Africa
THE Kaduna State Emergency Management Agency (KADSEMA), says that the agency will create a budget line for nutrition in emergency in its 2023 budget.
Mr Muhammed Mukaddas, the Executive Secretary of KADSEMA said this in Kaduna on Tuesday when the State Committee on Food and Nutrition paid him an advocacy visit to push for the creation of a nutrition budget line in KADSEMA.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the advocacy visit was supported by the Civil Society-Scaling Up Nutrition in Nigeria (CS-SUNN) to promote increased investment in the nutrition sector.
The executive secretary said that funding had remained a major challenge to nutrition programming.
According to him, the insufficient funding had made the provision of Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF) very difficult, resulting in preventable death of children under five years from malnutrition.
He directed the budget officer in the agency to create the budget line for nutrition in the 2023 budget being prepared.
“KASEMA will work with the SCFN and the Planning and Budget Commission (PBC) to ensure that the budget line is created in line with the State Multi-Sectoral Plan of Action on Nutrition.
“We will also work with the committee to assess the temporary Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps through a joint assessment to determine the status of malnutrition among women and children.
“This will enable us to tailor nutrition sensitive support that will address the nutritious needs of women and children,” he said.
Earlier, Mrs Linda Yakubu, the Director, Development Aid Coordination, PBC, who led the delegation, explained that KADSEMA had a critical role to play in addressing the scourge of malnutrition in the state.
Yakubu said that the state government had developed the KDMSPAN in line with its policy on food and nutrition as a multi-sectoral approach to tackling the scourge.
She, however, said that many of the activities outlined in the plan were not being implemented due to insufficient funding and absence of nutrition budget lines in key Ministries, Departments and Agencies.
The State Nutrition Officer, Mrs Ramatu Haruna, said that children under five years constituted more than two million of the more than 10 million estimated population of the state.
Haruna said that of the two million population of children under five years, 22 per cent were stunted while 1.1 were severely acutely malnourished.
According to her, malnutrition, which accounts for more than 50 per cent of under-five mortality is a public concern and requires huge investment to reverse the trend.
Dr Hajara Kera, the Director, Public Health, Ministry of Health, described nutrition as a “development issue” that required investment to reap its benefits, particularly on human capital development.
Kera said that creating a nutrition budget line in the agency would significantly contribute to the ongoing efforts to curb the scourge of malnutrition in the state.
The Coordinator of CS-SUNN in the state, Ms Jessica Bartholomew, expressed worry that the high rate of stunting would adversely affect human capital and economic progress.
Bartholomew said that early nutrition programmes through increased investment could increase school completion rate and raise adult wages by five to 50 per cent.
According to her, children who escaped stunting are 33 per cent more likely to escape poverty as adults, while reductions in stunting can increase Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by four to 11 per cent in Asia and Africa. (NAN)
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Tags: Hajara Kera KADSEMA Linda Yakubu Muhammed Mukaddas Ramatu Haruna
