Bukola Afeni
The United Nations International Children Emergency Funds (UNICEF) in collaboration with Civil Society Scaling up Nutrition in Nigeria(CS-SUNN) has called on Government at all levels to invest in nutrition by increasing budget allocations.
They also called for the implementation of six months paid maternity leave for nursing mothers across different states of the Federation.
They stated this during a 2-day Project Inception and Validation meeting for nutrition stakeholders from the states and CSOs on ‘Increased Investment to Scale up Quality Nutrition Services’ held in Nasarawa state .
The Executive Secretary of CS -SUNN, Mr Sunday Okorokwo, while speaking on the poor state of Nutrition, stated that a research by Alive and Thrive with the support from United Nations international children’s emergency fund (UNICEF) estimated that inadequate breastfeeding in Nigeria leads to various negative consequences.
He said some of negative effects of inadequate breastfeeding are : child death , cases of child diarrhea, pneumonia,bad health care system and economic loss.
The Executive Secretary noted that optimal breastfeeding prevents childhood diseases.
“A study has shown that optimal breastfeeding practices could lead to child death . Over ten million cases of childhood diaherria and pneumonia can save 22 million dollars in health care system cost “, he said.
UNICEF Nutrition Specialist, Dr. Chizoba Steve-Edemba further stressed that having a six-month paid maternity leave for nursing mothers would help boost the practice of exclusive breastfeeding.
“It would help Nigeria move from 34 percent to achieving its exclusive breastfeeding Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) target of 50 percent by 2030”, she said.
Dr Chizoba noted that there is need for more commitment from the state governments, especially towards improved funding.
“The burden of malnutrition in Nigeria had overwhelmed the current nutrition funding made available by donors.
The governments is doing their own bit, the donors are doing their own bit, the civil societies are doing their own bit however, the impact is like a drop in the ocean because the burden of malnutrition is high; Nigeria is the second largest country , with the burden of malnutrition ,what it means is that we need funding”.
“We cannot rely only on the funding from donor agencies and implementing partners. They will not be enough, and can never be enough based on the kind of burden we have, so we need domestic resources to be able to augment the funding that is coming from the donor agencies. The government has to demonstrate that leadership; they must demonstrate accountability and political will to release the funding”.
The Nutrition Specialist called on stakeholders to create a world where access to proper nutrition are basic rights of citizens.
