Food and nutrition policy still pending, group laments

Health experts convened by CISLAC in Abuja to advocate legislation and policy on agriculture, nutrition and health also warned there was “no coordinated and fully resourced plan to respond to the silent scourge” of malnutrition.In a communiqué, the group said links between agriculture, nutrition and health were neglected.Only recently has the National Planning Commission, which […]

Health experts convened by CISLAC in Abuja to advocate legislation and policy on agriculture, nutrition and health also warned there was “no coordinated and fully resourced plan to respond to the silent scourge” of malnutrition.
In a communiqué, the group said links between agriculture, nutrition and health were neglected.
Only recently has the National Planning Commission, which coordinates nutrition programmes across the country, gotten a nutrition desk, experts said.
Other government ministries, departments and agencies working in the line of nutrition “don’t budget, and when they budget, they don’t release funds, and when they release funds, don’t spend it on nutrition,” complained Dr David Olayemi, policy advisor at the international charity Save the Children Nigeria.
But malnutrition remains a huge problem, placing Nigeria firmly among 20% of countries responsible for 80% of the global burden of malnutrition.
Within the country, malnutrition measured as stunted (children too short for their age) affects 53% of children aged under five in the north west and 49% in the north east, according to the Nutrition and Health Survey released by UNICEF and the National Bureau of Statistics.
Wasting among children (too thin for their height) affects 20% of children in both the north west and north east and up to 9% in the south east.
Among calls targeted at the incoming administration, CISLAC called for improved “access to food and water supply, especially at grassroots levels to drastically reduce cases of malnutrition and childhood illnesses,” said its executive director Auwal Ibrahim Musa.