FG’s Zero Budget For Nutrition In 2020 Worsening Severe Acute Malnutrition – ISMPH
BY ADEYEMI AKANJI, BAUCHI – An Abuja based Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) on the aegis of ‘International Society of Media in Public Health (ISMPH)’, has lamented the zero allocation for Nutrition issues in the 2020 Appropriation Act of the Federal Government.
It noted that the situation will negatively affect the current fight against Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM) in children under five years.
Executive Director of ISMPH, Mrs Moji Makanjuola, who stated these at a one day training for Media practitioners and Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) in Bauchi on Budget tracking for effective health services delivery, expressed concern on the state of affairs as it affects nutrition in children
She therefore appealed to the media practitioners and CSOs to be the eyes and ears of the vulnerable children whose future is being threatened by the scourge of Severe Acute Malnutrition which is fast becoming one of the leading killer diseases among under five children.
She also stressed the need for media practitioners particularly those on the Health beat in conjunction with health based CSOs to regularly engage in budget tracking for effective disbursement of allocation for improved health services delivery.
Makanjuola equally charged the participants to use the knowledge acquired during the training to bring about positive impact in tackling challenges militating the fight against Malnutrition.
According to her; “We have a duty to secure the future of our innocent children by emphasising to Government at all levels, on the need to make Nutrition a priority in their respective budgets. This, we can achieve through consistent monitoring, reporting and holding people in positions of trust accountable.
“We need to speak out on behalf of the vulnerable children and we can only do that when we are in tune with the nitty gritty of budgeting. I am sure the training will further improve our knowledge of budget trends and processes which will in turn add value to our campaign against Severe Acute Malnutrition”.
Program Manager of ISMPH, Mr. Solomon Dogo expressed confidence that participation and engagement by the participants will open new vistas of Budget tracking during the training, describing it as encouraging.
Dogo said that he hopes that the advocacy campaign around SAM will be done using the new knowledge acquired and reiterated ISMPH’s readiness to always support activities that are geared towards changing the narratives in the prevention, care and management of SAM.
Also speaking, a resource person at the training Mr. Kenneth Okoineme said that the training was to strengthen the capacity of the participants in what they already know and to also refresh their knowledge with some new economic concepts in budget analysis.
Participants at the one day intensive training were taken through Budget processes and analysis, Budget trends, Budget output, outcomes and impact, Comparing Budget to cost and Expenditure, Calculating Nominal Growth and Ratio, Use of chart for presentation , Monitoring Mechanisms among other issues.
