The United Kingdom (UK) Government, through its Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), has unveiled a humanitarian intervention focused on providing integrated food, nutrition sanitation and protection services in Nigeria’s North-East region.
The Multi-sectoral Integrated Nutrition Action (MINA) project, funded by the UK government, will be implemented by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and other partners in 24 local councils of Borno and Yobe states till March 2025.
In a statement, yesterday, in Abuja, UNICEF Representative in Nigeria, Cristian Munduate, said that the intervention, which will empower over 300,000 mothers and caregivers, aimed at enhancing dietary practices, home-based malnutrition screening skills, provision of high impact lifesaving nutrition interventions (such as early identification and referral of acute malnutrition cases for treatment), and micronutrients supplementation to prevent infections among children.
Munduate said that the interventions were aimed at improving the survival of children affected by conflict, adding that the first 1000 days of life of a child is an unmatched window of opportunity.
She said: “UNICEF is grateful for the support of the FCDO to invest early in the lives of some of the most vulnerable children in the world. It is heartwarming that through the capacity building and empowerment approach of this project, thousands of children will benefit from the intervention in the long term.
“The project leverages a bouquet of essential services and community structures to provide integrated essential services for children, including birth registration and immunisation services, nutrition counselling, cash transfer support, establishment of vegetable gardens, market-based sanitation and hygiene interventions, mothers’ groups, nutrition mobilisers and Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) Committees.
“Critically, the highly successful mother-led Mid-Upper Arm Circumference programme is being expanded while roving midwives will be deployed to hard-to-reach areas to improve the nutrition status and overall wellbeing of the most disadvantaged children.”
