By Asma’u Ahmad
The Civil Society Legislative and Advocacy Centre (CISLAC) have urged northern state governments to prioritise good nutrition to enhance development in the area.
This call is contained in a communiqué issued at the end of a 2-day summit by CISLAC UNICEF, UKAID and Children Investment Fund Foundation in Abuja.
According to the communiqué, the summit on financing nutrition was organised for northern states’ policy makers.
They noted that malnutrition had impacted negatively on the socio-economic development of the nation especially in the zone.
They stated that sustainable growth in northern Nigeria could not be achieved without giving attention to nutrition investment at all levels.
“Malnutrition remains high in the zone with about 2.2 million children out of the 2.5 million severely malnourished.”
The participants stated that while 50 per cent child mortality in the country had malnutrition as underlining cause, no fewer than 1,200 out of 2,600 estimated daily deaths are caused by malnutrition.
“The delay in domestication and implementation of the existing national policy guidelines on nutrition hamper efforts in addressing malnutrition.
“The non-implementation of National Policy on Food and Nutrition and the National Strategic Plan of Action for Nutrition by the states are causing setback in addressing the challenge.
“Inadequate budgetary allocation to nutrition and delay or non-release of nutrition appropriated funds by the state governments are inherent systemic challenges, the communique stated.
They recommended exclusive breastfeeding and community participation to address childhood malnutrition and combat childhood killer diseases at all levels.
Other recommendations included embracing local capacity in addressing malnutrition through diversification into agricultural sector to boost local remedies.
They also recommended enhanced financial support for small-scale farming and small scale enterprises as well as appropriate community mobilisation, sensitisation and awareness.
The summit was aimed at bringing the state legislators and high level policy makers to understand the complexity and multi-sectoral nature of nutrition.
It was also aimed at identifying opportunities for financing nutrition in the 2017 budget in their respective states.
