A health advocacy group, Civil Society Scaling-Up Nutrition in Nigeria, CS-SUNN, has called for more budgetary provision and releases for nutrition-related issues in Enugu State.
The group made the recommendation while expressing concern over non-release of budgetary allocations for nutrition-related issues in previous years.
Addressing journalists in Enugu on Thursday during a media roundtable, the Enugu State coordinator of CS-SUNN, Mr Finian Ali rallied stakeholders towards showing deserved interest to nutrition issues.
He stated that malnutrition and nutrition-related diseases have remained a public health concern in Nigeria due to complex factors.
Ali added that “malnutrition is a formidable cause of death, with stunting, in particular, linked to adverse outcomes such as poor brain and cognitive development, a loss of 2-3 years of schooling, poor school performance and diminished productivity in adulthood.”
While providing a worrisome data, the coordinator, who quoted the National Food Consumption and Micronutrient Survey, NFCMS, conducted in 2021, revealed that “approximately eleven million (33%) of children aged under 5 years in Nigeria are stunted, while four million children (12%) are wasted with an astonishing 21 million (62%) children suffering from anaemia.
“In Enugu state, NDHS 2018 reveals that 14.8% of children under-five are stunted, 6.1% are underweight, and 2.5% are wasted.
“This statistics translates to over 159,000 stunted children and over 24,000 wasted children in Enugu State.”
He further stated that in response to these pressing challenges, “CS-SUNN is implementing the ‘Increased Investment in Nutrition to Scale-Up Quality Nutrition Services’ in Enugu State, a fruitful collaboration between UNICEF and CS-SUNN, aimed at realising a vision of a Nigeria where every citizen has access to food and nutrition security.”
On the way forward, CS-SUNN advocated that “budget releases and utilisation for nutrition programming at Federal level and in Enugu State be increased from 2 million to 3 million USD by Oct 2024;
“Maternity and Exclusive Breast Feeding (EBF) protection through the extension of maternity leave to six months from the current four months in Enugu State;
“The media are urged to provide increased coverage and visibility for nutrition related issues in Nigeria;
“We urge the private sector to support policy implementation through the development of low cost, nutritious complementary foods and home fortification of staple foods and creation of office creches;
“CSOs/NGOs should advocate for the implementation of maternal and child nutrition interventions, promote sustained community health education on nutrition, advocate for the implementation of s
