UN Agencies Move to Improve Nutrition in North-east
Humanitarian actors supporting conflict-affected communities in north-eastern Nigeria recently completed a three-day workshop on improving coordination and accountability for enhanced nutrition among crisis-affected populations in the region.
According to media reports by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) in Nigeria, the effort which is supported by the government of Nigeria, under the aegis of the Inter-cluster Nutrition Working Group (ICNWG), was organised by the Global Nutrition Cluster and the Global Food Security Sector Cluster in Maiduguri recently.
The report noted that the ICNWG had identified the limited capacity of humanitarian actors in designing nutrition-sensitive interventions as a barrier to improved nutrition among at-risk groups, adding that stunting (low height for age) and wasting (low weight for height) are rife among children in the northeast.
In the report, it was noted government estimates, about 43 per cent of children under five years were stunted across Adamawa, Borno and Yobe States, “an estimated 440,000 children between six to 59 months are acutely malnourished across the three states.”
It further stated that during the workshop, 40 participants from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and various sectors such as Food Security and Livelihoods, Nutrition, Health, WASH, Protection, Education, and Early Childhood Development, deliberated on the causes and solutions to improving nutrition in the Region.
It added that participants discussed how the various sectors can contribute to tackling the basic and underlying causes of poor nutrition, while stating the need for supporting the production of diverse nutritious food, providing clean water and sanitation for families and health facilities, preventing and treating diarrheal disease and increasing the exclusive breastfeeding of children under six months.
“Participants also pledged to join efforts towards improved nutrition in northeast Nigeria and began the process of developing an integrated action plan and monitoring and evaluation framework for mainstreaming nutrition programmes across the sectors.
“Nigeria is the second country to benefit from this training, the first field-test was carried out in Ethiopia in June 2018. More countries are expected to benefit from the programme in the upcoming months.
“The ICNWG is a working group of the Global Nutrition Cluster (GNC) led by UNICEF, while the Global Food Security Cluster (GFSC) is co-led by Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP).
“The ICNWG was established in 2012 with a mandate to safeguard and improve the nutritional status of crisisaffected populations,” it noted.
While closing the three-day workshop, Global Nutrition Cluster Coordinator Josephine Ippe called for leveraging of the roles of the different sectors and for groups to work more closely together to improve nutrition.
The Global Cluster Coordinator (GCC) for Food Security, Bruno Minjauw, called on partners to advance new ways of working that capitalise on the comparative advantages of all agencies.