshop was to determine the best approach to bridging the financing gap as well as ensuring community engagement and sensitisation crucial for MMS adoption.

According to him, the plan is to disseminate information regarding MMS and to engage in sensitisation and community mobilisation, highlighting benefits of MMS over IFAS.

Chindo stated, “We are looking at anaemia prevention holistically; where is the baseline and what level of funding do we need when we are introducing MMS. Though MMS is now in the ANC list, what has been in use is the IFA.

“So, we are also looking at what will be the funding gap as the country is transiting from IFA to MMS which though more expensive is more beneficial to pregnant women.”

He said as part of the efforts to sensitise communities on the importance of MMS, CS-SNN was engaging the media and deploying over 450 field staff across the country to help in sensitisation and mobilisation of communities to the fact that the country was transitioning from using IFA to MMS and its benefits.

One of the resource persons at the workshop and a nutrition expert from the University of Abuja, Professor Kola Anigo, said more budget allocation for nutrition was being advocated because MMS had been found based on research by World Health Organisation (WHO) to reduce low birth weight, and help to reduce anaemia in mothers.

Anigo stated, “What we are using before now is the iron and folic acid, but this one contains 15 micronutrients. So, the folic acid and the iron is also there, in addition to other micronutrients.

“So, it will be of great benefit to the mothers but the MMS need to be available. And for it to be available, the state must make commitment towards procurement and to ensure the procurement is also done timely, so that people will not go to the health facility, and there will be struck out of the MMS.”

Permanent Secretary of Niger State Planning Commission, and Chair on Nutrition, Aisha Oti Usman, who spoke to THISDAY, said the objective of the workshop was to establish baseline statistics on anaemia among pregnant women in Nigeria.

Usman explained that the goal was to ensure informed interventions to improve maternal and child health in the country.

She also said there was currently a gap in funding by government and international donor agencies, which needed to be filled, adding that most of the nutrition programmes are donor-driven

Usman said the workshop was advocating for state governments to allocate resources and explore more local partnerships with individuals, nutrition-focused organisations, and banks, which could implement it as part their Community Social Responsibility (CSR) initiative.