WASPEN Urges Stronger Integration Of Nutrition Care In Nigeria

The West African Society of Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition (WASPEN) has called for stronger integration of nutrition care into Nigeria’s healthcare system, saying the fight against malnutrition must extend beyond communities to hospitals and other clinical settings.

The president and founder of WASPEN, Dr Teresa Isichei Pounds, made the call on Tuesday when she addressed a virtual press conference ahead of the 2026 Malnutrition Awareness Week, organised in collaboration with the American Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition (ASPEN).

The campaign, themed “Nutrition is a Team Effort,” seeks to highlight the need for collaboration among healthcare professionals, government institutions, development partners and communities in preventing and treating malnutrition.

Pounds said the theme reflected the reality that malnutrition could not be addressed by one profession, institution or sector working alone.

“Addressing malnutrition requires more than one profession, one institution or one sector. It requires all of us working together,” she said.

Pounds commended the Federal Government for steps taken over the past year to strengthen the national nutrition agenda.

She cited the Nutrition 774 Initiative, the development of the National Policy on Food and Nutrition 2026–2035, increased attention to sustainable nutrition financing and renewed focus on micronutrient deficiencies and the critical first 1,000 days of life.

She also acknowledged the contributions of the National Council on Nutrition, the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare and other stakeholders working to improve nutrition outcomes.

According to her, the growing recognition that nutrition is not only a health issue but also one linked to human capital, national development and the future of the country was encouraging.
“These efforts provide an important foundation,” she said.

However, she urged stakeholders to consider how national nutrition initiatives could reach people who were already sick and receiving care in hospitals.

Pounds said public discussions about malnutrition often focused on food insecurity, children in communities, maternal nutrition, breastfeeding and micronutrient deficiencies.

While these remained critical areas, she noted that malnutrition also occurred within healthcare facilities.

A patient could arrive at a hospital already malnourished, she said, while another could become nutritionally depleted during an illness. Patients undergoing surgery or treatment for infection, cancer, trauma or critical illness could also have increased nutritional requirements.

“Yet, nutrition can sometimes remain secondary to the condition that brought the patient to the hospital,” she said.

She added that WASPEN, believed that nutrition should be recognised as an essential part of patient care.

She called for nutrition screening, assessment, intervention and monitoring to be considered alongside other components of clinical management.

“If we are serious about improving health outcomes, nutrition must be recognised as part of patient care,” Pounds said.

Pounds said WASPEN had continued to promote nutrition across the entire continuum of care.

At the organisation’s 5th Clinical Nutrition Conference in Asaba, she said, activities extended beyond the conference hall to include community outreach in Ogwa Ukwu and Ahaba.

The outreach, she said, reinforced the importance of linking community nutrition with hospital-based care.

“Nutrition belongs in the community, but it also belongs in our hospitals. The two should not be treated as separate conversations,” she said.

She explained that a person could receive nutrition education in the community, fall ill, require hospital care and later return to the same community.

Nigeria’s nutrition systems, she said, must therefore be connected across these different stages of care.

Pounds said WASPEN would use the awareness week as a platform to bring together professionals and stakeholders from different parts of the nutrition and healthcare system.

The organisation’s first webinar, titled “Nutrition Care is a Team Effort: Defining Roles, Building Partnerships, Improving Outcomes,” will focus on collaboration, professional roles, partnerships and the policy environment required to strengthen nutrition care.

The second webinar, “From Screening to Recovery: The Multidisciplinary Nutrition Care Pathway in Practice,” will examine how nutrition care can progress from screening and identification to assessment, intervention, monitoring and recovery.

According to Pounds, the webinars were designed to move the conversation beyond awareness towards practical action.