Kano: The Accelerating Nutrition Results in Nigeria (ANRiN) project has disclosed that it has delivered 6,267,880 services, exceeding its target of 5,784,983 during its first phase.
Dr Zainab Muhammad-Idris, the Project Manager of the ANRiN PROJECT in Kaduna, also rolled out the project’s achievements, including improving the health and well-being of children under five, adolescent girls, and pregnant and lactating women in Kaduna State, in a four-day sustainability workshop in Kano.
The first phase of the ANRiN project will end on June 30th, 2025, while the second phase, 2.0, will begin on July 1st, 2025.
The ANRiN 2.0, which has three components, would entail a basic package of nutrition services, convergence with food systems, and
data-driven multi-sectoral coordination and accountability.
Delivering a presentation at a four-day sustainability workshop in Kano, the Project Manager of the ANRiN project in Kaduna, Dr Zainab Muhammad-Idris, said throughout its first phase, the project delivered a total of 6,267,880 services, exceeding its target of 5,784,983.
Muhammad-Idris said the project’s services included vitamin A supplementation, deworming, micronutrient powder distribution, and counselling on Maternal, Infant, and Young Child Nutrition (MIYCN) practices.
She added that the project provided contraception services, including Short-Term Methods (STM) and Long-Acting Reversible Contraception (LARC), to adolescent girls.
Muhammad-Idris said 146,897 adolescent girls received child spacing and family planning services, with 23,578 opting for LARC and 123,319 choosing STM.
At the facility level, the project manager said that the project trained 60 Master Trainers, 120 Secondary Health Facility workers, and 510 Primary Health Care workers on various aspects of healthcare delivery.
She added that over 300,000 pregnant women were reached with MIYCN counselling, iron and folic acid supplementation, and intermittent preventive treatment for malaria.
Muhammad-Idris said the project established and strengthened 23 Grievance Redress Committees (GRCs) across the state, which serve as a platform for communities to provide feedback on the project’s services.
Speaking further, she recalled that the ANRiN project also provided emergency support to the Tudun Biri community (Drone attack victims) with food items, livestock, seedlings, and agricultural inputs, among others.
The Chairman of the Kaduna State Committee on Food and Nutrition (SCFN), Bashir Muhammad, stated that the project’s achievements demonstrated the impact of collaborative efforts in improving the health and well-being of children, adolescent girls, and pregnant and lactating women in Kaduna State.
Muhammad stated that such a collaborative approach would be crucial in ensuring that the project’s benefits were felt for years to come and that the health and nutrition needs of the state’s most vulnerable populations continued to be met.
Therefore, he said it was imperative that the stakeholders continue to work together to ensure that the gains are sustained for the betterment of the state and nation in general.
Muhammad restated the SCFN’s commitment to supporting initiatives that improve nutrition outcomes in Kaduna State, emphasising the committee’s role in coordinating efforts to address malnutrition.
The State Nutrition Officer (SNO), Ramatu Haruna, lamented that malnutrition was a significant public health issue in the state, contributing to over 50 per cent of under-five deaths.
Haruna was represented by Jibril Isah, the Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn Child and Adolescent Health (RMNCAH) Monitoring and Evaluation Officer at the State Primary Health Care Board.
He said that key MIYCN indicators revealed critical gaps, with only 13 per cent of newborns receiving timely breastfeeding.
She explained that 41.1 per cent of infants were exclusively breastfed, and 12.3 per cent of children aged six to 23 months met proper feeding standards.
Haruna said that the state had 1,063 Primary Healthcare Centres (PHCs), 31 Secondary Health Care Facilities, with
162 offering Integrated Management of Acute Malnutrition (IMAM) services and 560 delivering MIYCN interventions.
Similarly, she said one tertiary
hospital and 31 secondary facilities served as Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM) stabilisation centres, supported by
community-based Infant and Young Child Feeding (IYCF) services in all 23 LGAs to strengthen capacity.
The SNO also said that 585 health workers from 162 PHCs had been trained on IMAM, alongside 1,620 community volunteers who have established 14,580 support groups statewide.
Earlier, Hauwa Usman, Nutrition Specialist for the ANRiN project in Kaduna, said the workshop, which strategically brought stakeholders from various MDAs, was to review the achievements and lessons learned.
She added that the meeting was to strengthen the capacity for sustainability planning and encourage multi-sectoral collaboration.
NAN reports that ANRiN is a state-led and World Bank-funded performance-based project which aims to increase the utilisation of quality, cost-effective nutrition services for pregnant and lactating women, adolescent girls, and children under five years of age.
The project primarily focuses on increasing access to and utilising a community-based Basic Package of Nutrition Services (BNPS) according to established targets to reduce malnutrition in Nigeria.
The programme is currently being implemented in 12 high-malnutrition-burden states in Nigeria.