A humanitarian intervention aimed at improving the survival of children affected by conflict in Nigeria’s North‑East region will empower more than 300,000 mothers and caregivers. Funded by the United Kingdom’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, the Multisectoral Integrated Nutrition Action project is being implemented by UNICEF and partner organisations across 24 local government areas in Borno and Yobe states, with activities running until March 2025.
The project delivers a comprehensive package of essential services and community structures. These include birth registration and immunisation, nutrition counselling, cash‑transfer support, vegetable‑garden establishment, market‑based sanitation and hygiene interventions, mothers’ groups, nutrition mobilisers, and Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) committees. According to UNICEF Representative in Nigeria Cristian Munduate, the intervention’s overarching aims are to enhance dietary practices, strengthen home‑based malnutrition screening skills, provide high‑impact lifesaving nutrition interventions—such as early identification and referral of acute malnutrition cases—and supply micronutrient supplementation. These measures are expected to help prevent infections among children.
Implementation will involve deploying roving midwives to hard‑to‑reach areas to improve the nutritional status and overall wellbeing of the most disadvantaged children. Data from the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics, the Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey, and the National Immunisation Coverage Survey indicate that approximately one in four children aged 12–23 months in the North‑East are not vaccinated, making the region one of the highest in Nigeria for unvaccinated children. Additionally, the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene National Outcome Routine Mapping shows that only four percent of Borno’s population and two percent of Yobe’s population have access to safely managed drinking water, while up to 1.1 million people still practice open defecation—a risk factor for malnutrition and stunting.
Munduate thanked the FCDO for its support, noting that the intervention will improve the survival of children in Borno and Yobe who have been affected by conflict. He emphasized that “the first 1,000 days of a child’s life is an unmatched window of opportunity.” UNICEF is grateful for the FCDO’s investment in the lives of some of the world’s most vulnerable children, adding, “It is heart‑warming that, through the capacity‑building and empowerment approach of this project, thousands of children will benefit from this intervention in the long term.”
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