ASATTAHIR International Foundation participated in a 6-day capacity building activity on grant writing and nutrition programming organized by USAID Advancing Nutrition for CS-SUNN CSOs/CBOs in Sokoto state.
The training which commenced from 5th to 10th June 2023, was organized with the goal to equipping CSOs with strategies for securing funding and resources for nutrition programmes.
The specific objectives of the training include; encouraging best practices for involving communities in nutrition programming, including community mobilization and capacity building as well as providing organizations with strategies for integrating nutrition considerations into agriculture and food systems programming.
The Foundation was represented by Zuwaira Umar Yabo, AIF’s Nutrition Officer and Rufus Yagkong, the Head of Programs and Research of the Foundation.
Dr. Kene Terfa, the team lead for USAID Advancing Nutrition and a board member CS-SUNN gave an overview of USAID Advancing Nutrition project and Civil Society Scaling Up Nutrition in Nigeria (CS-SUNN)
The training was divided into two major but interconnected sections i.e proposal grant writing and nutrition programming.
Under grant proposal writing segment, participants were introduced to grant proposal writing techniques, the key components of a grant proposal, why grant proposals fail as well as proposal writing best practices.
In the same vein, the participants understood the key components of effective nutrition programmes and how to identify key indicators of malnutrition, tools and techniques for conducting nutrition related needs assessments, strategies for effective advocacy and communication to raise awareness and support for nutrition issues as well as best practices, including networking and involving critical stakeholders in nutrition programming.
Components of the training include pre and post (self) assessments of participants knowledge and understanding of the subjects prior and after the training sessions, series of practical sessions as well as group works and presentations.
By the end of the training, participants were able to understand the different types of grant proposals, learned how to find grants opportunities relevant to their thematic areas and were equally equipped with knowledge on the key components of effective nutrition programmes, monitoring and evaluation and techniques for collecting, managing and analyzing nutrition related data to inform decision making.
The participants were also encouraged on the need to have a strengthened pathways for information sharing, effective collaboration and enhanced synergy between CSOs/CBOs on nutrition programming in the state.
The training ended with group photograph and exchange of pleasantries between participants and the resource persons.
