Her Excellency Mrs Toyin Ojora Saraki

Wife of the Senate President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria

Founder-President, Wellbeing Foundation Africa (WBFA)

Inaugural Global Goodwill Ambassador, International Confederation of Midwives (ICM)

Sensitization Conference for Medical Directors: Orientation of Private Health Facilities in Lagos State on Infant and Young Child Feeding (IYCF) Practices

Venue: Sheraton Hotel, Ikeja Lagos, Nigeria

12th February 2018

Time: 9.30am

Good morning to all of you gathered here today and a particularly warm welcome to the Medical Directors who have joined us for this sensitization workshop. I know that your schedules are packed, but we sincerely appreciate your engagement as we work together to improve Infant and Young Child Feeding Practices here in Lagos. You are most welcome. 

I am delighted by the nucleus of critical host community support from the Lagos State Government and thank our Alive & Thrive programme partners, FHI360 for their technical support and oversight, the Association of General and Private Medical Practitioners of Nigeria, the Wellbeing Foundation Africa Team and all those involved in the organization of this conference. Thank you for your efforts as Nigeria unites to ‘Start Strong!’ for infant and child nutrition as part of a global movement. 

Alive & Thrive is an initiative to save lives, prevent illness, and ensure healthy growth and development through the promotion and support of optimal maternal nutrition, breastfeeding and complementary feeding practices in rural and urban Lagos as well as Kaduna.  Good nutrition in the first 1,000 days from conception to two years of age is critical to enable all children to lead healthier and more productive lives.

All of us in this room are driven by the passion to save lives and empower women, infants and our communities to thrive. As Medical Directors, you do and will play a key role in the success of the Alive & Thrive programme in Lagos. With your leadership, our ‘coaches’ will have the access to your health workers that they need to ensure the programme is delivered successfully, and to gather the data needed to properly monitor and evaluate our impact. Only then can we secure the sustainability and long-term success of this project. I applaud your engagement and thank you for your passion for our collaboration. 

Here in Lagos, there is much for us to accomplish. Malnutrition accounts for more than 50% of under-five mortality with a rate of timely breastfeeding initiation at only 28.9%. A mere 19.7% of children 6 months and under in the state are exclusively breastfed and only 10% of children aged 6 – 23 months are fed appropriately. The reality of those statistics is distressing: 47% of children in Lagos under-5 years are stunted, while 34% are under-weight.

The World Health Organization recommends the commencement of exclusive breastfeeding within one hour after birth, and until a baby is 6 months old. Nutritious complementary foods should then be added while continuing to breastfeed for up to 2 years or beyond. If 90 percent of mothers exclusively breastfed their infants for the first six months of life an estimated 13 percent of child deaths could be averted. If the same proportion of mothers provided adequate and timely complementary feeding for their infants from six to 24 months, a further 6 percent of child deaths could be avoided. That is the impact that, in partnership, we can have for the women, babies and infants of Lagos, and a goal which I know will motivate us all. 

The crucial first hour is one which all mothers and healthcare professionals must hold to be of the utmost importance. The so-called ‘first vaccine’ of a baby is the goal: the first skin-to-skin contact along with suckling at the breast stimulates the production of breastmilk, including colostrum, which provides a rich dose of nutrients and antibodies.

Alive & Thrive works through a four-pronged approach:  policy and advocacy; interpersonal communication and community mobilization; mass communication; and the strategic use of data. The Wellbeing Foundation Africa is the key implementing partner currently working with 500 private health facilities across 10 local government areas (LGAs) in Lagos by providing advocacy, capacity building and health promotion in the area of Infant and Young Child Feeding (IYCF) practices, whilst our partners at Save the Children engage with a number of public health facilities. For each part of the programme to be successful and achieve maximum impact, we rely on co-operation between all partners and stakeholders, and a significant amount of goodwill. You have demonstrated that goodwill by attending today, and I thank you. 

I will conclude this welcome address by pointing out that this is a true partnership and collaboration; and our work together must therefore a two-way process. We have a wealth of experience and knowledge in this room: as medical directors, you have seen it all and truly understand your communities, patients and health workers. I call on you to engage with this process and feed back into our work and I look forward to our shared learning and growth as part of a global movement. Together we can make the most of this opportunity to save lives and help our fellow citizens to thrive. Let’s start strong together.

Thank you.