By UANGBAOJE ALEX, Kaduna
Kaduna State chapter of the Civil Society Scaling Up Nutrition in Nigeria (CS-SUNN), on Wednesday, marked its seven years of milestones ahead of the 10th year anniversary of the national office.
Jessica Bartholomew, Kaduna Chapter’s Coordinator, at a one-day media dialogue to commence celebration of the anniversary with the theme, “a decade of nutrition advocacy: reflecting on the past and shaping the future” noted that the coalition has consistently pushed for a sustainable nutrition funding in the state.
According to her, CS-SUNN Kaduna, has also made giant strides in supporting the state to move for legislation for six-month paid maternity leave, and ensuring Ministries Departments and Agencies (MDAs) have creches for lactating mothers, among others.
“What we will continue to fight for is an increase in the amount for releases that will be utilised for nutrition interventions. This will reduce the number of children dying of malnutrition and protecting the lives of pregnant women with Multiple micronutrient supplements (MMS).
“We want the government to procure enough Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF) and MMS for curative and also to invest in agriculture to ensure food security, livelihood activities and also invest in water sanitation and hygiene to take care of the preventive aspect of malnutrition,” she said.
Jessica, who appreciated all their stakeholders and government agencies for their support in ensuring they actualises their mandate, disclosed that the state has only allocated less than N2 billion for nutrition since 2018.
She stressed that when the government prioritises nutrition interventions, it protects the lives of children and thereby, improves the human capital development of the state.
On her part, Director, Development Aid Coordination of the state’s Planning and Budget Commission, Aisha Muhammad, said it was a wonderful experience working with CS-SUNN in Kaduna for the seven years of their existence in the state.
She assured CS-SUNN of the state government’s commitments towards eradicating malnutrition, stunting and wastage, while collaborating with them along side other relevant partners in achieving the goal.
Muhammad also assured that cash backing would be improving, while disclosing that Governor Uba Sani has approved and released some of the funds for nutrition and more to be released in middle of the year.
Also, Malam Sani Hassan, the Technical Adviser to Kaduna State Emergency Nutrition Action Plan (KADENAP), lauded CS-SUNN for their commitment and resilience in the pursuit of their goal aimed at suppressing malnutrition in the state.
He said that over years, the fight against malnutrition has recorded significant success however the challenges accompanied by nature.
He explained that in the olden days, the government only talked about food and health to survival, while being ignorant of the relationship between food and health.
“Food is the first medication to human being, now Governments everywhere in the world are aware of the importance of nutritional foods in the fight against malnutrition,” Sani said.
