The Nation Newspaper

Tag: malnutrition

  • UNICEF, others to tackle malnutrition

    The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has launched a programme to find solution to malnutrition among children and women in the country, especially in some states in Niger Delta.

    UNICEF, in a four-day Community of Practice Workshop on Nutrition in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, brought a team of nutrition experts to teach government modalities of tackling nutritional challenges.

    The workshop, which was organised in collaboration with the Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning, had representatives of Akwa Ibom, Rivers  and Delta states in attendance.

    UNICEF’s Communication Officer in Enugu Onuoha-Ogwe Ijeoma, in her presentation, solicited media assistance to create awareness on importance of nutrition.

    She said media tools were required to advance a social and public policy for required attitudinal change on nutrition.

    She said such tools would help to identify and proffer solution to policy gaps; mobilise community action plans and reach expected targets.

    A nutrition expert, Ngozi Onuorah, said the executive and the legislature should leverage their budgeting powers on behalf of children and mothers.

    She said state’s budget from children’s rights perspective should be probed and pressure mounted on the executive to ensure allocation of substantial resources to sectors relevant to children.

    “The legislature has the opportunity to question the executive during the budget debate and make nutrition and food security a budgetary priority,” she said.

    She appealed to stakeholders to advocate for increased budgetary allocation for sectors and institutions providing services for children, such as social protection, education and health.

  • ‘Malnutrition on increase among children under five’

    ‘Malnutrition on increase among children under five’

    A survey has shown that malnutrition among children under five years has worsen generally in the country.

    This is in spite the huge amount pledged by government and individuals to reduce the prevalence of under nutrition by 60percent in the worst affected parts of Nigeria.

    In 2016, the Federal Government approved N4billion to tackle malnutrition in part of North East Nigeria, while Aliko Dangote Foundation in the following year pledged to expend $100 million (about 36billion).

    Children living in rural areas are the most hit, the fifth round Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey, (MICS5), revealed.

    The survey was carried out in 2016/2017 by the National Bureau of Statistics, (NBS) is in collaboration with the National Primary Healthcare Development Agency (NPHCDA) and National Agency for the Control of Aids (NACA), as part of the global MICS programme.

    Presenting the survey at a training on data driven reporting, United Nations Children Fund Monitoring and Evaluation specialist, Maureen Zubie-Okolo, said the data for MICS5 was collated between September 2016 and January 2017 from 33,901 households in 2,239 enumeration areas across the 36 States and Federal Capital Territory.

    According to the report, underweight prevalence; children who are too thin for their age increased from 24.2percent to 31.5percent, stunting prevalence; children who are short for their age increased from 34.8percent to 43.6percent while wasting prevalence; children who are too thin for their height increase marginally from 10.2 percent to 10.8percent.

    Malnutrition is a condition that occurs when people consistently do not consume or absorb the right amounts and types of food and essential nutrients. Globally, it contributes to nearly half of all child deaths — that is more than 3 million children each year.

    Nigeria still ranks third highest in childhood mortality in the world, after India and Pakistan, despite a nationwide drop in infant mortality rate from 97 per 1000 live births recorded in 2011 , to 70 per 1000 live births in 2016 to 2017.

    The MICS5 report also revealed that the probability of a child dying between birth and the fifth birthday, dropped from 158 per 1000 live births in 2011 to 120 per 1000 live births in 2016 to 2017

    Earlier, the head of nutrition division, federal ministry of health, Chris Isokpunwu, said that the country needs N279.54 billion ($912 million) to address malnutrition in all states for five years.

    The amount, according to him represents what is needed to be invested by all, including private, government and donor partners for the next five years and it will help save 123,000 lives each year, while it will also prevent 890,000 children from stunting, which is one of the manifestation of malnutrition in children.

    In the middle of 2017, Aliko Dangote Foundation pledged to expend $100 million (about 36billion) to reduce the prevalence of under nutrition by 60 per cent in the worst affected parts of Nigeria.

    In 2016, the Federal Government also approved N4billion to tackle malnutrition in part of Northeast.

     

     

  • Ooni, NGO to tackle malnutrition in Africa

    Ooni, NGO to tackle malnutrition in Africa

    The Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi, has partnered a non-governmental organisation (NGO), Empower 54, to tackle malnutrition.

    The NGO said it would work with the monarch to create awareness and promote solutions to end malnutrition, which kills 2.3 million children in Nigeria every year.

    Empower 54 is a United States of America (U.S) non-profit organisation providing humanitarian assistance, since 2003, through health, education, empowerment and internally displaced persons (IDP) and refugee programmes to underprivileged Africans.

