On Monday, November 7, the flagship Nutrition Peer Learning Collaborative Network event organized by the Nutrition Department of the Federal Ministry of Health kicked off at the Lagos Continental Hotel, Victoria Island, Lagos. The collaborative was facilitated by the World Bank, Accelerating Nutrition Results in Nigeria (ANRiN) Project Management Unit, Health Strategy and Delivery Foundation (HSDF) and Research for Development (R4D), to create a platform for various ANRiN project implementers and partners to connect and exchange both tacit and experiential knowledge as well as review project gains and lessons learned on the project so far.

The 2-day event featured insightful keynote addresses delivered by representatives of the World Bank, Federal Ministry of Health (Nutrition Department), Dangote Foundation, Oxford Policy Management firm, and other strategic partners. Non-State Actors (NSAs) from the 12 ANRiN states also gave presentations that highlighted some of the successes, enablers as well as sustainability and innovative approaches that may be replicated across states.

The high points of the event were the case study analysis and thematic group and plenary discussions. These allowed participants to learn from best practices on similar projects in other countries as well as from one another. Participants were able to leverage their expertise and wealth of experience to proffer practical solutions to thematic issues such as procurement and supply chain management, service delivery planning, stakeholder engagement, incentivizing frontline workers, amongst others. 

Speaking on the significance and success of the event, the ANRiN National Technical Officer, Dr. Solanke, Ojuolape, lauded the initiative. In her remarks, she stated: 

“We are excited about the success of this event, being the maiden edition of the collaborative network. The level of engagement was encouraging with very rich experiences being shared among implementing partners at various levels. We are going back to the drawing board to see how we can leverage some of the useful information shared to improve the programming to make the ANRiN project better”.

She also thanked all participants including the community volunteers, NSAs, contract managers at the state level, and other partners for attending and making the event a success. 

Commenting on the sessions, Dr. Ritgak Tilley-Gyado, a senior health specialist on Health, Nutrition, and Population Global Practice at the World Bank, stated:

“The sessions were well-structured and interactive, with sufficient context-setting framing on the first day and superb facilitation led by HSDF. The case study sessions and thematic group discussions were also very useful and will feed into the knowledge products to be developed after the event”.

It is hoped that the insights gleaned from this event will be synthesized into context-specific strategies for addressing some of the cross-cutting challenges identified during the event, thus helping to accelerate the attainment of the overarching goal of improved nutrition and well-being of children under 5 years of age in Nigeria.

About ANRiN

In 2018, the Federal Government of Nigeria with support from the World Bank, launched the Accelerating Nutrition Results in Nigeria (ANRiN) Project focused on improving the delivery of nutrition interventions and implementing these interventions in regions of the country most vulnerable to malnutrition. The main objective of the 5-year project is to increase the utilization of quality, cost-effective nutrition services among pregnant and lactating women, adolescent girls, and children under 5 years of age within the 12 implementing states namely: Abia, Akwa-Ibom, Gombe, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kogi, Kwara, Nasarawa, Niger, Oyo, and Plateau states.

About HSDF

Health Strategy and Delivery Foundation (HSDF) is a not-for-profit, non-governmental organization, working to improve the quality of decision-making and execution in the health and social sectors in Nigeria and across Africa. Established in December 2013, HSDF supports key stakeholders at all levels of government and the private sector to achieve measurable and sustainable impact. Our expertise includes:

• Health Systems Strengthening
• Data Analytics and Performance Management
• Health Financing 
• Health Workforce Optimization
• Leadership and Organizational Management Capacity Development, 
• Service Delivery and Innovation
• Strengthening Supply Chain

HSDF is currently supporting the project in a Knowledge Management and Learning (KML) capacity. This includes stakeholder coordination and alignment on the KML agenda for nutrition as well as co-development of tailored knowledge products, providing technical support and advisory for nutrition data collection and utilization.

To find out more about HSDF and the work we do, please visit our website at www.hsdf.org.ng