Civil Society Scaling-Up Nutrition in Nigeria (CS-SUNN) has called on Lagos Island Local Government to strengthen its Local Government Committee on Food and Nutrition (LGCFN) and provide dedicated budget allocations for nutrition programmes.
The call was made during an advocacy visit to the council, where CS-SUNN Senior Programme Manager, Kunle Ishola, stressed the need for stronger coordination, funding and implementation of nutrition interventions at the grassroots.
Ishola urged the LGCFN to hold quarterly meetings involving key departments, including health, agriculture, education, budget, environment, information and Women Affairs and Poverty Alleviation. He also advocated dedicated nutrition budget lines, noting that tackling malnutrition requires coordinated interventions across several sectors.
He identified stunting, wasting and underweight as major indicators of malnutrition, while highlighting the long-term impact of stunting on children’s cognitive development. He also called for greater advocacy on early initiation and exclusive breastfeeding, as well as the importance of colostrum in boosting newborn immunity.
Council officials expressed support for the initiative, with the Education Department highlighting its twice-weekly school feeding programme, while the Budget Department pledged collaboration on data collection and efforts to reduce malnutrition. The Health, WAPA and Agriculture departments also outlined ongoing and potential interventions to improve nutrition among children, women and vulnerable residents.
CS-SUNN Steering Committee representative, Sodangi Chido, said a functional nutrition committee backed by a costed work plan and clear budget commitments would help attract support from development partners, philanthropists and the private sector. He urged the council to leverage local government autonomy, align its plans with Lagos State’s multi-sectoral nutrition plan and take advantage of the national Nutrition 774 initiative.