    A statement yesterday in Abuja by the founder and president of the organisation, Princess Modupe Ozolua, said a report that one-third (33 per cent) of Nigerian children under five suffer from chronic malnutrition was disturbing.

    According to her, many lives are lost due to lack of sensitisation on early management of malnutrition and accessibility to free treatment.

    The statement said: “After Empower 54 evacuated the severely malnourished IDP children from Bama to Maiduguri (in Borno State) on June 13 and 15, 2016, we realised more had to be done to save children suffering from Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM) beyond evacuating them from high risk zones for treatment.

    “There are countless non-IDP children suffering from SAM all over Nigeria and other parts of Africa who also need help. Empower 54 currently work in Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo.”

    Oba Ogunwusi pledged his commitment to the fight against malnutrition.

    The monarch said his organisation, Global Outreach Initiative, would work with the NGO to end malnutrition, which kills many children in Nigeria and Africa.

    He added: “The menace of malnutrition is creeping deeper into the fabric of our society and we must be tenacious in our fight against this colossal beast by creating a better mechanism, adopting policies and strategies that are capable of combating its rapid expansion.

    “Africa is the wealth of the world with huge human and natural resources. We must form a consensus that would scale up nutrition projects for the greater developments of future leaders, who are being crippled daily by our collective negligence.

    “As the co-chairman of the National Council of Traditional Rulers of Nigeria (NCTRN), we require holistic and systematic global blended approach in addressing the shade of malnutrition in Africa.

    “I recognise and applaud months of intervention of Empower 54 in subjugating the spread of malnutrition in Nigeria and across Africa. Therefore, in an effort to forge greater participation, it is my sheer commitment and other global partners to advocate alongside the long-term collective aspirations of Empower 54 in championing malnutrition extinction roadmap in Africa.

    “Empower 54 will be working closely with His Majesty’s organisation, Global Outreach Initiative, on strategies for his role as Empower 54’s International Goodwill Ambassador to end malnutrition in Africa.”

     

  • Dangote Foundation pledges $100m to fight malnutrition

    Dangote Foundation pledges $100m to fight malnutrition

    The Aliko Dangote Foundation has pledged US$100 million donation over five years to tackle malnutrition in the worst-affected parts of Nigeria.

    The Aliko Dangote Foundation is the philanthropic organisation of Aliko Dangote, founder and Executive Chairman of the Dangote Group, Africa’s largest homegrown conglomerate.

    The Global Nutrition Summit 207 held in Milan, Italy, made commitments to expand their nutrition programmes and the summit succeeded in galvanising US3.4 billion in pledges

    Malnutrition affects every country in the world in various forms. Africa, however, is hard hit and Nigeria is home to the highest number of malnourished children.

    Almost half of the one million children, who die before the age of five every year in Nigeria die of malnutrition as the underlying cause.

    Without the proper nutrients during the first 1,000 days of life starting from conception up to their second birthday, children are less likely to survive childhood diseases such as malaria and pneumonia, and are less likely to escape poverty as adults.

    They become physically and cognitively stunted, a fate that has befallen 11 million of Nigeria’s children under five.

    The Aliko Dangote Foundation’s Managing Director and CEO Zouera Youssoufou said: “Nigeria’s high malnutrition rate is undermining progress towards improving child health and survival and putting the brakes on economic development.  By investing in nutrition, we aim to directly improve the lives of Nigerian families and to empower our citizens to reach their full potential.”

    The Global Nutrition Report 2017, launched at the summit, showed that, in spite of progress, 155 million children globally are still stunted and the world is off track on meeting internationally agreed nutrition targets. Financing to tackle malnutrition has been alarmingly low. Donors spend about 0.5 percent of overseas aid on nutrition, and countries allocate between one and two percent of their health budgets to the issue.

    “The global malnutrition crisis endangers the physical and mental wellbeing of present and future generations” said Kofi Annan, speaking at the summit in his capacity as chair of the Kofi Annan Foundation.

    “Progress in tackling both undernutrition and obesity is possible with targeted commitments, like those made here today. We need further urgent investments so that people, communities and nations can reach their full potential.”

    Through his foundation, since 1993, Aliko Dangote has made significant social investments in health, education, economic empowerment and disaster relief. He is now becoming the strongest voice for nutritional leadership nationally and on the continent of Africa.

  • Adesina calls for action against global malnutrition

    African Development Bank (AfDB) President Akinwumi Adesina has called for urgent action from stakeholders to arrest global malnutrition.

