Pulse.ng : Alive & Thrive restates commitment to fight malnutrition in Kaduna State

The Kaduna Zonal Coordinator, Alive & Thrive, Mrs Sarah Kwasu

By Sani Idris

Alive & Thrive, a global nutrition initiative to save lives, prevent illness, and ensure healthy growth of mothers and children, has restated its commitment to fight malnutrition in Kaduna State.

The Zonal Coordinator, Alive & Thrive in Kaduna, Mrs Sarah Kwasu, restated the commitment on Wednesday in Kaduna at a two-day State Committee on Food and Nutrition (SCFN) second quarter coordination meeting.

The meeting, which was funded by Alive & Thrive, was to build the capacity of desk officers and key stakeholders in nutrition-implementing Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).

Kwasu said that the capacity building was also to ensure that desks officers in nutrition-implementing MDAs created nutrition budget line and strategically presented the demands to key actors in their MDAs.

“The Alive & Thrive funded this capacity building to ensure that key stakeholders in nutrition-implementing MDAs are able to fight malnutrition in Kaduna State.

“The aim is to improve on Maternal, Infant and Young Child Nutrition (MIYCN) outcomes.

“We will review what the SCFN has done in the last quarter, share experiences and chart ways to enhance nutrition in the state,” she said.

Kwasu stressed that Alive & Thrive was committed to working with stakeholders in fighting malnutrition in Kaduna State.

Earlier, Mrs Linda Yakubu, the Director, Development Aid Coordination, Kaduna Planning and Budget Commission (PBC), stressed the importance of the SCFN in Kaduna State.

She said that all indices around nutrition in the state relied on the committee.

She urged the committee members to be dedicated to their duties to ensure that the aims and objectives of the committee to reduce malnutrition in Kaduna was achieved.

Earlier, the Deputy Director, Development Aid Coordination, Kaduna PBC, Mrs Priscilla Dariya, said the meeting aimed at getting updates/review of nutrition activities implemented by key MDAs.

She said it was to build the capacity of nutrition desk officers on budget tagging, so as to be able to track funding, implementation and utilisation of funds.

Speaking on behalf of stakeholders in nutrition-implementing MDAs, the Programme Manager, Accelerating Nutrition in Nigeria (ANRiN) Project, Dr Zainab Muhammad-Idris, said: “the SCFN is the highest decision-making body in Kaduna State in regards to nutrition.

“MDAs must ensure they come up with realistic budgets and plans for nutrition for 2024.”

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that in attendance of the meeting included nutrition-implementing MDAs cut across the state ministries of health, agriculture, education and the State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA).

Others in attendance were representatives from UNICEF, Save the Children, CS-SUNN, ANRIN, GAIN, Harvest Plus, NOA, KADENAP, and other relevant Stakeholders.

NAN also reports that in 2014, the Alive & Thrive began working in Nigeria in the areas of maternal and adolescent nutrition, using agriculture and social protection programmes to improve MIYCN. (NAN)(www.nannews.ng)