H.E. Toyin Ojora Saraki, Founder-President, The Wellbeing Foundation Africa

As we marked the Day of the African Child yesterday, under the African Union’s 2025 theme of “Planning and Budgeting for Children’s Rights: Progress Since 2010,” I am reminded that the question posed to me over a decade ago by UNICEF Innocenti, What does it mean to be fit for a child?, remains as urgent and as necessary as ever. It is not merely a question for reflection, but a blueprint for action; a demand that we align every policy, every budget, and every system with the full rights and flourishing of our children.

In 2014, I received the UNICEF Innocenti Global Office of Research and Foresight’s Breaking Views team at my home in Lagos for a wide-ranging conversation on maternal and infant health. That interview, still part of UNICEF Innocenti’s global leadership dialogues today, invited me to reflect on what it truly means for a society to be fit for a child. It was a call to examine not only outcomes, but the systems, structures, and values that shape those outcomes. Around the same time, the Innocenti Report Card series was gaining momentum, offering rigorous comparisons of how economically advanced countries uphold the rights of their children. These reports challenged the world to consider child wellbeing not only in terms of survival, but in terms of thriving.

That question, What does it mean to be fit for a child?, has long defined and shaped my work and efforts toward equitable and inclusive development. In Nigeria, it found practical expression in Kwara State, where I served as First Lady from 2003 to 2011 and established the Wellbeing Foundation Africa in 2004. Working alongside civil society, community, and faith-based leaders, as well as state authorities, we pursued legal, health, and education reforms to protect and prioritise children. These included the passage of the Child Rights Act, the Safe Maternity Services Law, and the introduction of a community health insurance scheme that expanded access to care for mothers and infants. In 2010, as we co-hosted Nigeria’s First National Child Rights Conference, UNICEF had described Kwara as the first of Nigeria’s 19 northern states to meet the “Fit For Children” criteria. It was a proud moment, not because the work was anywhere near complete, but because we had established a rights-based framework that others could build upon.

The phrase “fit for a child” is one that I, like many other development professionals and impatient optimists, have carried as a target and a mission ever since. It is much more than a policy benchmark; it is a call to action for a consistent moral and developmental standard. It asks whether the structures, systems, and values of a society serve the most vulnerable among us, not only through words, but through budgets, through laws, and through daily active practice and access.

In the years that followed 2010, I expanded the Wellbeing Foundation Africa’s vision sub-nationally, nationally and globally, aligning frontline Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child, Adolescent and Elderly Health Plus Nutrition RMNCAEH+N with evidence-based programme implementation, advocacy, policy and partnerships, aligning with and committing to the United Nation’s Secretary General’s Every Woman Every Child Effort in supporting the Global Strategy on Women and Childrens Health. As a Foundation, we have never lost sight of that original question posed at Innocenti, indeed, it continues to guide our work as we look ahead to achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.

Today, the challenges children and their families face are well-documented, and they are urgent. One in four children under the age of five suffers from chronic undernutrition. In Nigeria, 33 million people are projected to face food insecurity by mid-2025, according to the World Food Programme. Among children specifically, approximately 11 million under the age of five are currently living in severe child food poverty, consuming at most two food groups per day, a condition that significantly increases their risk of wasting, stunting, and death. Nationally, 37% of children under five are stunted due to chronic undernutrition, and 6.5% suffer from wasting, a sign of acute undernutrition. In addition, an estimated 15% of newborns in Nigeria are born with low birthweight, contributing to high rates of neonatal mortality. Nearly 200 million children worldwide are not reaching their full developmental potential in early childhood. Yet in Africa, only 6.5% of public social spending is directed toward children aged 0 to 5, despite this period being the most critical window for brain development and future health outcomes. In Nigeria, social protection spending remains among the lowest globally, with just 0.14% of GDP allocated, and very little reaching the youngest. Across the continent, governments spend nearly sixteen times more on a 15-year-old than on a one-year-old. These figures are not merely alarming; they reveal a profound misalignment between what we know and what is being done. As I once highlighted, “For every 1 Naira spent on health, 2.5 Naira is spent on defence.” This disparity underpins the urgent need to realign national budgets to prioritise health and nutrition, especially for the youngest and most vulnerable populations.

In the context of this year’s Day of the African Child, which calls us to evaluate how far our planning and budgeting have advanced children’s rights since 2010, these figures from Nigeria and across the continent speak volumes. They are not just statistics; they are a litmus test of our collective commitment to an Africa that is truly fit for every child.

In response, UNICEF’s 2024 policy brief, Proven Solutions for Children, offers clarity and direction. It identifies four high-impact, cost-effective investments: early childhood nutrition and development, immunisation, girls’ secondary education, and child-focused social protection. Each is supported by rigorous evidence. Exclusive breastfeeding, for example, can reduce under-five mortality by up to 13%, and generate over $300 billion in economic benefits if scaled globally. Vaccination has saved 146 million lives in five decades and yields $21 in return for every dollar invested. Educating adolescent girls lifts entire economies, while social protection systems reduce childhood poverty and shield families from preventable health shocks.

In Nigeria, UNICEF programmatic development assistance responses demonstrate well-documented ongoing implementation frameworks, including collaborations with the European Union, Nutrition International, and Alive & Thrive, as well as support for initiatives like ANRiN – Accelerating Nutrition Results in Nigeria, which together contribute to strengthening national systems for maternal, newborn, and child nutrition, health, and protection.