    He made the call at the World Food Prize-Borlaug Dialogue Symposium in Des Moines, Iowa, United States, where he pushed for mutual accountability on leadership, governance and investments in nutrition.

    The event was hosted by the AfDB and the Global Panel on Agriculture and Food Systems for Nutrition.

    In a statement, AfDB said Adesina’s charge aligned with the bank’s five development priorities, particularly with the fifth goal – to improve the quality of life for the people of Africa.

    Adesina, former Agrciculture Minister, attended a plenary session to launch the Global Panel on Food Systems and Nutrition policy brief, ‘Urban diets and nutrition: Trends, challenges and opportunities for policy action’, where he highlighted the major problem associated with poor diets.

    “Poor nutrition has become the number one killer in the world. It’s therefore high time to address this seriously and decisively,” he said.

    He pointed out that many low- and middle-income countries experience a ‘triple burden’ of malnutrition, where under-nutrition and micronutrient deficiencies co-exist with obesity and other diseases related to diets.

    He said: “We must face the reality that unhealthy foods now pose the greatest danger to the health of urban dwellers,” he stressing, “in short: Urban foods are energy rich, but nutrient poor.

    ‘’The changing face of urban areas aggravates malnutrition. We must address the problems of rapidly expanding slums, globally and especially, in Africa.”

    He said the Global Panel report highlighted critical areas that deserve attention in dealing with the link between urbanisation and malnutrition.

    “First, we need to have stricter food market regulations in urban areas, especially for informal food markets and  reduce pressure on urban food systems,” adding that policies should be used to promote more sustainable peri-urban agriculture, especially for vegetables, legumes and other nutrient-rich crops.

    Adesina called for better policies, saying they are needed to link rural and urban food systems, with greater investments in infrastructure, transport logistics, storage and markets, to assure steady supply of foods to cities and secondary towns.

    “The urban food crisis has become a thread we can no longer ignore,” said Agnes Kalibata, President of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA).

    Former Institute of International and European Affairs (IIEA) Director-General,Tom Arnold; Senior Adviser to the Centre for Strategic and International Studies Global Food Security Project, Emmy Simmons; and Director of the Food and Agriculture Organisation’s (FAO) Liaison Office for North America,Vimlendra Sharan, stressed how decisive action is required to reduce urban malnutrition crisis.

  • Group mobilises against malnutrition

    Group mobilises against malnutrition

    A Civil Society Organis-ation, (CSO) under the auspices of Women Friendly Initiative (WFI) has raised the alarm over the high rate of malnutrition among women of reproductive age and children below five years in the Federal Capital territory (FCT).

    The group advocated for concerted efforts to rid the society of the problem particularly in Abuja.

    The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the organisation, Dr. Francis Eremutha, suggested that perhaps the best approach to tackling and reducing malnutrition in the territory lies in the quick and effective implementation of the National Strategic Plan of Action for Nutrition (NSPAN) which has not been introduced in any part of the six area councils.

    He said the group hopes to penetrate the six area councils soon with well-packaged enlightenment plans to galvanise public support for the National Strategic Plan of Action for Nutrition to comprehensively address malnutrition.

    Presenting a master plan of action designed by the organisation to enable it effectively penetrate the rural communities with its intervention programmes, Dr.  Eremutha, who was accompanied by officials of the NGO including Rosemary Adejoh, explained during a press briefing on the sad development, said that malnutrition is a condition that occurs when people consistently do not consume or absorb the right amounts or types of food and essential nutrients.

    He stated that globally, the condition contributes to nearly half of more than three million deaths which occur among children globally each year.

    He said, “Nigeria is one of the six countries that accounts for half of all child deaths from malnutrition worldwide  every year, one million children under five die, 45% of them due to causes attributed to malnutrition.

    “Prevalence of child malnutrition varies significantly across the six geopolitical zones: children living in the North West and in the North East stand out as being particularly disadvantaged (percent stunted in

    North West and North East is 50 and 47, 29 in north Central, 20 in the South South and in the South West, and 10 in the south east. Similar patterns emerge for underweight and wasting.”

    He also said that malnutrition prevalence among women of reproductive age is also high and geographically widespread.

    “The prevalence of malnutrition among women ranges from two percent in the south east to ten percent in the North east and rates are particularly high for adolescent mothers of between 15-19 years, as compared to women aged 20-49 years.”According to UNICEF in Kaduna state (North central) 1.6 million children are malnourished; while malnutrition is responsible for the death of under five in the state;

    900,000 children representing 57% children in the state are stunted meaning six out of every ten children less than five are stunted due to malnutrition.”

