Lagos, Nigeria,
August 10, 2017: The Federal Government (FG) of Nigeria has been urged to
commit adequate funds to address the growing menace of malnutrition, with
experts and stakeholders saying the way to avert the danger is for the country
to not just fund projects targeted at treating the millions of children stunted
by malnutrition but commit to awareness campaigns to prevent the disease.
Speaking
at a one-day symposium on 'malnutrition, child development and the media'
organised by the Media Centre Against Child Malnutrition (MeCAM), Sunday
Okoronkwo, a project manager at the Civil Society on Scaling Up Nutrition
Nigeria (CS-SUNN), explained that the country currently does not have proper funding
to address the problem, warning also that figures such as 11m Nigerian children
being stunted may well be a poor representation of the reality.
Okoronkwo,
who stood in for CS-SUNN project director, Mrs Beatrice Eluaka, at the event also
attended by other top pro-nutrition civil society groups, including Community
Health and Research Initiative (CHRI), Scaling Up Nutrition Business Network
Nigeria and Global Alliance on Improved Nutrition (GAIN), lamented that the country's $912m action plan
on nutrition for the years 2014 through 2019 remains largely unfunded, with
Nigeria’s $100m counterpart funding of the policy hardly making it into the
annual budgets.
According
to him, the country's 2017 budget has no provision for the plan which expires
in 2019.
Speaking
on ‘Dealing with nutritional Fads and Fallacies’, Dr. Aminu Garba, chairman of
CHRI, called for declaration of emergency on malnutrition, called for sustained
media engagement, among other steps, to address the many fallacies around the
question of nutrition.
Garba
outlined these to include cultural claims that giving newborns colostrum
exposes them to witchcraft or that children and women should not eat meat or
take adequate milk.
Remmy
Nweke, the national coordinator of MeCAM Nigeria, said the organisation evolved
from the unique need for the media to respond to the national emergency on
malnutrition. He insisted that government’s funding to combat malnutrition is
not “commensurate” to the volume and potential consequences of the unfolding
crisis.
About MeCAM:
Media
Centre Against Child Malnutrition (MeCAM) Nigeria was founded Thursday,
August 28, 2015, as a media advocacy group against child malnutrition and
well-being, as well as to strengthen the agro-nutrition capacity and interest
of its members professionally in contribution to nation-building, especially in
Nigeria and across the continent of Africa among developing countries of the
world.
MeCAM
is committed to showcasing successful and development efforts in the area of
agro-nutrition for the benefit of mankind and for Africa emancipation from
extreme hunger especially in children, women and society, centred on Goal 2 of
the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Further
inquiry:
Julie Ekong
Director,
Outreach, MeCAM Nigeria
+2348033266916,
Email: mecamnigeria@gmail.com
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