Achieving zero hunger in Nigeria

TO gain the nutritional substances that provide energy for activities, growth and other functions of the body in keeping the immune system healthy, food is essential for a human being. The United Nations global facts show that in 2020, between 720 million and 811 million persons worldwide were suffering from hunger, roughly 161 million more than in 2019; a staggering 2.4 billion people, reflecting above 30 per cent of the world’s population, were moderately or severely food-insecure, lacking regular access to adequate food; and globally, 149.2 million children under the age of 5 or 22.0 per cent, were suffering from stunting (low height for their age) in 2020. These were some of the food and nutritional crisis that the United Nations Member States envisaged when Goal 2 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) was adopted, which seeks to end hunger and ensure access by all people, in particular the poor and people in vulnerable situations, including infants, to safe, nutritious and sufficient food all year round by 2030.

In Nigeria, all the indicators of undernourishment, child stunting, child wasting and child mortality combine to Nigeria’s ranking of 103 out of 121 countries under the Global Hunger Index in 2022. The index indicates that 12.7 per cent of Nigeria’s population is undernourished, 31.5 per cent of children under five are stunted and 6.5 per cent of under-five children wasted. With 133 million Nigerians reported to be multidimensionally poor, without access to basic necessities of life like food, education, quality healthcare, sanitation, nutrition, among others, it means 63 per cent of Nigerians are living within the extreme line of poverty. What then is Nigeria’s Zero Hunger policy and what strategies do we intend to create a Nigeria free of hunger in 2030 or at least in 2060 when Nigeria will be hundred years as a sovereign country? How is Nigeria navigating the effects of multiple global crisis such conflicts, COVID-19 pandemic, climate change and growing inequalities converging to undermine global food security?

These are not questions that demand answers from the Federal Government alone; they are questions that urgently demand sustainable commitment from all stakeholders in the zero hunger ecosystem – governments, private sector led commitment to access to food, and nonprofits engagement in both holding leaders accountable on Zero Hunger Policies and providing food assistances to vulnerable communities.  To ensure that the 133 million multidimensionally poor Nigerians do not continue to go to bed hungry each day, thegovernment must swiftly reduce the causes and main drivers of hunger crisis such as insecurity and herder farmers conflicts in rural areas in Nigeria; and launch a national Zero Hunger policyand food security strategy at all levels of government – federal, state and local governments. No doubt, Nigeria has adopted a wide range of policy instruments and measures since the early 1970s but such food policies have not been as effective as intended.

Take the School Feeding programme, for instance. Though the sound bite of the federal government’s free school meals is theoretically good, the implementation can only be effectively felt by the intended beneficiaries when it iscorruption free and expanded to benefit more Nigerians within the poverty belt. Such policy plan must be specific on how toreduce the number of households experiencing hunger and cut diet-related diseases by increasing access to healthy food by 2030. There is so much individuals and corporations can do but the government has the key to ending structural poverty and inequality, particularly at the subnational.  More importantly, the tool to achieving sustainable solution to end hunger is to educate, empower and expand opportunities for everyone. When one person, particularly the girl child at the rural area is educated, it has a ripple effect that catalyzes to a far-reaching impact on communities. Unless Nigeria gives those living in hunger unhindered access to quality education, it will be difficult to pull them out of worsening poverty indexes. Education, improved and mechanized agriculture, healthcare and access to finance at the rural areas are crucial resources that every nation needs to break her poverty cycle. To achieve a sustainable result in this drive, Nigeria needs a disciplined deliberateness in accountable, inclusive, humane, people-driven and transformational leadership at all levels and spheres of our society, including in traditional and religious spaces.

Collectively, we must make food an instrument of social solution both for the individual and society. Since we cannot have food security without physical and environmental security, everyone must take responsibility to ensure that poor and vulnerable Nigerians have access to quality food. It is in line with this reasoning that the T200 Foundation brings life-saving food and nutrition assistance to people affected by social conflicts and people who are in need of food. We understand that to make change happen, we must invest in people, invest in their stomach and invest in their smiles. T200 Foundation’s food intervention is helping to bring smiles on the faces of hungry Nigerians. The Feed the Hungry initiative of T200 is focused on feeding vulnerable groups across the 36 States of the Federation and the FCT. The programme which started on December 16, 2022 at the Area 1 IDP camp, has identified 7000 thousand people at the EYA CAN Centre Camp in Maiduguri to be fed in January 2023. But even as we drive our commitment to achieving zero hunger in Nigeria, we are aware that everyone must be involved in prioritizing initiatives that creatively drive hunger out of our communities. It is important for everyone to be involved because a hungry nation is an angry nation. Zero hunger is possible and we must make it happen. s

• Osadebay is the Executive Director, T200 Foundation

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