The National Plan of Action for Food and Nutrition was launched to improve the nutritional status of all Nigerians, particularly of the most vulnerable groups, by promoting the following specific goals:
- Establishing a viable system for guiding and coordinating food and nutrition activities undertaken in the various sectors and at various levels of the society, from the community to the national levels.
- Incorporating food and nutrition considerations in development plans and allocating adequate resources toward solving the problems pertaining to food and nutrition at all levels.
- Promoting habits and activities that will reduce the level of malnutrition and improve the nutritional status of the population.
- Identifying sectoral roles and assigning responsibilities for the alleviation of malnutrition.
- Ensuring that nutrition is recognized and used as an important indicator to monitor and evaluate development policies and programs.
- Promoting the good indigenous food cultures and dietary habits of Nigerian peoples for healthy living and development.
To achieve the overall goal to improve the nutrition status of the vulnerable groups, a number of specific objectives were formulated:
- Improve food security at the household and the aggregate level to guarantee that families have access to adequate and safe food in both quantity and quality to meet nutritional requirements for a healthy and active life.
- Enhance care-giving capacity within households regarding child feeding and childcare practices, as well as addressing the care and well-being of mothers.
- Improve the provision of human services such as health care, environmental sanitation, education, and community development.
- Improve the capacity within the country to address food and nutrition problems.
- Raise the understanding of the problems of malnutrition in Nigeria at all levels of the society, especially with respect to its causes and possible solutions.
The following targets were set to address the food and nutrition problems in the country:
- Reduction in the level of poverty to 10% by 2010.
- Reduction in starvation and chronic hunger to the barest minimum through increased food intake.
- Reduction in under nutrition especially among children, women and the aged, and in particular severe and moderate malnutrition among under-fives by 30% by 2010.
- Reduction in micronutrient deficiencies particularly iodine deficiency disorders, vitamin A Deficiency, and iron deficiency anaemia by 50% of the current levels by 2010.
- Reduction in the rate of low birth weight (2.5kg or less) to less than 10% of the current levels by 2010.
- Reduction in diet-related noncommunicable diseases by 25% of current levels by 2010.
- Improvement in general sanitation and hygiene including availability of safe drinking water.
- Reduction in the prevalence of infectious and parasitic diseases that aggravate the poor nutritional status of infants and children by 25% current levels.
The NPAFN is the flagship infrastructure for realizing the rights of the Nigerian population to adequate nutrition and achieving the MDGs. The plan details various activities which are not specified from the sources accessed , and based on the five specific objectives (see above). Though the NPAFN was launched in 2004, it is yet to be fully implemented in a systematic and coherent manner, constituting a big barrier to achieving the rights of Nigerians to adequate nutrition. There is therefore an urgent need for a fully coordinated implementation of the food and nutrition plan of action.
The draft National Economic Empowerment Development (NEEDS) includes nutrition in Chapter 23 as a cross-cutting issue. As the poverty reduction strategy of the government, NEEDS informs development partners’ acceptance of nutrition as a cross-cutting issue for child survival and development women’s wellbeing, leading to the reduction of infant, child, and maternal mortality, and to the achievement of the eight MDGs in Nigeria.