This article presents findings from baseline surveys in 5 states of Nigeria to assess the nutritional outcomes on target groups on attaining the UN Sustainable Development Goal 2. The augmented regression technique was applied to analyze data from a sample of 1642 households with at least 1 child under the age of 5 years (U5) and their mothers or caregivers out of a total of 2500 households that were drawn from the 250 enumeration areas of the Nigeria Bureau of Statistics in the 5 states. The results support the growing evidence base that poverty and household hunger are pervasive. The incidence of poverty highlights inequalities among states. The combination of poverty and hunger was mirrored in the damning extent to which all forms of malnutrition coexisted in children U5, particularly during the second year of infancy and among poor households. Evidence from this study points to poor dietary quality of complementary food rather than other childcare practices as majorly responsible for child malnutrition. Child wellness was positively affected by maternal health-seeking behavior but negatively by the poverty probability index of the household. Notably, maternal health-seeking behavior played a more relevant role in child wellness than mothers’ educational attainment.

This activities and surveys leading to this article benefited from contributions from several individuals, institutions, and State Governments of the 4 pilot states without which it would not have been possible to produce this final document. The design of the baseline survey was led by International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) experts in collaboration with representatives from the World Food Program, the African Development Bank, the Federal Ministry of Health, the Nigeria Zero ...

https://dx.doi.org/10.1177/03795721211009482

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Victor Manyonghttps://orcid.org/0000-0003-2477-7132

Tahirou Abdoulayehttps://orcid.org/0000-0002-8072-1363

Kenton Dashiellhttps://orcid.org/0000-0003-3601-5805

https://dx.doi.org/10.1177/03795721211009482

Social Science and Agribusiness

Agribusiness; Food Security; Livelihoods; Markets; Nutrition; Socioeconomy

Hunger; Poverty; Malnutrition; Anthropometry; Feeding Habits; Nigeria

Africa; West Africa

Nigeria

Headquarters and Western Africa Hub

Food and Nutrition Bulletin