A global nutrition initiative, Alive and Thrive, has mobilised stakeholders to develop a sustainable plan to sustain the Maternal, Infant and Young Child Nutrition (MIYCN) campaign and uptake of Multiple Micronutrient Supplements (MMS) in Kaduna State.

The stakeholders, mobilised were LGA Nutrition Focal Person (NFPs), Monitoring and Evaluation Officers (M and E) and Health Management Information (HMIS) officers.

They came from across the 23 LGAs of the state to brainstorm and map out sustainable plan to continue the fight against malnutrition by sustaining MIYCN campaign and scale up of MMS.

This is to also ensure sustainability as Alive and Thrive rounds up its implementation by August 31st.

Speaking at the workshop on Friday in Kaduna, the Executive Secretary of the State Primary Health Care Board (KSPHCB), Dr Bello Jamoh, said a sustainable plan was needed to be built based on local resources.

Mr Jamoh, represented by the board’s Director of Disease Control and Immunisation, Hamza Ikara, said it was the right time to plan well, saying that poor planning often leads to failure.

He stated that cooperation with the teams was crucial to developing a good plan accepted by the government, partners and the communities.

Mr Jamoh said that the goal was to ensure better health service delivery across the local governments and communities.

He emphasised the need for cost-effective solutions, urging each LGA to identify and document what it produces within its locality.

He added, “This information should be sent to the state nutrition officer, which will be compiled and presented to the state council.’’

Earlier, the State Nutrition Officer (SNO), Ramatu Haruna, said that the workshop’s purpose was to discuss and document a plausible sustainability strategy.

This was to maintain the gains made through the MIYCN and MMS interventions beyond the Alive & Thrive project’s lifespan.

She stressed that the objectives of the stakeholders meeting include sharing experiences, successes, and challenges.

This was with the view to informing future planning and decision-making as well as securing commitment and support from the stakeholders to maintain the project’s gains.

Ms Musa emphasised that everyone had experiences to share, adding,” by discussing successes and challenges, they can plan better for the future.”

She added that progress often comes with challenges, and addressing the challenges could help improve future outcomes.

Mr Musa said, “The ultimate goal is to ensure that the gains made through the Alive and Thrive project are sustained and not lost.”

In her remarks, Coordinator of Alive and Thrive in Kaduna, Sarah Kwasu, said that as part of the organisation’s mandate, they promote MMS and enhance MIYCN.

She, however, said recently, the focus shifted towards promoting the uptake of MMS supplements.

Ms Kwasu stressed that Alive and Thrive had developed the capacity of community volunteers, NFPs, and the SNO.

She added that this was to achieve the objective, explaining that the goal was to ensure that every pregnant woman lives healthily and gives birth to a healthy child.

“The organisation has made significant progress; the success is a collaborative effort. Alive and Thrive’s role has been to support. Now the aim is to develop a sustainability plan for each local government and a consolidated plan for the state. This plan will enable the stakeholders to continue implementing the interventions without external support.

“The current phase of the project is set to end on August 31st, and Alive and Thrive wants to ensure that the stakeholders can sustain the interventions on their own,” Ms Kwasu said.

She believed that local ownership and continuous support from the state and local governments were crucial for the sustainability of the MMS intervention.

She, therefore, said the main objective was to ensure that the positive outcomes and impact of the Alive and Thrive-led MIYCN and MMS initiative were sustained beyond the initial funding period.

Ms Kwasu explained that the sustainability plan aimed to maintain project results, secure commitment, funding, and build local programme ownership.

She added, “The plan will focus on critical elements such as advocacy and y, interpersonal communication, community mobilisation, social and behavioural change, and monitoring and evaluation. It will leverage existing service delivery and community platforms, and implementation will be based on available and relevant policies.”

A participant and NFP of Makarfi LGA, Nafisa Yusuf, said she would leverage support from the LGA chairman and engage community volunteers already working in the area to sustain the project without Alive & Thrive support.

“We have also been trained by Alive and Thrive on various initiatives, and we aim to build on that by training more health workers. Our goal is to continue and scale up these efforts to eradicate malnutrition in our LGA and contribute to the state’s overall goal.

“We plan to expand the initiative to facilities that haven’t been trained yet, engage more community volunteers, and provide materials to encourage the remaining facilities to deliver their services. By doing so, we hope to make a lasting impact and improve nutrition outcomes in our community,” she said.

Similarly, the HMIS Officer of Kachia LGA, Blessing Amodu, said she would step down the knowledge to health workers and other program officers in her LGA.

She said that this was to ensure that the activities they had been implementing were sustained even after Alive and Thrive exits.

Also, the M&E Officer of Igabi LGA, Shehu Umar, said data plays a critical role in the health sector, particularly in planning and decision-making.

To ensure the sustainability of programmes such as the MMS initiative, Mr Umar said, frontline health workers and nutrition officers must be trained to properly document data.

According to him, proper documentation will not only guide decision-making but also improve the quality of services in LGAs and the overall health sector.

He said, “To achieve this, we plan to conduct supportive supervision to ensure that service providers are up-to-date and using the right tools for documentation. This will help maintain the quality of data and ultimately drive better health outcomes.’’

(NAN)