The Federal Government is partnering with US-based organisation, Operation End Starvation, to support efforts to combat hunger, acute child malnutrition and deaths caused by starvation in Nigeria.

The Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof. Mohammed Ali Pate, disclosed this when he led a delegation from the organisation and other agencies under the ministry to meet with the First Lady, Sen. Oluremi Tinubu, to seek collaboration on tackling hunger and malnutrition.

Pate said Nigeria was committed to addressing malnutrition through existing government frameworks, noting that the recently launched National Community Food Bank Programme, implemented in partnership with the Office of the First Lady, was already making a positive impact across the six geopolitical zones.

“Nigeria is working hard to scale down its 6.4 million figure of acute child malnutrition, while also attending to the health of pregnant women and lactating mothers,” he said.

He added that several initiatives were already being implemented to address the challenge.

Speaking on the proposed partnership, the Chief Executive Officer of Operation End Starvation, Williams Holdsworth Moore, said the initiative, supported by a macro grant from the US Government and international philanthropists, aimed to mobilise more than one billion dollars annually to prevent child deaths caused by starvation.

Moore said the organisation was impressed by Nigeria’s efforts to tackle acute malnutrition and was seeking collaboration with the country under its global programme.

“We want to move one billion dollars to end starvation in the next two years across sub-Saharan Africa. The burden is high, but the capacity is also very high,” he said.

He added that the US State Department had approved Nigeria’s inclusion in the programme’s focus.

“We have met with the Nigerian health team, and they are one of the best of many we have met,” Moore said.

Responding, the First Lady commended the expertise and dedication of professionals working across Nigeria’s ministries, saying her experience working with the health and education sectors had been encouraging.

“It’s been a delight working with Prof. Pate, Dr. Muyi and others. I also work with the Ministry of Education and others. The manpower we have now in the Ministries is so wonderful,” she said.

Tinubu said President Bola Tinubu’s administration was undertaking reforms aimed at improving the country’s systems and moving Nigeria towards its development goals.

“Nigeria deserves better, and there is nothing we give to her that is too much because if the system works, it will ultimately come back to us,” she said.

She assured the delegation that any assistance received through the partnership would be effectively utilised.

“I assure you that whatever aid you give us, this health team would put it to good use,” she said.

Operation End Starvation, an initiative of the Eleanor Crook Foundation, seeks to make Nigeria a primary focus of its activities over the next two years to demonstrate the impact of large-scale investments through direct government partnerships.

The organisation is a public-private partnership initiative focused on ending child malnutrition and deaths caused by starvation across sub-Saharan Africa, including Nigeria.

Source: Office of the First Lady of Nigeria.