    Dr. Francis Eremutha listed some of the key nutritional problems are as follows: Poor Infant feeding practices, Energy and Protein deficiencies Vitamin A deficiency (VAD), Iron deficiency Anaemia (IDA),

    Iodine Deficiency Disorders (IDD], adding that the nutrition situation in Nigeria has over the years assumed public health proportion with malnutrition accounting for more than 50% of under-five deaths. The CEO advocates for adequate and dedicated budget for nutrition in the area councils of the FCT while also urging that area council administrations should be compelled to appropriate funds for the National Strategic Plan of Action for nutrition implementation.

     

  • Malnutrition: A silent child killer

    Malnutrition: A silent child killer

    Consider these statistics: every year Nigeria loses 2,300 children under five years of age to child killer diseases; in a year 145 women of childbearing age also die. Out of the children’s casualty figure, 500 die of malnutrition. A survey is also said to show that two out of five Nigerian children are stunted, while almost 30 per cent are underweight. Again, blame it on malnutrition.

    This is of great concern to medical authorities. Malnutrition is gradually becoming a silent killer of children, apart from harming them in other ways.

    The Niger State Nutrition Officer, Mrs. Amina Isah giving the nutritional status of children in the state during a capacity-building workshop organised by the Civil Society Scaling-Up Nutrition in Nigeria (CS-SUNN), said 409,993 children in the state are stunted, 65,815 children are wasted while 186,655 children are underweight, adding that in the last three months, 9,040 children have been diagnosed to be suffering from acute malnutrition.

    She expressed concern that Niger State has moved from medium burden to high burden state which has placed it as a priority state for nutrition intervention in Nigeria.

    Malnutrition is said to be a condition when the right amount and type of food including nutrients are not consumed. A lot of children suffer from malnutrition these days which results to stunted growth, wasting and being underweight.

    Nigeria has been rated as the country with one of the highest burdens of malnutrition in Africa and globally. One of the reasons for malnutrition can be the fact that only 17 per cent of infants are exclusively breastfed for the first six months while 70 per cent of children aged six to 23 months are not receiving the minimum acceptable diet.

    Proffering the way forward, Isah said that the state can stop malnutrition if the government and relevant health partners adopt a comprehensive costed state multi-sectoral nutrition strategic action plan, ensure adequate funding,  comprehensive response treatment and prevention programmes.

    The Project Director of the Civil Society Scaling-Up Nutrition in Nigeria (CS-SUNN), Mrs. Beatrice Eluaka said that stunting is now a global indicator for measuring country’s development adding that Nigeria’s indicator is not encouraging; she said that the percentage of children malnourished in the country have not been stable over the last decade.

    She said that for the nation to adequately address malnutrition, there is the need for the implementation of the National Strategic Plan of Action for Nutrition (NSPAN) adding that NSPAN would save 123,000 lives yearly and avert 890,000 stunting in children under five years if implemented.

    Eluaka said that $912 million is needed to operationalize the National Strategic Plan Action for Nutrition (NSPAN) by the federal government stressing on the importance for government to ensure the implementation of the document which should have been in operation since 2014.

    Commending the Federal and state governments for improving on the allocation to the health sector, she said that the only solution to nutritional problems in the nation is for the government to implement, fund the roadmap already designed and create more provisions for the child and family health needs of the people.

  • ‘Malnutrition accounts for 45% under-5 mortality’

    The Civil Society Scaling-Up Nutrition in Nigeria (CS-SUNN) has identified malnutrition as accounting for 45 per cent under-five mortality in the country, making the country second highest contributor to the burden in the world.
    CS-SUNN Project Director Mrs Beatrice Eluaka said this at the organisation’s capacity building for the media under the Partnership for Advocacy in Child and Family Health project (PACFaH) in Kaduna.
    Eluaka identified factors that contributed to the prevalence of malnutrition in the country as inadequate funding and monitoring of appropriated funds, poor infants and young child feeding practices, high diseases burden, limited access to nutritious food, vitamins and mineral deficiencies.
    The director noted that over the years both the federal and state governments have not prioritised funding for health and nutrition.
    The capacity building, according to her, was aimed at empowering media to bring to the fore adequate nutrition practices, malnutrition causes, good infants and young child feeding practices and other issues relating to nutrition as well as promote effective reportage.
    “’The training was aimed at among others to bring to the limelight funding gaps and placing nutrition in the front burners of agenda of policy makers to improve interventions and funding for nutrition.
    “The training was in line with PACFaH goal to increase capacity of media professionals to create awareness and report on government’s fulfilment of its commitments in child and family health,” Eluaka said.

