Improving Healthcare For Nigerian Mothers, Newborns
Chigozie Amadi
In African countries such as Nigeria, there has been a growing push to improve healthcare for mothers, newborns, and children, alongside other targets outlined in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
This call to action seeks to address the rising issues of malnutrition and child rights violations, especially educational inequities, which eventually lead to cognitive impairment in children.
Seven percent of pregnant women and seven percent of women who are of reproductive age suffer from acute malnutrition. Just 17 percent of infants are exclusively breastfed during the first six months of life, a statistic that has not changed much in the past ten years. Only 18 percent of infants between the ages of six and 23 months receive the most basic nutrition.
The nutrition budget continues to be underfunded and delayed at all levels, despite global warnings that hunger is a critical developmental issue that jeopardizes a country’s future and GDP. The adoption and full implementation of the Child Rights Act have been impeded by the purposeful creation of legal or policy restrictions in many states throughout Nigeria.
It is obvious that serious action needs to be taken to address unsolved or persistent issues that damage Nigerian children’s cognitive and physical development as well as their ability to have productive futures.
This includes their rights to a suitable diet and an education, as specified in the Child Rights Act. The detrimental effects of these indices on children, particularly girls, who will be denied employable skills, desirable jobs, and important contributions to the advancement of the nation, are equally distressing.
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Nigeria has 10.5 million out-of-school children, 40 percent of whom are between the ages of six and eleven and, particularly among girls, do not attend any elementary schools.
According to UNICEF, inadequate nutrition and education are the two main reasons why children’s rights to these things are infringed.
Sadly, UNICEF estimates that 10.5 million Nigerian children are not in school, including 40 percent of children in the North who are between the ages of six and eleven and are mainly girls.
According to UNICEF, while the education crisis affects children across Nigeria, girls, children with disabilities, and those from the poorest households are increasingly affected.
Other children who are disproportionately impacted by the education issue include those who live on the streets, those who have experienced displacement or natural disasters, and those who reside in remote places.
Unfortunately, millions of children in Nigeria have never entered a classroom. Perhaps even worse is the shocking number of kids who enroll in school but never advance from elementary to secondary education, destroying their dreams of a stable future. 35 percent of Nigerian pupils who finish elementary school do not go on to secondary education, according to estimates.
Cristian Munduate, the UNICEF Representative in Nigeria, said this recently in a statement honoring the International Day of Education.
This was recently said by Cristian Munduate, the UNICEF Representative in Nigeria, in a message to commemorate the International Day of Education.
Munduate stressed the need for girls to have an opportunity to attend school for them to have a formal education that confronts gender inequity. “We need to encourage their creativity and originality,” she continued, “since all females have a lot to contribute to fixing Nigeria’s challenges. “We also need to ensure that kids are safe at school. No child should be afraid to walk into a classroom because they think their school will be attacked or that they’ll be abducted,” the UNICEF Representative said. And no parent should be reluctant to enroll their children in school. No parent should be afraid to send their children to school either.
Likewise, researchers have emphasised the importance of expanding educational opportunities for all Nigerian children and eradicating gaps in educational enrollment and achievement.
They also criticised Nigeria’s current policies, which are weak in tackling severe acute malnutrition among children under five, which presents as stunting, wasting, being underweight or overweight, and low productivity.
In order to promote children’s growth and development, they have advocated for game-changing policy changes and well-intentioned advocacy activities at all levels.
Promoting a secure and viable future for Nigerian children through targeted programmes and activities, as well as a strategic focus, is equally crucial.
They reiterated that this is the right time to implement existing nutrition policies, like the National Policy on Food and Nutrition.
Similarly, it is crucial to adopt comprehensive approaches to preventing and treating severe acute malnutrition (SAM), as well as providing adequate budgetary allocation, cash-backing, and prompt release of nutrition funding.
According to experts, improving food accessibility, availability, and accessibility at all levels urgently requires significant legislative monitoring of budgetary allocations for agriculture, nutrition, and the Basic Health Care Provision Fund.
Consequently, all states urged to enact and fully implement the Child Right Act, which requires that every child receive free, mandatory, and universal basic education and that every parent or guardian make sure that their child or ward attends and completes primary and junior secondary school.
Increased educational access, the eradication of educational enrolment inequities, and increased public awareness of the requirements of the Child Rights Act are now matters of urgent national concern. Nigeria must implement comprehensive strategies to prevent severe acute malnutrition and to ensure enough budgetary allocation, cash-backing, and prompt release of the nutrition budget.
