The N-774 seeks, first and foremost, to promote the execution of the NPFN by strengthening the existing frameworks and addressing gaps in the current implementation of nutrition programming, particularly at the community level. It adopts a bottom-up approach with a focus on "community engagement, governance, and promoting sustainable food production to create lasting improvements in nutrition outcomes across Nigeria's 774 Local Government Areas (LGAs)". The N-774 adopts five pillars of support for nutrition programming: data and accountability; financing; nutrition prioritization; scaling nutrition interventions; and decentralized management and collaboration.
Without neglecting the other important levels of intervention recognized under the NPFN, the N-774 presents a nationwide approach to nutrition intervention that enhances the long-neglected opportunities for grassroots intervention. This way, proper institutional engagement across the levels of government will enhance coordination and collaboration and ensure proper scaling (up or down) of interventions for greater effectiveness. The overall goal of the N-774 is to achieve a significant reduction in the prevalence of malnutrition among women, children, and families throughout the country by facilitating positive action at the grassroots levels. Specific operational objectives include the following: Enhance access to and affordability of nutritious meals for all households, particularly those in vulnerable and marginalized communities.
Establish effective local governance structures and ensure coordinated efforts among various sectors to address malnutrition comprehensively.
Improve nutrition knowledge and practices among mothers and caregivers to enable them to address children stunting, wasting, and underweight among children under five years old and thereby support optimal growth and development of children.
Increase the economic and decision-making power of women to positively impact household nutrition and well-being.
These objectives align to the vision of the NPFN to achieve a country where people are equitably food and nutrition secure with high quality of life and socio-economic development contributing to Human capital development objectives of Nigeria vision 20: 20:20 and beyond. The targets these objectives will contribute to by 2030 include
Achieve a 50% reduction in the number of people who suffer undernourishment and are food insecure
Achieve a 20% reduction in the number of children under-5 who are stunted. Increase to at least 65% the exclusive breastfeeding rate
Enhance the skills and competencies of Nutrition Desk Officers in relevant MDAs at all levels by 75%.Achieve a 70% access to potable water.
Mainstream nutrition objectives into social protection and safety net programs of all MDAs linked to nutrition.
Achieve universal access of all school children in the pre- and basic school classes to school-based feeding programs;
Achieve a 50% increase in number of households with relevant nutrition knowledge and practice that improve their nutritional status
To guarantee proper application of the framework developed under the N-774 initiative and enhance its operation by a broad range of stakeholders across sectors, its elements will be elaborated in a
concise yet comprehensive standard operating procedure manual.