The Bauchi State government has approved N300 million as counterpart funding for the procurement of nutritional food and supplements to combat severe acute malnutrition in children under five across the state.
The fund will be matched by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) under the Child Nutrition Fund (CNF) project, aimed at scaling up interventions to improve child survival and development.
The state commissioner for Health and Social Welfare, Dr Sani Mohammed, disclosed this yesterday during the closing ceremony of the Alive and Thrive FHI360’s celebration of three years of Accelerating the Scale-up of Maternal, Infant and Young Child Nutrition (ASMIYCN) Project as well as the dissemination of the Bauchi State Essential Medicine Lists and MMS Project in Bauchi.
Mohammed reiterated the government’s commitment to strengthening healthcare delivery and ensuring improved nutrition for women and children.
He praised Alive and Thrive for its three years of impactful service, stressing that the partnership would continue beyond the project’s closure.
The country representative of Alive and Thrive FHI360, Dr Victor Ogbodo, commended the Bauchi State government for its support, noting that the project has helped integrate improved maternal and child nutrition practices into communities.
He explained that despite national setbacks in achieving nutrition targets, such as worsening child stunting, wasting and underweight rates, interventions in Bauchi’s PHCs have recorded significant improvements.
On his part, the executive chairman of the Bauchi State Primary Healthcare Development Board, Dr Rilwanu Mohammed, described maternal and child nutrition as the cornerstone of human capital development.
He highlighted key achievements of the project, including promotion of optimal maternal nutrition through access to multiple micronutrient supplements (MMS), improved infant and young child feeding practices, including exclusive breastfeeding and timely complementary feeding and capacity building for health workers at the PHC level on nutrition counselling and service delivery.
