As part of its sustainable investment drive, the development Research and Projects Centre (dRPC) organised a two-day capacity-strengthening workshop for the Executive Council of the Nutrition Society of Nigeria (NSN). The workshop took place on the 27th and 28th of January 2025 at the dRPC Training Centre, Jabi, Abuja
The Workshop
The dRPC brought together a training team of subject experts on CSO organisational and technical capacity strengthening to step down the expertise gained over 9-years of training and mentoring under the Partnership for Advancing Child and Family Health (PAS) Program, 2015-2023. The PAS program was implemented by the dRPC and supported by the Gates Foundation. The training team of Executive Directors, Program and Finance Managers of PAS supported Health Professional Associations took the Nutrition Society of Nigeria (NSN) executive through various topics, including:- Strategic Planning, Branding and Marketing; Analysis of the Proposed 2025 Budget and role of Professional Associations as Advocates, Mainstreaming Gender in Nutrition; and CAC Compliance, Accountability, Fiduciary Responsibility and Financial Leadership.
Since 2015, the dRPC, through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s funded Partnership for the Advancement of Child and Family Health At Scale (PAS), has developed the capacities of several NGOs in Nigeria in Leadership, fiduciary, budget analysis, communication, gender mainstreaming, and several other areas of competence to strengthen their abilities to manage the sub granted funds.
To sustain these investments, the cohort of these NGOs who were trained between 2015 and 2023 was drafted to serve as resource persons to step down the capacity-building to the new leadership of the NSN. One of the highlights of the two-day workshop was the leadership of the NSN assessing the 2025 proposed nutrition budget to gauge the federal government’s intervention in nutrition and food security. And the issuance of a communique that called on the federal and subnational governments to prioritise nutrition funding in Nigeria.
Outcomes of the Workshop
- The Leadership and management skills of the new NSN leadership were built
- Their website was analysed, and its gabs were highlighted for future upgrade
- NSN is now placed as a leading voice of health and nutrition in Nigeria
- Its strategic plan for the duration of the new leadership was validated and approved
