In a landmark meeting that reaffirmed a decade of partnership and a shared vision for a healthier Nigeria, key stakeholders gathered at the 2025 Gates Foundation Partner Advisory Committee (PAC) meeting in Abuja.
The forum, which brought together leaders in health, agriculture, and government, concluded with a renewed commitment to tackling the nation’s multifaceted challenges, with nutrition at the forefront.
The meeting’s tone was set for a collective, locally-driven response to malnutrition, a challenge that has long plagued the nation.
The Gates Foundation, celebrating 25 years of global impact, reiterated its commitment to a series of high-impact interventions for Nigeria.
These included expanding the use of Multiple Micronutrient Supplementation (MMS) for pregnant women and scaling up the fortification of staple foods, a crucial step toward ensuring foundational health from the earliest stages of life.
A key theme of the discussions was the integration of nutrition with broader developmental goals.
Experts emphasized that improving food access and dietary diversity at the household level requires a coordinated approach that links nutrition to agriculture and social protection systems.
This holistic strategy recognizes that a child's health is intrinsically linked to the family's ability to access diverse, nutritious food.
The forum also served as a showcase for high-impact innovations designed to save lives.
Sessions highlighted groundbreaking technologies, from portable ultrasound devices and low-cost Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) machines for newborns to sensor technology for vital signs monitoring.
The Child Survival Subgroup, which includes key partner Civil Society Scaling Up Nutrition in Nigeria (CS-SUNN), worked to align these innovations with existing advocacy efforts, underscoring a critical message: technology alone is not enough.
Effective implementation, they argued, hinges on good governance, adequate financing, and a strong sense of community ownership.
As CS-SUNN marks its own 10-year milestone, the organization reflected on a decade of partnership with the Gates Foundation.
This enduring collaboration, the organization noted, has been instrumental in elevating nutrition to a priority on Nigeria’s political agenda.
The 2025 PAC meeting served as a powerful reaffirmation of this shared purpose, providing a clear blueprint for the next chapter of Nigeria’s nutrition story.
CS-SUNN expressed its gratitude to the Gates Foundation for the opportunity to contribute to this crucial agenda and looks forward to deepening their collaboration.
The forum closed with a collective resolve to intensify advocacy, integrate innovations into health and nutrition systems, and mobilize resources for scalable and sustainable solutions.
For CS-SUNN, the journey continues with a sharpened focus on equity, accountability, and resilience, both within and beyond Nigeria’s nutrition landscape.
Remmy Nweke/DoP
No comments:
Post a Comment
Share ur views here