Malnutrition Crisis In Gombe: Stakeholders Call For Action
BY WILLIAMS ATTAH, GOMBE – Critical stakeholders in Gombe have alerted that the state is sitting on a time bomb following increasing spate of malnutrition.
Stakeholders said that malnutrition is not as a result of poverty, but the lack of proper dietary intake, thus canvassed an increase in sensitization of households on the use of local food to produce substitutes.
The latest NDHS report (2018), indicates that stunting rate of children under five is at 44.6% and 26.9% underweight and this has placed Gombe State to be rated as the second state with the highest burden of malnutrition in Nigeria.
The concerned stakeholders therefore called on all to join hands with the government in addressing the ugly and dangerous trend.
They noted that the state government alone cannot fight the battle against malnutrition, except with concerted efforts by all to fight it holistically.
Rising from a one day stakeholders meeting in Gombe which brought together Government, CSOs, CBOs, FBOs, Academia, Traditional and Religious Leaders, Traditional Birth Attendants, Media, Health workers, and the private partners working in the area of Nutrition, the stakeholders resolved that through deliberate efforts, improving the nutrition status in the state with emphasis on pregnant women, children, and other vulnerable groups is very possible.
At the meeting which was organized by the Civil Society Scaling Up Nutrition in Nigeria (CS-SUNN), the Gombe State Coordinator, Comfort Mukollo said CS-SUNN has so far reached no fewer than 500 women in several communities with different awareness and sensitization campaigns on Infant Young Child Feeding (IYCF) among many other issues aimed at addressing malnutrition.
A communiqué issued at the end of the meeting on leveraging partnership for sustainable nutrition programming, commended the Gombe State Government for the release of 50 million naira as counterpart for the provision of RUTF in the state.
The communique which was signed by Chima Azubuke, Punch Newspaper; Hussaini Obeth Dangombe, Gombe State Ministry of Information and Rebecca Mua’zu of the Voice of Nigeria (VON), however stressed that the state has been out of stock of Ready to Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF).
It also observed that the influx of IDPs from crisis-ridden states into Gombe State has overstretched its resources, hence, the call for all stakeholders especially the Government to tackle insecurity.
The stakeholders’ meeting encouraged the Gombe State Ministry for Science, Technology and Innovation to produce more complementary food and if possible make available the processing tools to some households.
The Stakeholders appealed to the government to release the balance of N50 million meant for the production of RUTF to tackle the dearth and also called for Increase media engagement for proper/accurate dissemination of nutrition information.
The communique further states; “Stakeholders observed the need for increased access to antenatal and postnatal care and the improvement of clinics across the state which will, in turn, reduce malnutrition.
“Government should revive the school feeding program across the 11 LGA’s of the state, to enable students to comprehend and reduce the rate of malnutrition”, the communiqué stressed.
Participants at the meeting then appealed to the Government at all levels to place a high priority on food production to reduce the rate of malnutrition in the state.
They encouraged mothers to embrace exclusive breastfeeding for the first 0-6 months of life despite the dissenting voices from the public.
The need for all stakeholders to unite towards reducing the impact of malnutrition in the state was stressed just as it called for the sustainability of projects by Government and other stakeholders, long after the expiration of a project in the state.
