By Joyce Remi-Babayeju
The Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof. Muhammed Ali Pate, has commended the Civil Society Sailing Up Nutrition in Nigeria, CS SUNN, for its successful engagement with Government at all levels and other stakeholders in the fight against malnutrition in the country.
The minister who was represented by Mrs. Ladi Bako Ayegbusi gave this commendation at CS SUNN 10th Anniversary celebration on Friday in Abuja with the theme, ” A Decade of Nutrition Advocacy: A Reflecting on The Past and Shaping The Future “.
The minister commended the efforts of CS SUNN in the past 10 years in collaborating with the Federal Government and other stakeholders and Civil Society Organizations, CSOs in its Advocacy on issues of nutrition among children, and women.
The minister disclosed that government has commenced initiatives on empowerment of women to fight malnutrition and poverty in families across the country.
Ayegbusi said that government would roll out funds to be channeled towards programmes that can have immediate and long-term impact on improving the lives of the women and children.
The minister of Women Affairs, Uju Ohaneye, also stressed the need to look inwards to solve the issue of malnutrition in the country.
She said, “we have to start cutting down on expenditures on unnecessary things and focus on sustainable programmes to empower the women.”
“Often times, we discover that malnutrition among women and children is caused by poverty. If you teach them things about good dieting practices, and they don’t have money to buy those things, what you are doing is meaningless. We have to start looking at what our real problems are.”
‘The minister said the era of wasteful spending of funds meant for empowerment of women is over, adding that the government is emphasizing on the judicious use of funds to help the poor out of poverty than to further enrich the wealthy individuals.”
“She said that the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs is presently adopting a new approach of empowering women with tools and food processing machines that they can use to become more productive.”
The CS SUNN BoT Chairman, Dr.Mbang Kooffreh- Ada while commending the support and joint efforts with partners like Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, UNICEF, UNOPS, Scaling Up Nutrition Movement, ANRIN in the past 10 years of sensitization and Advocacy among government and policymakers on nutrition in Nigeria.
Kooffreh-Ada said, ” CS SUNN has effectively influenced policy formulation , resource allocation and implementation mechanisms , thereby catalyzing improvements in the nutritional wellbeing of women and children under five years old across federal, state , as well y expanding jurisdictional boundaries including beyond Nigeria’s borders.”
“CS SUNN also played a key role advocating for improved funding for health and nutrition, including a 1% consolidated revenue fund allocation for nutrition, exclusive breastfeeding, maternal nutrition , infant and young child feeding, IYCF, and staple food fortification.”
She, however, noted that in the next decade the NGO, “We will renew commitment to advancing nutrition in Nigeria.
High point of the CS SUNN’s decade of anniversary was the launching of book on guidelines for implementation of empowerment schemes for women and young girls in Nigeria developed by the Civil Society Network (SUN-CSN) in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs and other stakeholders.
