Advocacy, Budget tracking training: PBC Lauds CS-SUNN for starting early
By Uangbaoje Alex, Kaduna
Kaduna State Planning and Budget Commission (PBC) has commended the Civil Society Scaling-Up Nutrition in Nigeria (CS-SUNN), for kicking off the year with capacity strengthening for its members on Strategic Advocacy and Budget Tracking.
Director, Development Aid Coordination (DAC), who made the commendation on Thursday at the close of the two days training session support by UNICEF Nigeria, noted the Worksop is coming at a time when states are struggling to meet up with several priorities.
Represented by the Planning Officer of the Commission, Jamil Ladan, the DAC said “this workshop is very timely as we are commencing the year with very fantastic phenomenon within our fiscal environment as well as the macroeconomic environment generally.
“Issues are on, but issues are on sustainability, funding, closing from diverse dollars, you know, states struggling to meet up with so many priorities. So we believe this trend is very timely. We hope that all that we’ve learned during the last two days will be put into use appropriately.”
He therefore thank CS-SUNN for the long standing relationship with the state and the Commission, saying “It’s been very fruitful for the past years that we’ve been working together, and we hope to maintain this long-standing partnership going forward.
In her presentation titled “Overview of Nutrition Situation in the State,” the State Nutrition Officer (SNO), Ramatu Haruna explained that malnutrition is a critical public health issue in Kaduna State, contributing to over 50% of under-five mortality (NDHS 2023/24).
She added that, Maternal, Infant, and Young Child Feeding (MIYCN) practices remain inadequate, with only 13% of newborns receiving timely breastfeeding initiation, 41.1% of children exclusively breastfed, and just 12.3% of children aged 6-23 months fed appropriately (MICS 2021.)
She lamented the low access to diverse, nutritious foods is due to poverty and economic constraints.
“The challenges are dietary beliefs and poor childcare practices leading to inadequate nutrition. Poor sanitation and hygiene contribute to infections and malnutrition. Low awareness of proper nutrition among caregivers.”
She however, said the State Government led by Gov. Uba Sani has reaffirmed its dedication to combating malnutrition in Kaduna.
The SNO listed the steps to include creating a dedicated budget line for nutrition in the 2025 appropriation bill at the Ministry of Health and the State Primary Healthcare Board.
In his presentation titled “Introduction to Advocacy,” the Monitoring and Evaluation Officer of the CS-SUNN alliance in Abuja, Mr Jibrin Ogbaji, said advocacy is about identifying an issue and calling for change.
“We need to be very clear about exactly what it is that we are trying to change. When defining an issue or problem, be clear and precise about it.
“A way to analyze your issue is by using the ‘problem tree’ model. This is how it works: imagine a very big tree. A tree roughly consists of three elements: the roots, the trunk, and the leaves.
“The roots of the tree represent the root cause(s) of the problem, the trunk of the tree represents the problem itself and the leaves of the tree represent the consequences of the problem.
“Root causes are the underlying causes of a problem. Fixing the root causes of your issue will help you solve the issue. It is important to know what they are, so that your advocacy campaign can address what is causing the issue.
“To structure your advocacy campaign, you can think of a goal, objectives, and actions. Having a clear goal will help you think about the desired impact and help you to make clear what you want to achieve. After you have defined your goal, you can set objectives.” He explained.
Earlier in her welcome address, the State Coordinator of CS-SUNN, Jessica Bartholomew noted that the two-day training was to equip the participants with various advocacy strategies that would help them in their advocacy visit without hindrances.
Jessica, disclosed that the training will equip the participants, who are nutrition advocates, to track nutrition budgets in various Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) in the State.
She explained that the goal is to ensure all Nigerians have access to food and nutrition security, adding that it will raise awareness about nutrition and build capacity for the participants to support nutrition actions.
