A successful meeting was held on 16 December for the Stories of Change Nigeria Study. 24 participants from the Federal and State level took part and the study findings were well received with very engaged and productive discussions and useful contributions from the participants.
Several key areas of the study findings were identified by participants as resonating strongly with their own experiences. Although Nigeria has seen a positive increase in policies that seek to improve nutrition outcomes, there are some key challenges limiting progress including:
(1) limited implementation of the policies,
(2) limited coordination,
(3) poorly defined roles and responsibilities for the different government sectors, and
(4) the need for coalescing of interventions so that households are exposed to multiple interventions addressing different drivers of malnutrition.
Participants in the validation meeting urged the Stories of Change research team to put forward a summary to inform a ministerial meeting that was to be held the following week. A one page brief of the key recommendations emerging from the validation meeting was forwarded to the office of the Vice President.
