By Joyce Remi- Babayeju
The Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, FMHADMSD, said it is partnering the United Nations World Food Programme, UN WFP to take the National Home- Grown School Feeding Programme, NHGSFP, to the next level to fight malnutrition among school children as schools reopen nationwide.
In a press release from the ministry, made available to Daybreak today, the ministry said took the decision after a joint assessment conducted in the first quarter of 2021 to identify ways of improving, scaling-up and sustaining the NHGSFP.
The Minister Sadiya Farouq said, “The NHGSFP remains an important intervention of the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.” Through it hunger, malnutrition, poverty, education can all be addressed, adding that it is fully the Federal Government has fully funded the programme because it is a potential development driver.
We at the FMHADMSD are here to ensure that this programme is strengthened and sustained so that it can continue to support the needs of the children, families, women and communities it targets, the minister emphasized.
The technical support from the World Food Programme is therefore timely, relevant and well appreciated.
WFP Country Director, Ronald Sibanda said, “One of the best ways of fighting hunger and preventing malnutrition among children is to provide them with a healthy school meal.”
Sibanda commended Nigerian Government for investing resources and funding into the design and implementation of its National Home-Grown School Feeding Programme.
This is a great initiative and WFP is very pleased to provide technical support for the Government of Nigeria, he assured.
Home Grown School Feeding initiatives promote nutrition education and better eating habits and also encourages the diversification of production with a special emphasis on local crops.
Through it’s technical support WFP is backing the next stage of the food programme with a significant transfer of ICT equipment which includes tablets with access to the PLUS Schools Menus – a free tool to help state Nutrition Officers design nutritious menus for schools.
The hardware is to support the Ministry’s efforts to digitalize its monitoring and evaluation system, and also aid the national roll out of the PLUS School Menu Tool developed by WFP to standardize cost-effective menu development.
Daybreak reports that over 9 million students in 53,000 public primary schools, enjoyed the school meals in 2021, making it one of the largest school feeding programmes in Africa.
