NaNA was established in 2000 under the Office of the Vice President when the National Nutrition Policy (2000-2004) was approved.

Prior to the creation of NaNA there existed the Nutrition Unit founded in 1984 under the Department of State for Health.

Why was NaNA established?

As nutrition is a crosscutting issue with multiple stakeholders involved in undertaking the problem of malnutrition, it was necessary to establish a mechanism to coordinate the efforts of the stakeholders and to harmonize their approaches to solving the nutritional problems.

NaNA was therefore established by an Act of Parliament and mandated among other issues to coordinate all nutrition and nutrition related activities in the Gambia.