A Cost of the Diet Analysis in Oyo State in South-Western Nigeria

Situated in the southwestern region of Nigeria, Oyo state has the highest prevalence (34.5 percent) of stunting among children under five; and two out of three children have anaemia. The prevalence is even higher among the economically marginalised population, with poor infant and young child (IYCF) practices. To tackle this persistent problem of child malnutrition, Save the Children partnered with the Government of Nigeria and the World Bank to improve the child nutrition status of the economically marginalised population by improving child feeding practices.

In an effort to gain a better understanding of the underlying causes of malnutrition in Oyo State, a Cost of the Diet (CotD) assessment was carried out to assess the extent to which access to a nutritious diet may be affected by economic constraints and how a low-cost nutritious diet be availed for child feeding from locally available food items.

The objective of this study was to identify the possibility, cost and affordability of a nutritious diet. The CotD research also aimed to identify the cheapest ways to meet all nutritional requirements of children below two years throughout the year, from locally available and culturally acceptable food items. The CotD research outputs were then used to develop low-cost recipes for complementary feeding tailored to the population in the target communities in Oyo state.