Oluremi Tinubu seeks US partnership to tackle child malnutrition

First Lady, Oluremi Tinubu, has pledged the federal government’s commitment to tackling hunger and child malnutrition through a proposed partnership with US-based organisation, Operation End Starvation.

The partnership was discussed on Monday when the Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof. Muhammad Ali Pate, led a delegation of the organisation and other health sector agencies to meet with the First Lady.

The initiative aims to mobilise funding to prevent child deaths caused by starvation and tackle malnutrition across sub-Saharan Africa, with Nigeria identified as a priority country.

Speaking during the meeting, Pate said the government was committed to reducing the country’s burden of acute child malnutrition, estimated at 6.4 million children, while improving the health of pregnant women and breastfeeding mothers.

He said the recently launched National Community Food Bank Programme, implemented in partnership with the Office of the First Lady, was already making a positive impact across the six geopolitical zones.

“A lot of good things are already happening in the country,” the minister said.

The Chief Executive Officer of Operation End Starvation, Williams Holdsworth Moore, said the initiative aimed to direct more than $1bn annually towards preventing child deaths caused by starvation.

He said the organisation was seeking a partnership with Nigeria to support its efforts to address acute malnutrition, adding that the programme intended to mobilise $1bn to tackle starvation across sub-Saharan Africa within the next two years.

“The foundation is impressed by Nigeria’s focus on combating acute malnutrition, and we are seeking partnership for this global Operation End Starvation programme,” Moore said.