By Haruna Gimba
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), in collaboration with the Gombe State Government and the Latter-day Saints Charities (LDSC) have launched a new initiative aimed at preventing malnutrition during the first 1,000 days of a child’s life.
The initiative, inaugurated during a high-level stakeholders’ meeting in Gombe, focuses on strengthening nutrition interventions from pregnancy through a child’s second birthday, a window widely recognised by global experts as the most pivotal stage for physical growth, brain development, and lifelong health.
Speaking at the launch, the Chief of the UNICEF Bauchi Field Office, Dr Nuzhat Rafique, said that preventing malnutrition early is far more impactful and cost-effective than treating severe acute malnutrition after it occurs.
She stated that no child should become malnourished in the first place, adding that once a child becomes malnourished, some of the losses in brain development and future potential cannot be fully recovered. “We must build a strong prevention system.”
Dr Rafique called for data-driven planning, improved domestic funding, enhanced hygiene practices, and robust community participation to ensure sustainable child health outcomes.
She also urged the media to lead behavior-change communication across communities to encourage families to prioritize proper infant feeding and hygiene.
According to her, the intervention will strengthen evidence-based planning, coordination, accountability and financing for nutrition programmes at state and local government levels, “in addition to reinforcing health, food and social protection systems to ensure pregnant women and young children receive quality nutrition services throughout the first 1,000 days of life.
“The project will further promote healthy diets through social and behaviour change interventions designed to improve exclusive breastfeeding, complementary feeding, maternal nutrition, micronutrient intake and community-based nutrition services.”
The UNICEF, therefore, called on governments, traditional and religious leaders, civil society organisations and development partners to increase domestic financing for nutrition, strengthen cross-sector collaboration, improve data-driven planning and mobilise communities to adopt optimal maternal, infant and young child feeding practices to reduce malnutrition and child mortality across Gombe State.
Inaugurating the project, the Executive Secretary of the State Primary Health Care Development Agency (SPHCDA), Dr Abdulrahman Shuaibu, described the initiative as a timely step toward improving child survival and securing the state’s economic future.
He stated that malnutrition affects children’s growth, learning ability, and future productivity.
“We must strengthen preventive measures through antenatal care, safe delivery, exclusive breastfeeding, and appropriate complementary feeding,” he stated
Dr Shuaibu reaffirmed the state government’s commitment to collaborating with development partners to expand maternal and child health services across all local government areas.
According to him, the project aligns with the Federal Government’s Nutrition 774 Initiative (N-774), the Health Sector-Wide Approach (SWAp), and the National Food and Nutrition Policy.
With data from the 2023–2024 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS) highlighting ongoing nutritional challenges in the region, stakeholders reinforced that solving child malnutrition requires cross-sectoral action involving health, agriculture, water and sanitation (WASH), education, and local leadership.
