By Mohammed Nasir, SHU'AIBU Bauchi
CS-SUNN Advocates for Creation of Desks Office on Food, Nutrition in Bauchi MDAs
From Mohammed Nasir Shuaibu BAUCHI
In an effort towards reducing the level of mal-nutrition issues and to improve service delivery Bauchi State Chapter of CS-SUNN Committee on Food and Nutrition to Scale-Up Nutrition has advocated for the establishment of a Desk Office in Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) across twenty local government area councils in Bauchi.
The call was made by a facilitator from the Federal Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning (FMBEP) Mr. Lujuna Julus at a 3-day capacity building training at Hazibal Suite on Tuesday in Bauchi.
He noted that the establishment of the desk office in each of the line ministries would improve and enhance easy approval of budget lines, release, and utilization of the funds. He emphasized that the training objectives were to see how better to strengthen and build the capacity of the committee and work together with a view to achieving meaningful results by reducing the level of malnutrition in Bauchi.
In his welcome address, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Budget, Economic Planning, and Multilateral Coordination, Jibrin Muhammad Yusuf, said the Honorable Commissioner, Hajiya Amina Mohammed Katagum has assured the ministry's support in achieving the desired objectives.
He said Bauchi is one of the states that prioritizes nutrition activities because of unfriendly data that's normally affecting it as one of the states that is not doing well, adding that government is working tirelessly towards ensuring that the nutrition status of both children and mothers is improved both in terms of nutrition activities and introduction of RUTF.
The PS disclosed that the Bauchi State Government had recently released one hundred million naira as a counterpart under UNICEF intervention on child nutrition, adding that the government is also doing its best on other non-sensitive aspects like the agricultural sector and establishing home-state gardening in some selected houses in the state.
The Bauchi State Nutrition Officer, Abubakar Saleh Baba, explained that the data from 2018 to 2013 of the National Demographic Health Survey (NDHS) had shown that both stunting and underweight recorded an increase of 2.9% and 7% in 5 years, while wasting recorded only a 3.3% reduction on moderate and a 0.8% increase on severe in 5 years respectively.
In a goodwill message, the representative of Alive and Thrive, one of the donor partners, commended the efforts of CS-SUNN for organizing the training. He said Alive and Thrive is working with over 50 Civil Society Organizations in implementing similar support on nutrition in the state.
Some of the participants interviewed, Mrs. Maureen Jibrin, chairperson CS-SUNN from Bauchi and Khaleed Darazo from ministry of Women Affairs and Development, said the training is timely and expressed confidence that the training would yield positive results.
Stakeholders on Committee on Food and Nutrition during training in Bauchi
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HEALTHCARE