The National Council for Nutrition Development (CNDN) and ChildFund Senegal proceeded, this Thursday, February 5, 2026 at the Prime Minister's office, to sign a memorandum of understanding aimed at strengthening their collaboration in the field of nutrition and early childhood development.

This initiative is part of the Multisectoral Strategic Nutrition Plan (MSNP) 2024-2028, which aims to provide sustainable and coordinated responses to nutritional challenges, particularly among children, pregnant women, breastfeeding mothers and the most vulnerable populations.

The partnership covers several priority areas, including the prevention and treatment of malnutrition, the fight against micronutrient deficiencies, the strengthening of food systems, the empowerment of women and adolescent girls, territorial governance of nutrition, and the protection and safeguarding of children.

Through this collaboration, they commit to improving the provision of nutrition services at the community level, strengthening the capacities of local actors and communities, and promoting access to healthy, sufficient and nutritious food for all children, including those living in vulnerable contexts.

"We are operationalizing a new approach to community nutrition development."

Dr. Mbaye Sène, Executive Secretary of the National Nutrition Development Council (CNDN), emphasizes that this protocol is signed at a time when the CNDN needs support to implement an integrated package of community nutrition services.

"We are operationalizing a new approach to community nutrition development with enhanced capitalisation of the association of community relays and all actors at the community level, at the decentralised level and above all a strong increase, a strengthening of the institutionalisation of nutrition at the community level with the participation of local authorities," he says.

Dr. Sène reiterated that nutrition in Senegal remains a work in progress, one that the CNDN is striving to combat in order to reduce malnutrition in all its forms. "Despite the progress made, challenges persist," he acknowledged.

For his part, the Childfuld Guinea-Senegal country director, Sagane Thiaw, said that through "this memorandum of understanding, we essentially aim to support the food system in Senegal, to ensure that the provision of access to nutrition services is improved, but also that the technical and organizational capacities of community health actors are strengthened."

However, in a context where development aid is becoming increasingly difficult to access, he reassured: “We are confident. As ChildFund Senegal, in collaboration with the CNDN, we will be able to work together to make project proposals that truly attract the interest and support of donors, leading to the funding of concrete projects so that this memorandum of understanding becomes operational.”