For over a decade the nutrition policy was launched by the Nigerian Government as a response to the impending malnutrition crises and also to guide nutrition actions across all its line Ministries Departments and Agencies (MDAs). The line MDAs at the federal and state levels were incorporated into the National and State Committees on Food and Nutrition (N/SCFN); a committee saddled with the coordination of all nutrition programs and interventions as proposed within the National Multi sectorial Plan of Action for Food and Nutrition (NMPFAN). Moving towards a sustainable level for the committees; CS-SUNN supported the Federal Government to develop a digitized Performance Management System (PMS) to measure the committee’s effectiveness, nutrition program coverage, accountability and budget performance.
The system is designed to enable nutrition line Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to remotely collect data, submit/store data, analyze, and report quarterly assessment of nutrition specific and sensitive programmes implemented at national and subnational levels. It is an online gateway that will offer a convenient and effective way for nutrition programme officers to provide timely data that will show clear quarterly performance of each MDAs and the committee. The report from this system will show the committee’s quarterly contribution to the reducing of malnutrition in Nigeria.
The Performance Management System was recently launched and formed part of high-points of the 2022 National Nutrition Week. At the launch of the PMS, the Permanent Secretary Budget and National Planning, Nebeolisa Anako said the PMS ‘demonstrates a score card on nutrition governance systems and will promote accountability within the system to identify gaps for production a body of evidence required to improve nutrition programming at all levels’.
CS-SUNN had supported the Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning to build the capacity of N/SCFN from selected PINNS project states (Lagos, Nasarawa, Kaduna, Kano and Niger) on the N/SCFN-PMS towards scaling up nutrition in the states and Nigeria. At a two days meeting convened by CS-SUNN to build the capacity of N/SCFN on the digitized N/SCFN Performance Management System (N/SCFN-PMS), the consultant led participants through a presentation on navigating the PMS, the general interface and the user login session and then to a live session on the website/mobile application.
The use and function of each menu on the website was explained and participants were taken through how to take appraisals and view the system’s instantly generated result for their individual MDA, the state and/or even the national at a glance. The consultant explained that such generated results, can be downloaded in different formats already programmed in the system and can also be printed out as the case may be. Desk officers and directors from each line MDA were identified and a login password was created accordingly for desk officer’s user login and for director’s admin login.
A practical session afforded each participant the opportunity to login to the back end of the PMS to take performance appraisal for their individual MDAs. At the end of the appraisal taking session, participants were able to see results generated by the system as well as its analysis. The facilitators also showed the participants’ state results comparing the MDAs and showing best performing MDA for each quarter as well as National results comparing the states.
Some participants have expressed their views and thoughts about the Performance Management System. ‘The training on the use of PMS was quite simplified’, said Anyanwu Goodness Chidi – Federal Ministry of Health. Ibrahim Hussaini of the Kano State Ministry of Information and Internal Affairs said ‘the training was conducted in a good atmospheric condition, the facilitators were also very sound and good in conducting the presentations’. Adding his voice, Nafisa Murtala Ahmad from Express Radio 90.3fm said ‘It’s indeed a simpler way to share, & understand an MDA’s strength, weakness, threats & opportunities’. Another participant, Adaeze Ezekwem from the Federal Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation described the PMS as an efficient system.
This capacity building was conducted across all the five PINNS 2.0 states with over hundred stakeholders within the six weeks. Desk Officers, Directors. Permanent Secretaries, desk officers, deputy directors, directors and academia all members of the N/SCFN were beneficiaries of the training.
The PMS is an initiative of the National Committee on Food and Nutrition secretariat of the Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning supported by the Partnership for Improving Nigeria Nutrition Systems (PINNS 2.0) Project implemented by Civil Society- Scaling up Nutrition in Nigeria (CS-SUNN) with funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF).