By; ALEX UANGBAOJE, Kaduna
Kaduna State is poised to fighting malnutrition by feeding affected children with “Kwash Pap”, a combination of soybeans, groundnuts, locust beans, milk and other source of proteins and vitamins.
The cereals are blended and prepared into liquid pap for the feeding of malnourished children.
Commissioner for Health, Dr Amina Mohammed-Baloni stated this on Wednesday in Kaduna, when the state’s Committee on Food and Nutrition paid her a courtesy visit.
Mohammed-Baloni explained that “Kwash Pap’’ would serve as an alternative to the highly expensive Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF) currently being used to treat malnutrition.
According to her, use of local initiatives such as the “Kwash Pap’’ is cost-effective and will go a long way in tackling malnutrition in children.
“The committee should work with the State Primary Health Care Board to ensure that every health facility uses `Kwash Pap’ in the treatment of malnourished children.
“As a preventive measure, mothers and caregivers should be sensitised during facility visits on how to prepare the mixture and give to their children as part of complementary feeding,’’ she stressed.
The commissioner also noted that the creation of budget lines across nutrition line Ministries, Department and Agencies (MDAs) was critical to sustaining the fight against malnutrition.
She advised the committee to work towards the scaling up of infant, child, maternal nutrition in all political wards of the state.
Earlier, Ms Linda Yakubu, Director, Development Aid Coordination, Planning and Budget Commission, said that the advocacy was part of efforts to increase investment in nutrition.
Yakubu described the Ministry of Health as strategic to nutrition programming and commended it for playing a critical role in the fight against malnutrition.
Assistant State Nutrition Officer, Mr Adams George, in his remarks, noted that the nutrition indices in the state had improved significantly because of the various preventive interventions being executed.
In another submission, Ms Jessica Bartholomew, Coordinator, Civil Society Scaling-Up Nutrition in Nigeria (CS-SUNN) said increased investment in nutrition was critical to winning the war against malnutrition.
Bartholomew noted that the state’s budgetary allocation to nutrition had increased over the years from N300 million in 2014 to N2.9 billion in 2019 but decreased to N2.3 billion in 2022.
She expressed worry that the allocation was not commensurate with budget releases to enable the relevant MDAs to implement planned activities.
On her part, Mrs Chinwe Ezeife, Nutrition Specialist, UNICEF Kaduna Field Office, said that the Country Office has shifted its support to prevention, integration, and scale-up services to all communities.
Ezeife, who commended the commissioner for her support, explained that the vision was to see fewer children, adolescents, and women in Kaduna State suffering from malnutrition in all its forms.
She said that the strategy, which would be piloted in all communities of Zaria Local Government Area, hopes to address stunting, wasting and anaemia through good diets, good practice, and good services.
She said that the programme aims to strengthen the capacity of the government and engagement with the private sector to scale up a set of proven high-impact and multisectoral nutrition interventions.
She said that UNICEF, in collaboration with the Federal and the Kaduna State Government, would support the State Primary Health Care Board to scale up intervention in all political wards of the state.
She explained that the idea was to scale up the Community-Infant and Young Child Feeding, Maternal, Infant and Young Child Nutrition programmes as cost-effective preventive measures to all communities in the state.
“The services include maternal, infant, and young child nutrition and care practices in the family; micronutrient supplementation; food fortification and prevention and treatment of key nutrition-related illnesses including wasting,” she said.
In his remarks, Mr Sani Hassan, Adviser on Nutrition to Kaduna State Emergency Nutrition Action Plan (KADENAP), urged the ministry to support the committee to bridge the gap between knowledge and practice of good nutrition.
Hassan also urged the commissioner to facilitate the speedy release of allocated funds to enable nutrition-line MDAs to implement planned activities to tackle malnutrition.
“We are also advocating for the establishment of model crèches in the ministry and in major health facilities to enable working mothers to exclusively breastfeed their infants.
“We are equally calling for specific interventions to address diet-related non-communicable diseases like diabetes, heart diseases and other non-communicable diseases affecting other sections of the population,’’ he said.
The advocacy visit was organised by the state’s Committee on Food and Nutrition with support from CS-SUNN, UNICEF, Alive and Thrive, Accelerating Nutrition Result in Nigeria and KADENAP.
