Nigeria and U.S.-based Operation End Starvation discussed child malnutrition on Oct. 26, but statements on the meeting gave no Nigeria-specific funding allocation or timetable for the proposed partnership.
Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare Mohammed Ali Pate led the delegation to meet First Lady Oluremi Tinubu at the State House in Abuja. A statement signed by Tinubu’s media aide, Busola Kukoyi, said the government was entering a partnership, while the initiative’s CEO, Williams Holdsworth Moore, said the group was seeking one.
Pate cited 6.4 million cases of acute child malnutrition in Nigeria. The UNICEF Nigeria Situation Analysis 2024, drawing on 2023/24 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey data, reported that 40% of children under 5 were stunted and 8% were wasted. UNICEF estimated that 100 children under 5 died from malnutrition each hour in Nigeria. Those are separate indicators from Pate’s figure.
Kukoyi’s statement described a goal of mobilizing more than $1 billion annually. Moore said the initiative wanted to direct $1 billion toward ending starvation across sub-Saharan Africa over two years. Its published six-year plan sets a $4 billion target, divided between $3 billion in public funds and $1 billion from private sources. The announcements do not explain how the three targets fit together.
The U.S. Department of State said July 14 that it intended to provide $100 million to the initiative over two years. Operation End Starvation said Sept. 23 that it had raised more than $33 million from private donors. The announcements did not assign either sum to Nigeria.
The initiative focuses on ready-to-use therapeutic food for children with severe acute malnutrition and multiple micronutrient supplements for pregnant women. Its plan calls for 3.2 billion food packages and 14 billion supplement tablets by 2032, using competitive procurement and transport and delivery partnerships.
The group’s Sept. 23 announcement named Nigeria and Sudan for its first phase and set fall 2026 as the planned window for ready-to-use therapeutic food programs, without giving a launch date.
