N-774: A Community-Centric Approach That Could Address Nigeria’s Malnutrition Crisis from the Ground Up
Emeka Oguanuo and Favour Ani (Lead Writers)
Weak community engagement often undermines efforts to tackle Nigeria’s malnutrition crisis. The Nutrition 774 (N-774) Initiative aims to shift this paradigm. During its launch, Nigeria’s Vice President Kashim Shettima called for “urgent action” to tackle a crisis costing Nigeria’s economy an estimated 11% of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Named after Nigeria’s 774 Local Government Areas (LGAs), this new approach is the first government-led, community-driven nutrition programme to strengthen local governance and accountability by empowering communities to lead context-specific nutrition interventions. While this milestone demonstrates strong political will, stakeholders stress that reversing Nigeria’s malnutrition crisis hinges on translating national commitment into grassroots impact.
Speaking at a workshop where key nutrition stakeholders gathered to validate the N-774 initiative’s implementation guidelines ahead of its launch on Feb. 20, 2025, Uju Rochas-Anwukah, Special Assistant to the President on Public Health, emphasised that “the N-774 Initiative is not just another policy framework — it is an urgent call to action. By empowering local governments to lead nutrition interventions tailored to their realities, we ensure lasting impact”.
Bridging policy and implementation: An opportunity for local leadership
Nigeria’s National Policy on Food and Nutrition (NPFN), established in 2016, established multi-sectoral governance structures at different levels — the National Council on Nutrition (NCN) at the Federal and State levels and Local Government Committees on Food and Nutrition at the subnational level. However, these local committees remain largely inactive due to weak governance, resource constraints, and bureaucratic bottlenecks.
A Supreme Court ruling in July 2024 granted full autonomy to the 774 LGAs across Nigeria, highlighting their role as key drivers of grassroots development. With leadership from the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON), this ruling eliminates many of the bureaucratic hurdles that previously stalled community-driven initiatives.
The question now is: How can the N-774 Initiative leverage this autonomy to revitalise LGA nutrition committees and ensure effective locally led interventions?
Professor Salim Abdulrahman Lawan, Jigawa State’s ALGON Chairman, said the solution lies in “early involvement of local authorities, thereby promoting ownership and accountability among LGA leaders will determine the success of this initiative”.
Key challenges and gaps
At the national level, Nigeria’s National Food and Nutrition Policy (NFNP) targets for 2025 outline even more ambitious goals by aiming to cut hunger and malnutrition by 50% and increase exclusive breastfeeding to 65% while ensuring 40% of children receive adequate complementary feeding, amongst others. While these commitments are commendable, achieving them requires more than policy documents — it demands stronger accountability, sustainable financing, and grassroots involvement.
While nutrition programmes often launch with ambitious objectives, they frequently lack sustainable financing. The World Bank estimates that undernutrition costs Nigeria $1.5 billion annually in lost productivity and increased healthcare expenditures. Yet, nutrition spending remains significantly below required levels, particularly at the state and local government tiers.
Another significant barrier to tackling malnutrition in Nigeria is the lack of clear leadership and coordination across ministries and sectors. At the local government level, many nutrition committees are either inactive or under-resourced, making it difficult to translate national policies into meaningful action at the grassroots.
During the workshop, Chizoba Steve-Ejemba, UNICEF’s Chief of Nutrition, recommended activating LGA Committees on Food and Nutrition and leveraging direct funding allocation to the LGAs to advocate for more funding for nutrition programmes through the Child Nutrition Fund to address this challenge.
Even when funds are allocated for nutrition programmes, a lack of transparency and real-time monitoring means that resources do not always translate into impact. This emphasises the need for strong accountability mechanisms to ensure interventions reach those who need them most.
Capacity-building on budgeting for local government staff, including local government chairmen is critical to ensure the efficient use of scarce resources, noted Dr Peter Solomon, The Permanent Secretary of Borno State Ministry of Budget and Planning. “Budgeting is not a simple task. There must be economic codes from which specific budget lines can be allocated. For instance, if funds are designated for nutrition, a local government chairman should not misallocate those funds for unrelated expenditures like fueling government vehicles”, he said.
Community involvement in malnutrition response: The Masaki case study
One of the most overlooked yet critical solutions to Nigeria’s malnutrition crisis is community involvement. Too often, interventions are designed and implemented from the top down, treating communities as passive recipients rather than active drivers of change.
Lawan reiterated that ownership is key to sustainability. “As local government leaders, we witness malnutrition firsthand, and we see the daily struggles of mothers and children. If the Federal Government fulfils its funding commitment under N-774, and state governments also contribute, there is no reason why we, at the local government level, should not provide our counterpart funding and ensure the program’s success.”
He cited Jigawa State’s Masaki Nutrition Programme, launched in 2018, as a model for community-driven interventions. Operating through 300 community-based nutrition sites with trained health workers, Masaki prioritises early detection and treatment. Since Masaki’s launch, a comparison of NDHS 2018 and 2023 data shows modest improvements, with stunting dropping from 64.0% to 55.7% and underweight children decreasing from 42.3% to 41.9%, suggesting the program’s potential to address the state’s high burden of malnutrition.
Image credit: Nigeria Health Watch
Unlike donor-dependent programmes, Masaki thrives on state funding and community participation to ensure long-term impact, prompting the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) to recommend it for nationwide scale-up to address the malnutrition situation.
A call for accountability
Without clear coordination and implementation tracking mechanisms, even the most ambitious plans will fail to drive real change.
As the Jigawa State ALGON Chairman rightly put it, “early involvement of local authorities promotes ownership and accountability.” The success of the Masaki Nutrition Programme proves that when communities lead, nutrition interventions don’t just work — they create lasting change for generations.
