By Ndidi Chukwu
In a bid to respond to the rising cases of malnutrition among Nigerian children, the Federal Government has revised its food and nutrition policy to include for the first time severe acute malnutrition, a risk to thousands of children who could die without intervention.
It plans to halve the number of children too thin for their age and suffering severe acute malnutrition to one in 10 over the next nine years.
The revised National Policy on Food and Nutrition, due for launch on September 6 plans to reduce by half the proportion of people who suffer hunger and malnutrition by 2025.
Minister of Budget and National Planning, Senator Udoma Udo Udoma, stated at the start of Nutrition Week in Abuja, that it is alarming that 53% of Nigerian children under five die annually due to malnutrition, which is equivalent to 1,200 children a day.
“In spite of the commitments to nutrition, malnutrition remains a challenge to national development, with Nigeria having the largest burden in Africa and the third highest globally,” he said.
The policy notes poor nutrition status of Nigerian children is caused by a mix of poor infant and young child feeding practice, poor access to healthcare, water, sanitation and hygiene, high level poverty and poor policy implementation.
The Budget and National Planning ministry, which houses the food and nutrition secretariat, has fresh mandate to advocate food andnutrition issues and harmonise nutrition-related work done by all concerned ministries, departments and agencies.
President of the Nutrition Society of Nigeria, Dr. Ngozi Nnam, said a critical focus would be getting all entities with nutrition-related work to raise the profile of nutrition.
“One of the things that went with approval of the National Policy on Food and Nutrition is for ministries and agencies to create a budget line for nutrition that will help in implementation of those things highlighted in the policy, and hopefully it will be reflected in the 2017 budget,” she said .
By 2025, the policy hopes to push the rate of exclusive breastfeeding to 65%, up from a current 17%, and ensure stunting and wasting rates are halved.
