By Chioma Umeha
Worried by the growing burden of malnutrition
among children under five years, stakeholders have been urged to prioritise
tracking of resources allocated to nutrition in various tiers of government.
The goal is to ensure appropriate implementation
to curb the ugly trend of malnutrition.
According to the World Bank, Nigeria loses over
$1.5 billion in GDP annually to vitamin and mineral deficiencies alone.
According to experts, Nigeria needs N2.87 trillion,
an equivalent of $912 million to tackle the scourge of child malnutrition which
is presently ravaging the country.
Dr Chris Osa Isokpunwu, Head of Nutrition, Federal
Ministry of Health (FMOH) disclosed this recently at a meeting which was
organised by the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF).
He added that about N2.8 billion is required
within the next five years to tackle the menace of child malnutrition in the
country.
He noted that this investment would help avert
890,000 stunting in five years and save about 123,000 lives annually.
Isokpunwu noted that the budget for child
nutrition was created for the first time in Nigeria in 2014, describing child
malnutrition as “a silent killer which has to be stopped” in view of its
devastating consequences.
He observed that the national budget provided only
N2.4 million for child nutrition in 2016, while nothing was provided in the
2015 budget and N30 million was provided in 2014, but was not released.
Isokpunwu who stressed the need for adequate
funding for child nutrition, observed that if government fails to address the
issue of malnutrition in children under the age of five, all efforts at
reducing death among children under the age bracket would be
counter-productive.
He explained that the National Strategic Plan of
Action for Nutrition (NSPAN) 2014-2019 was designed to improve the nutritional
status throughout the lifecycle of Nigerian people, with a particular focus on
vulnerable groups including women of reproductive age and children under five
years of age.
According to him, the NSPAN has the targets of
reducing the number of under-five children who are stunted by 20 per cent by
2019; reducing low birth weight by 15 per cent by 2019; ensuring no increase in
childhood overweight by 2019.
Others are reducing and maintaining childhood
wasting to less than 10 per cent by 2019; reducing anaemia in women of
reproductive age by 50 per cent by 2019 and increasing exclusive breastfeeding
rates in the first six months to at least 50 per cent by 2019.
Isokpunwu, therefore, stressed the need to develop
a specific and fully funded budget line for nutrition in the annual state
budget, increase public sector budget for nutrition.
He further canvassed for specific interventions to
be progressively increased and strengthened health systems.
The Head Nutrition also stressed on the need to
ensure that nutrition is integrated in all related policy areas – Agriculture,
Gender, Wash and Planning.
A Nutrition Specialist at the Port Harcourt office
of UNICEF, Ngozi Onuora, in a paper entitled “Child Nutrition Situation in
South-East and South-South Zones of Nigeria,” lamented that every single day,
Nigeria loses about 2,300 under-five-year-olds and 145 women of childbearing
age as a result of malnutrition.
This, she said, dents the country’s image as the
second largest contributor to the under-five and maternal mortality rate in the
world.
Onuorah outlined the challenges of combating the
scourge to include, inadequate government commitment and funding for nutrition
programmes, capacity gap in the implementing partners programme officers and
poorly motivated workforce.
Others are poor attitude of health workers and
poor coordination of Maternal Newborn and Child Health (MNCH) in the States
among others as challenges.
She observed that in order to address the alarming
rate of under-nutrition in the country, there must be an increased Government
and private investment in nutrition.
This she said could be achieved either as
co-financing or direct funding of nutrition specific and sensitive
interventions to increase access of all needy children to nutrition services.
She called for adequate funding of MNCH to ensure
that all needy children have access to nutrition services as part of the child
survival programme.
Ken Ozoemena, a Social Policy Specialist, UNICEF
Enugu, speaking on Children Friendly Budgeting: Addressing Child Malnutrition,
observed that effects of malnutrition are often irreversible if nutrition is
not optimised within the first 1000 days of a child.
Ozoemena, however, noted that government is not
meeting its commitments to children supposedly due to budget constraints adding
that the realisation of the rights of children as enshrined in UNCRC demands
adequate budgetary allocation to sectors that directly impact survival and development
of children.
He said that placing children at the centre of the
development planning would allow for sustainable socio-economic development for
all people.
