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Alausa Seeks Wider School Feeding Coverage To Tackle Child Malnutrition
The Minister of Education, Tunji Alausa, has called for increased school feeding coverage and stronger school health services as part of efforts to tackle child malnutrition across Nigeria. Alausa said school feeding, nutrition education and improved access to quality education should form key components of the federal government’s Nutrition 774……
The Minister of Education, Tunji Alausa, has called for increased school feeding coverage and stronger school health services as part of efforts to tackle child malnutrition across Nigeria.
Alausa said school feeding, nutrition education and improved access to quality education should form key components of the federal government’s Nutrition 774 Initiative, which seeks to address nutrition challenges across the country’s 774 local government areas.
The minister made the call on Wednesday, October 7, during the Ethiopia–Nigeria Leadership Exchange on Moving the Needle on Nutrition in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
According to a statement on Thursday by his Special Adviser on Media and Communications, Ikharo Attah, Alausa stressed the need for collaboration among government ministries and the three tiers of government to ensure nutrition interventions reach healthy eating, wellbeing and healthy lifestyles.
The ministry’s proposed contribution to the Nutrition 774 Initiative includes school feeding, school health services, nutrition education and measures to improve access to quality education.
These interventions are expected to be incorporated into local government multisectoral food and nutrition plans, with education-related indicators proposed for inclusion in the initiative’s local government scorecard.
Alausa said the proposed framework would strengthen accountability and help authorities assess the impact of education programmes on nutrition outcomes.
The minister also called for increased school-feeding coverage, noting that the National Policy on Food and Nutrition aims to raise coverage from 33 per cent to 60 per cent of primary school children by 2035.
He further stressed the need to extend early childhood care and development support beyond the first 1,000 days of a child’s life, noting that children continue to require nutritional, health and developmental support as they grow.
Alausa identified reliable and integrated government data as essential to identifying vulnerable children and communities, improving planning and determining whether interventions are reaching their intended beneficiaries.
He also called for effective implementation of national nutrition policies at state and local government levels, with clear targets and monitoring mechanisms.
The minister welcomed the opportunity to learn from Ethiopia’s experience in coordinating nutrition interventions and mobilising domestic re adapted to local circumstances
He reaffirmed the Federal Ministry of Education’s commitment to working with relevant ministries, state governments, local government authorities and development partners to advance education-related interventions under the Nutrition 774 Initiative.
Alausa said the ministry would continue to align its policies and programmes with President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda, particularly its focus on human capital development.
He added that improving children’s nutrition and access to quality education was essential to building a healthier, better-educated and more productive population.