  •  ‘Malnutrition hinders children’s immunity against polio’

     ‘Malnutrition hinders children’s immunity against polio’

    Molecular Biologist, Dr Bamidele Iwalokun, says malnutrition is a major hindrance to Nigerian children’s mounting adequate immunity against Poliomyelitis, even with vaccination.
    Poliomyelitis, often called Polio or infantile paralysis, is an infectious disease caused by the polio virus.
    Iwalokun, head, Immunology and Vaccinology Research Department, Nigeria Institute of Medical Research (NIMR), Yaba, Lagos, in an interview with News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos, said the inability to mount adequate immune response with oral polio vaccine was one of the factors leading to the resurfaced cases of polio in parts of the country.
    “Malnutrition is described as the most common immunodeficiency globally, a malnourished child may not be able to respond effectively to vaccines and this is not peculiar to polio vaccine alone.
    ”Some children that are being vaccinated for measles still come down with measles sometimes and we are expected to have long time immunity after been vaccinated.
    “We do have confounding factors that are making Nigerian children not to mount adequate response to vaccines that have been given to them and our immunisation programme does not take this into consideration.
    “When a child is vaccinated, after few months, it is expected that the blood sample of such child should be taken and screened for antibodies raised against the antigens in the body,’’ Iwalokun said.
    He said besides the nutritional effects on the response to oral polio vaccine, environmental virology was needed to survey for polio virus in an environment where an index case was being reported.

     

  • AfDB approves US $1m grant to fight malnutrition in Borno

    AfDB approves US $1m grant to fight malnutrition in Borno

    Executive Directors of the African Development Bank (AfDB) have approved a US $1 million grant as emergency assistance to support the fight against malnutrition in Borno State.

    A statement from the AfDB said the Nigerian Minister of Health had declared a nutrition emergency in Borno State.

    In addition to that, the West and Central Africa Regional Food Security and Nutrition Working Group called on the entire international community to respond in order to prevent the situation from deteriorating further.

    The AfDB intervention will strengthen the on-going Government and partners (UNICEF, WFP, OCHA, etc.) support in the North East region of the country. The Bank will focus on Borno State where the situation is dire, to rationalize funds and be more efficient.

    This AfDB said; “will contribute to reducing malnutrition rate among the most vulnerable population, mainly children under five years and women of childbearing age.”

    The support aims to contribute to mortality reduction due to Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM) of children under five years of age in Borno State by 46% and to the reduction of infant mortality by 20%.

    The specific objectives of the project are to: (i) treat 11,468 children in Borno state with Ready to Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF), (ii) provide 60,000 children 6-23 months in the affected areas with multiple micronutrient powder and (iii) Strengthen sector coordination and monitoring at state level to provide effective coordination of nutrition response.

    To achieve high coverage and quality service delivery of the program, community mobilization, capacity building, coordination and partnership (with International Non-governmental Organizations) and strengthening of information management systems will be employed. In addition, monitoring and introduction of surveillance systems using quarterly surveys and mobile technology for real-time reporting and data collection will be introduced.

    “The nutrition sector in Nigeria estimates a burden of 296,601 cases of SAM in Borno state in 2017. If these children are left untreated, it is envisaged that an estimated 59,320 would die. This intervention will augment efforts at attaining the target to reach 80% of the estimated SAM cases in the region by 2017” AfDB President, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina told the Board.

    Nigeria is currently in economic recession which has stretched the Government’s capacity to address vulnerability. Over 2.5 million children under five years are severely malnourished across the country and are 9 times more likely to die than their counterparts. In the midst of these challenges, the humanitarian situation in the North East of Nigeria continues to deteriorate, with an estimated 7 million people in need humanitarian assistance, while about 2.2 million people are internally displaced.

    The conflict in the region continues to restrict farming and other income earning activities due to insecurity. Children and residents in the rural parts are most affected and IDPs continue to be negatively impacted by the food and nutrition deficiencies.

    According to the August 2016 “Cadre Harmonisé analysis” there are 4.4 million food insecure people in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa States, 3.2 million of them in the Borno state. The conflict has affected the food and health supply systems and left the health sector with very limited health workers available to provide services.

    This intervention is aligned with one of the operational priorities of the Bank’s Ten-Year Strategy, 2013-2022, namely governance and accountability, which is reiterated in two of the High-5s: Feed Africa and Improve the quality of life for the people of Africa.