The Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) has delivered increased participation for the private sector in improving nutrition for 61 countries, including Nigeria, in the past five years through its Scaling Up Nutrition Business Network (SBN).
Launched in Nigeria in 2016, the network, which is convened by the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) and the World Food Program (WFP), provides support to businesses in the food systems space and secured a leading role as the primary connector of food system actors in the private sector, including Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (MSMEs).
GAIN is a Swiss-based foundation launched at the UN in 2002 to tackle the human suffering caused by malnutrition and it has been working with both governments and businesses to transform food systems so that they deliver more nutritious food for all people.
At a stakeholders meeting which discussed United Nations Food Systems Dialogue – Action Track 1 ‘Ensure Access to Safe and Nutritious Food for All’, GAIN’s country director, Michael Ojo, said over the five years, SBN Nigeria has created space for meaningful dialogue across the sectors on policies that affect nutrition.
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Ojo said the network also built knowledge and capacity of private sector actors, brought new products and services to market, supported scaling of existing nutritious and safe food products, increased investment in nutrition, supported innovation and provided an emergency buffer to help MSMEs cope with the storm of Covid-19.
“Though the country (Nigeria) has now seen significant successes in improving nutrition, the challenge of malnutrition still remains. Nigerians are still consuming a very narrow range of foods.
“They are not eating enough of the right types of foods and are now increasingly eating too much of the wrong types with key indices of malnutrition such as stunting in children and micronutrient deficiencies in women of reproductive age remaining stubbornly high in terms of prevalence,” he said.
On her part, SBN national coordinator, Ibiso Ivy King-Harry, said Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) are key to improving nutrition and the network has established alliances and facilitated partnerships and collaborations to enhance the enabling environment for businesses in food and nutrition.
“Businesses that join the network are encouraged to make signed commitments which align with their value chain to achieve scalable results in improving demand for and access to nutritious food for Nigerians,” she said.