The ANRiN project, which is a major national initiative aimed at combating malnutrition among Nigeria’s most vulnerable populations, pregnant women, adolescent girls, and children under five, was launched in 2018 with a $232 million investment from the World Bank. ANRiN operates in 12 high-burden states, delivering a Basic Package of Nutrition Services that includes vitamin A supplementation, iron-folic acid tablets, deworming treatments, and breastfeeding support. The program draws on the proven strategies of Alive & Thrive Infant and Young Children Feeding and Nutrition Intiative, which was implemented in Nigeria by the Wellbeing Foundation Africa alongside our partners FHI 360 and Save the Children International, with funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, in 550 facilities in Lagos and Kaduna states, and renowned for promoting effective infant and young child feeding practices. 

By the end of 2024, ANRiN has significantly improved nutrition outcomes with over 13.3 million women and children receiving essential nutrition services, 5.8 million children aged 12–59 months were dewormed twice annually, and 3.9 million children aged 6–59 months received zinc and ORS for diarrhoea treatment. Additionally, 919,695 pregnant women received at least 90 iron-folic acid tablets, and 659,019 received three doses of intermittent preventive treatment for malaria. The project also provided micronutrient powders to over 1 million children aged 6–24 months, enhancing complementary feeding practices.

These pillars are not abstract to us at the Wellbeing Foundation Africa; they are the daily substance of our mission, and they reflect the continuity of the Fit for a Child agenda. Through our flagship MamaCare360 Antenatal and Postnatal Education Programme, we have provided comprehensive, midwifery-led health education to over 1 million pregnant women and mothers. This programme has led to an increase in antenatal attendance and a measurable reduction in postpartum depression rates, reflecting its holistic approach to respectful, woman-centred care.

Complementing this, our MamaCare360 NICU Plus initiative extends support to mothers of preterm and low birthweight infants, emphasising lactation counselling and exclusive breastfeeding as critical components of neonatal nutrition and survival. Since its rollout, the programme has supported over 6,000 mothers and family members, contributing to improved outcomes for both children and parents in neonatal intensive care units.

The Wellbeing Foundation Africa’s programme intervention with Nutrition International, Scaling up Zinc and LO-ORS to Improve Childhood Diarrhoea Treatment in Northern Nigeria, supported by the Government of Canada, focused on expanding access to essential diarrhoeal treatment while strengthening state-level Drug Revolving Fund mechanisms to ensure sustainable commodity availability. Implemented in Kano and Sokoto, this initiative aimed to increase the availability and accessibility of Zinc/LO-ORS co-packs in at least 80% of health facilities, treat 1.8 million diarrhoea cases, and reach over 2.2 million caregivers with timely care-seeking messages. To date, over 150,000 co-packs have been distributed, alongside extensive demand creation and supply chain reinforcement.

Additionally, our Mamacare + Nutrition programme, supported by UNFPA, integrates targeted nutrition education into our maternal health platforms, focusing on micronutrient supplementation and dietary diversity throughout pregnancy and lactation. This initiative has enhanced the nutritional literacy and health behaviours of over 300,000 mothers, strengthening maternal-child nutrition outcomes in resource-limited settings.

These programmes reflect the Foundation’s integrated, data-driven approach to maternal, newborn, and child health, linking policy, practice, and community engagement to deliver lasting systems transformation. Our emphasis on maternal education, respectful care, and midwifery-led services reflects a recognition that nutrition begins before birth, with an informed mother, a safe delivery, and the support to sustain that child’s growth beyond the first thousand days. Our policy work urges governments to integrate nutrition, WASH, and social protection into maternal and child health frameworks, because we know that no intervention can thrive in isolation.

We must also look beyond the clinic to the fields and food systems that nourish our families’ dining tables. Nutrition-sensitive agriculture, food fortification, and the responsible scaling of locally grown superfoods are key strategies to strengthen resilience and reduce micronutrient deficiencies. Aligning health and agriculture in a united front means being stronger together, with a shared commitment to ensuring that every child, regardless of where they are born, has access not just to calories, but to the full spectrum of nutrients required to thrive. When we embed nutrition into every layer of our food and health systems, we advance a world where no child is left behind, and where every harvest is a harvest of health.

As we marked Nutrition Day, and, World Hunger Day on the 28th of May, I urged the Directorate of our nascent Wellbeing Institute For Research and Development, established in our 20th Year Of Committed To Caring, as we strengthen frameworks towards the 2030 SDG milestone, that like our partners, we too must recommit to the principle that nutrition is not a technical issue, it is a foundational justice. It determines whether a child can learn, grow, and reach their potential. It is the first test of whether a society is truly fit for its children, and it is, ultimately, one of the most effective investments any government, partner, or philanthropist can make.

Ten years after my UNICEF Innocenti Interview, I remain steadfast in the belief I shared then: “When you protect the rights of the child, you are investing in the future of humanity.” Today, we have clearer evidence, broader consensus, and stronger tools than ever before. What remains is the will to act and to ensure that every child, everywhere, has the opportunity to survive, thrive, and contribute to a just and peaceful world.

As we commemorated the Day of the African Child yesterday, we were called to account, on our budgets, on our priorities, and on the tangible protections we extend to the youngest among us. Let us answer that call not with platitudes, but with policies, with partnerships, and with persistent pursuit of a world fit for the future, and fit for every child.