Women Farmers Advancement Network (WOFAN) was established in June 1993 and incorporated with the Kano state Government as a community Development Association in 1995 and later registered with the corporate affairs commission in 2007 with its headquarters in Kano. WOFAN now functions in 7 states of Nigeria.
WOFAN partners and works with a mobilized, registered multipurpose cooperatives, CBOS, community service groups, private sectors, trade groups and research institutions towards achieving a holistic development of the general populace in the areas of agriculture, education, enterprise development, climate change adaptation, water and sanitation through building business models with communities to address their basic and strategic needs holistically.
In 2017 WOFAN’s application to graduate to “Women Empowerment Foundation” received the legal approval of the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) of Nigeria. The new outfit supports WOFAN’s strides in making a difference in pushing a people and community-owned partnership and collaboration with all arms of governments, the private sector, NGOs, traditional and community structures as well as donor agencies to stimulate self reliance and sustainable growth and development of the populace.
This extra effort is expected to bring additional complementary strength and shared responsibilities in supporting the common goals of the less privileged, disadvantaged and the voiceless , thereby assisting them scale up their enterprise skills and become managers of their own development.
Presently, WOFAN has 4500 clusters of women, men and youth groups of 30 members per group across 7Northern States of Nigeria of which 75 % of its membership are women .
WOFAN aspires to scale up its outreach at a national level through partnership and collaboration with all relevant and interested stakeholders
Presently 2020-2021, WOFAN leads a Rice value chain expansion project implemented across 7 states, including the Food and Nutrition security project funded by UNDP-GEF-FGN that targets 42,000 beneficiaries of which 75% are women groups and 25% are male and youth groups.
Women Farmers Advancement Network (WOFAN) was established in June 1993 and incorporated with the Kano state Government as a community Development Association in 1995 and later and later registered with the corporate affairs commission in 2007 with its headquarters in Kano.
WOFAN partners and works with a mobilized, registered multipurpose cooperatives, CBOS, community service groups, private sectors and research institutions towards achieving a holistic development of the people.
In 2017 WOFAN’s application to graduate to “Women Empowerment Foundation” received the legal approval of the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) of Nigeria. The new outfit supports WOFAN’s strides in making a difference in pushing a people and community owned partnership and collaboration with all arms of governments, the private sector, NGOs, traditional and community structures as well as donor agencies. This extra effort is expected to bring additional complementary strength and shared responsibilities in supporting the common goals of the less privileged, disadvantaged and the voiceless thereby assisting them scale up their enterprise skills and become managers of their own development.
Presently, WOFAN has 4,500 clusters of women, men and youth groups of 30 members per group across 7Northern States of Nigeria.
As part of its efforts to commence awareness on sustainable Development Goals 2 (SDG 2-) to “End hunger, achieve food security , improve family nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture”,
WOFAN has commenced a Nutrition awareness campaign to the rural communities of Kano state as an “add on”, to its ongoing increased agricultural activities that is targeting 7011 rural farmers and processors who are scaling up rice and groundnut production to increase income and family nutrition.
WOFAN in partnership with SONVISAGE Nigeria Ltd, a Health and Nutrition focused private sector in collaboration with LGA primary Health care kick started the exercise by setting up a mobile NUTRITION clinic in Dawakin Kudu LGA in January 2017 to screen the nutritional status of children under 5 years old.
The nutritional status of 20 children, consisting of 10 boys and 10 girls, was screened using the newly introduced GROWTH SCREENING WHEEL (GSW) developed by SONVISAGE Nigeria Limited with the support of WOFAN, which is a simple device that conveniently screens under 5 years boys and girls simultaneously that can classify their malnutrition levels into mild, moderate or severe malnutrition (Wasting/Stunting/Obesity) as the case may be; in a fun, easy to understand and interactive manner.
In addition to the GSW, the nutrition monitoring team also used an infantometer, a stantiometer and the weighing scale for the comparative analysis.
The weights and heights of older children(above 5years), were also taken and then measured on the GSW against WHO standards for each child’s age-group so as to conveniently present the standard z-scores of the weight-for-age, height-for-age, weight-for-height and other growth indices of the child.
Speaking during the exercise, WOFAN’s Health and Nutrition Team Leader, Dr. Nathaniel G. George explained that under-5 malnutrition is a serious problem in Sub-Saharan Africa which has the highest prevalence of hunger in the world.
He said, “In Nigeria, the North has the highest prevalence of malnutrition, with the insurgency in the North-East further worsening the situation.”
He further explained that the Growth Screening Wheel was developed as part of WOFAN’s efforts to stem the raging malnutrition in the country and contribute to the attainment of SDG 2 (Zero hunger) through effective and efficient monitoring of the growth of under risk children.
At the end of the exercise, the screening revealed that 5% of the target groups were severely wasted and 25% were severely stunted. It was also established that 75% of those in wasted and stunted categories were girls.
Mothers of the at-risk groups were immediately given nutrition advice and nutritional rehabilitation, using some of the highly nutritional foods produced by the WOFAN women groups such as the Babylac,( a highly nutritious , protein and nutrient rich baby formula) made from home grown grops that includes rice and groundnut. In addition, the health and nutrition team will continue to monitor these at-risk groups for another six months to track their progress.
The GSW was tested for the first time on the field at this event. And, its efficiency, user friendliness and interactive characteristics were established. The exercise also demonstrated the undeniable place of the GSW as a valuable tool for screening under-five years for malnutrition.