…Says nutrition investments, interventions grossly inadequate
Determined to address the issue of malnutrition in Nigeria, the Civil Society-Scaling up Nutrition in Nigeria (CS-SUNN) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), have charged state governments to improve the indices of nutrition in their states by increasing their budget allocations on nutrition and implementing six months paid maternity leave for nursing mothers.
The call was made at a 2day Project Inception and Validation meeting for nutrition stakeholders from the states and CSOs on ‘Increased Investment to Scale up Quality Nutrition Services’ on Wednesday in Nasarawa State, to herald the new project expected to run in 19 states; Benue, Cross River, Enugu, Bayelsa, Jigawa, Sokoto, Gombe, Kebbi, Niger, Kano, Lagos, Kaduna, Adamawa, Bauchi, Katsina, Zamfara, Oyo, Borno and Yobe.
Executive Secretary of CS-SUNN, Sunday Okoronkwo who regretted that nutrition investment and interventions in the country were grossly inadequate, insisted that access to nutrition and paid maternity entitlements were basic rights and not privileges.
While describing the figures of stunting, wasting, severe acute malnourished children as well as aneamia in Nigeria as worrisome, Okoronkwo noted that preventive measures such as exclusive breastfeeding, nutritious feeding of pregnant women and quality feeding of a child within the first 1,000 days were critical game changers if Nigeria must tackle the menace of malnutrition.
According to him, the project in collaboration with UNICEF was aimed at identifying workable strategies in respective states that would help ensure an equitable nutrition financing to improve nutrition interventions,.as well as the implementation of six months maternal leave entitlements for women to enable them exclusively breastfeed their children.
He said: “When you look at the current fundings that nutrition interventions receive in our various states, when you compare it with the burden of chronic nutrition in our state we will agree that it is grossly inadequate and something needs to be done about it.
“This calls for a more strategic investment in nutrition financing. Having a better nutrition financing is not just a health concern, It is a significant pillar for economic development and it can be a powerful driver for the achievement of worldwide policy objectives.”
Okoronkwo who further insisted that quality promotion of a paid six months maternity leave for nursing mothers would help improve the practice of exclusive breastfeeding, regretted that inadequate breastfeeding according to a research study by UNICEF and Alive and Thrive, has numerous consequences including child deaths, cases of child diarrhea, pneumonia, healthcare system treatment costs and economic losses.
“Optimal breastfeeding practices could prevent 103,00742 child that’s over 30 million cases of childhood diarrhea and pneumonia and save $22 million in health care system. treatment costs related to inadequate exclusive breastfeeding.
“It is also estimated that improved breastfeeding practices could generate an additional $21 billion for the Nigerian economy over children’s productive years. It’s a right for women to have time to exclusively breastfeed their baby and releasing funds for nutrition is the only way forward,” he added.
UNICEF Nutrition Specialist, Dr. Chizoba Steve-Edemba who acknowledged the several efforts by the government, donors, civil society organisations and other partners towards addressing malnutrition and its consequences in Nigeria, however stressed the need for more commitments from the state governments especially improved funding, as the burden of malnutrition in Nigeria had overwhelmed the current nutrition funding made available by donors.
She said: “The governments are doing their own bit, the donors are doing their own bit, the civil societies are doing their own bit however, the impact is like a drop in the ocean because the burden of malnutrition is high; Nigeria marks the second largest with the burden of malnutrition what it means is that we need funding.
“We cannot rely only on the funding from donor agencies and implementing partners. They will not be enough and can never be enough based on the kind of burden we have so we need domestic resources to be able to augment the funding that is coming from the donor agencies.
“The government has to demonstrate that leadership; they must demonstrate accountability and political will to release this funding.
The nutrition specialist further stressed that having a six month paid maternity leave for nursing mothers would not only help in boosting the practice of exclusive breast feeding, but it would help Nigeria move from 34 percent to achieve its exclusive breastfeeding Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) target of 50 percent by 2030.
