Stakeholders in Nigeria’s nutrition sector have called for stronger accountability mechanisms and performance-based funding systems that improve implementation without denying support to vulnerable children.
The call was made on Wednesday during an Athena Policy Webinar titled “From Measurement to Consequence: Fixing Nigeria’s Nutrition Accountability Gap,” organised by the Athena Centre for Policy and Leadership through its Olikoye Ransome-Kuti Institute for Health and Social Equity.
The webinar examined findings from Athena Policy Pulse No. 7, Political Incentives and Nutrition Neglect: Why State Governments Fail to Improve Child Nutrition, and brought together officials from the Office of the Vice President, the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), and the House of Representatives Committee on Nutrition and Food Security.
Presenting the paper, Director of the Institute, Dr Danjuma Iyaji, argued that while Nigeria has developed systems for measuring nutrition outcomes, it lacks effective mechanisms for enforcing accountability when implementation falls short.According to him, under-five stunting remains at 40 per cent against a national target of 18 per cent that has already expired.
He also noted that only nine of the country’s 36 states had formally established State Councils on Nutrition as of April 2026, adding that the existence of such councils does not necessarily indicate effective functionality.
The paper proposed four reforms: linking supplementary funding tranches to verified readiness indicators while protecting support for high-need populations; introducing annual state performance assessments; establishing an escalation framework for non-performance; and institutionalising annual legislative hearings at state level.
Senior Special Assistant to the President on Nutrition and Public Health, Uju Rochas-Anwukah, agreed with the report’s diagnosis and identified three critical gaps in the nutrition delivery chain: translating commitments into releases, converting released funds into service delivery, and improving understanding of nutrition issues among subnational leaders.”A stunted child is a lost asset that no bridge can build,” she said.
Rochas-Anwukah noted that conditions governing the Child Nutrition Fund are determined by UNICEF and its partners rather than her office. She, however, advocated mechanisms that would allow weaker states to improve their readiness without excluding children in high-need areas.
She also urged the passage of the draft National Food and Nutrition Bill to institutionalise accountability beyond any particular administration.Director of Nutrition at the NPHCDA, Dr Adebiyi Victoria Olatunde, stressed that accountability must extend to primary healthcare facilities where therapeutic foods and micronutrient supplies are delivered.She cautioned that state-level statistics can conceal localised failures.
“At times we have data for a state, and the issue may be in only two particular wards,” she said, proposing facility-level and ward-level monitoring systems alongside root-cause reviews before sanctions or escalation measures are considered.
Also speaking, Abel Okechukwu, Research Lead of the House of Representatives Committee on Nutrition and Food Security, described conditional financing as both practical and necessary but argued for safeguards to protect essential services.
He proposed a two-tier model in which 70 per cent of funding would be protected for interventions such as micronutrient programmes and school feeding, while the remaining 30 per cent would be performance-based and tied to indicators including functional nutrition councils, approved costed plans and publicly available expenditure records.”Conditional financing should not punish the child,” he said.
Okechukwu also outlined requirements for effective legislative oversight hearings, including standard reporting templates and the submission of reports at least 21 days before hearings.
He disclosed that the committee plans to intensify joint oversight activities in 2026 and 2027 and suggested incorporating provisions into the Appropriation Act that link federal grants to evidence of state-level oversight.
Discussions during the webinar led to refinements of Athena Centre’s recommendations, including protecting a portion of nutrition funding while creating pathways for weaker states to meet readiness requirements, extending performance assessments below state level, and ensuring root-cause analyses precede escalation measures.Participants noted, however, that questions remain about whether existing Child Nutrition Fund guidelines permit some of the proposed conditionalities.
The webinar concluded with an agreement on three next steps. The Athena Centre will engage partners of the Child Nutrition Fund on financing issues, consult the Nigeria Governors’ Forum on escalation mechanisms, and present legislative proposals to State Houses of Assembly.
A policy note reflecting the recommendations from the discussion will be shared with panellists before publication, while the Athena Centre plans to reassess the proposed reforms in July 2027.Closing the session, moderator Ijeoma Achebe said the discussion had sharpened understanding of the challenge facing Nigeria’s nutrition sector.
“The gap is not simply about a lack of policies,” she said. “It is the distance between commitments and delivery.”
