Nigeria is turning to Ethiopia for lessons on how to coordinate government action against child malnutrition, with Zamfara State Governor Dauda Lawal joining a high-level delegation to Addis Ababa to study the country’s approach to reducing childhood stunting.
The three-day Nigeria-Ethiopia leadership exchange, scheduled for October 7 to 9, 2026, will bring together senior Nigerian officials and state governors as the Federal Government seeks to strengthen nutrition interventions at state and local government levels.
The delegation was approved by President Bola Tinubu and is led by Vice President Kashim Shettima, with Lawal among the participating governors.
Other governors on the delegation are AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq of Kwara State, Alex Otti of Abia State, Bassey Otu of Cross River State, Babagana Umara Zulum of Borno State, Ademola Adeleke of Osun State and Umar Namadi of Jigawa State.
The leadership exchange builds on commitments made by the Federal Government during the launch of the Nutrition 774 Initiative, known as N774, at the 148th meeting of the National Economic Council.
The initiative is designed to accelerate action on nutrition across Nigeria’s 774 local government areas, placing greater emphasis on coordinated intervention at the sub-national level.
Nigeria’s interest in Ethiopia stems largely from the country’s Seqota Declaration, which has been identified as a comparative model for translating political commitments on nutrition into coordinated and accountable programmes.
The Ethiopian government launched the Seqota Declaration in 2015 after committing to end stunting among children under two years of age by 2030.
Rather than treating malnutrition solely as a health-sector problem, the Ethiopian approach brings several sectors of government together to address the different factors that determine whether children have access to adequate nutrition.
The programme involves nine government ministries, including Health; Agriculture; Education; Water, Irrigation and Energy; Women, Children and Youth; Transport; Finance; Labour and Social Affairs; and Culture and Tourism.
The model operates through a 15-year roadmap divided into three phases — Innovation, Expansion and Scale-Up — with the aim of moving from testing interventions to broader implementation.
The Nigerian delegation is expected to examine how Ethiopia has used political leadership, cross-sectoral coordination, financing and accountability to translate its nutrition commitments into programmes at decentralised levels.
The approach is particularly relevant to Nigeria because many of the factors contributing to malnutrition extend beyond hospitals and health facilities.
Access to safe water, agricultural production, household income, education, sanitation and social protection can all influence whether children receive adequate nutrition and are protected from conditions that contribute to stunting and other forms of malnutrition.
By involving state governors in the exchange, the Federal Government is also placing sub-national leadership at the centre of its effort to strengthen nutrition delivery.
States and local governments are responsible for implementing many programmes in health, education, agriculture, water and social development, making their participation critical to translating national nutrition policies into interventions that reach households.
Lawal’s participation puts Zamfara among the states represented in the Federal Government’s engagement with Ethiopia’s experience.
The delegation’s composition also cuts across different regions and political administrations, potentially providing an opportunity for participating governors to assess how a multisectoral model could be adapted to Nigeria’s diverse local conditions.
The Ethiopian model is not being presented as a framework that Nigeria can simply reproduce. Rather, the leadership exchange is expected to provide lessons that can be assessed and adapted to Nigeria’s own institutional structures, financing realities and development priorities.
The visit therefore places greater emphasis on implementation at the grassroots, where nutrition programmes ultimately have to reach children and families.
The Nutrition 774 Initiative provides a national framework for this effort, while the Ethiopia exchange is intended to expose Nigerian policymakers to practical experience in coordinating interventions across government sectors and levels.
For Zamfara, the participation of its governor could also create an opportunity to draw lessons from Ethiopia that may inform the state’s own approach to health, agriculture, water supply and other development programmes linked to household and child wellbeing.
West Trybe reports that Nigeria’s decision to study Ethiopia’s Seqota Declaration signals a shift towards a broader development approach to tackling child malnutrition, with the Federal Government seeking to combine political leadership, financing, inter-sectoral coordination and local implementation through the Nutrition 774 Initiative.
