Knowledge Management and Learning for ANRiN (Accelerating Nutrition Results in Nigeria)

Timeline: May 2021 – February 2025 | Status: Completed

Abia, Akwa Ibom, Gombe, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kogi, Kwara, Nasarawa, Niger, Oyo, and Plateau States, Nigeria

Project Overview

Effective nutrition programmes depend not only on successful implementation but also on the ability to learn from experience, share knowledge, and continuously improve interventions. Between May 2021 and February 2025, the Health Strategy and Delivery Foundation (HSDF), with support from the World Bank, implemented the Knowledge Management and Learning for the Accelerating Nutrition Results in Nigeria (ANRiN) project.

ANRiN is one of Nigeria's flagship nutrition programmes, designed to improve the nutritional status of pregnant women, lactating mothers, adolescent girls, and children under five. Recognising that large-scale programmes generate valuable knowledge that can strengthen future interventions, HSDF led efforts to establish structured knowledge management and learning processes that documented experiences, captured lessons, and promoted evidence-informed decision-making throughout the programme lifecycle.

Working across twelve states, HSDF collaborated with government institutions, implementing partners, and programme stakeholders to transform knowledge into a strategic asset—supporting continuous learning, improving programme implementation, and ensuring that successful approaches could be adapted and replicated across different contexts.

Large, multi-state programmes often generate significant amounts of data, experiences, and lessons. However, without structured systems for documenting and sharing this knowledge, valuable insights can remain fragmented, limiting opportunities for learning, innovation, and programme improvement.

The ANRiN programme required a coordinated knowledge management approach that would enable stakeholders to capture evidence, promote collaboration, and ensure that implementation experiences informed policy and future nutrition investments.

HSDF designed and implemented a comprehensive knowledge management and learning strategy that strengthened collaboration across the ANRiN programme. The project focused on:

Developing systems for documenting programme experiences and lessons learned.
Capturing and synthesising evidence generated throughout implementation.
Facilitating knowledge exchange among government institutions, development partners, and implementing teams.
Producing knowledge products that supported learning and informed decision-making.
Promoting adaptive management by integrating lessons into ongoing programme implementation.
Strengthening institutional capacity for knowledge management within the nutrition sector.

By placing knowledge management at the centre of programme implementation, HSDF helped ensure that ANRiN became more than a service delivery programme, it became a platform for continuous learning and improvement. The project strengthened the availability and use of evidence, encouraged collaboration across stakeholders, and supported more informed decision-making at both programme and policy levels.

The knowledge generated through ANRiN continues to provide valuable insights that can guide future nutrition programming, strengthen health systems, and improve the delivery of nutrition services for vulnerable populations across Nigeria.