Malnutrition in all its forms remains a global concern, particularly affecting highly vulnerable populations in several regions of the world, including Nigeria. AJUMA EDWINA looks at the increasing trend in Nigeria.
In many low- and middle-income countries, children are disadvantaged before they even set foot in school because they did not have adequate early nutrition; with childhood stunting rates of 45 per cent and as high as 70 per cent in some countries. The Global Nutrition Report 2016 issues an important call to action to make the critical investments needed in nutrition so that all children can thrive and build strong, resilient societies that will benefit everyone.
As the 2016 Global Nutrition Report shows, the world has made significant progress. Many nations are on course to
meet the 2025 global nutrition targets. For example, 99 countries have made progress toward decreasing stunting, which blights the lives of more than 150 million children around the world.
The Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement has united governments, civil society, the private sector, and international organisations in making nutrition a priority—targeting investments, tailoring interventions, and tracking our progress.
Reports have shown that malnutrition is the underlying cause of morbidity and mortality of a large proportion of children under-5 in Nigeria, as every single day, Nigeria loses about 2,500 under-five year olds, with special emphasis on the Sahelian State; Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Jigawa, kano, Nasarawa, plateau, Taraba and Yobe State. This makes the country the second largest contributor to the under–five and maternal mortality rate in the world. Underneath the statistics lies the pain of human tragedy, for thousands of families who have lost their children.
Even more devastating is the knowledge that, according to recent research, essential interventions reaching women and babies on time would have averted most of these deaths.
The Head of Nutrition of the Federal Ministry of Health, Dr. Chris Isokpunwu, who was represented by the Principal Nutrition Officer in the Ministry, Tokunbo Farabiyi, at a Unicef facilitated media dialogue on child malnutrition in Kano, revealed that failure of government policies and programmes, poverty and gender inequality have been identified as the basic causes of child-malnutrition in Nigeria,
Isokpunwu, who spoke on the theme; ”Nutrition in Nigeria: An Overview on Malnutrition in Nigeria and its impact on Children,” also revealed the poor attitude of government toward malnutrition, pointing out that before 2014, no budgetary allocation was provided for national nutrition programmes in the country, as only meagre leftovers from reproductive health were used to cater for the menace, in spite of the fact that Nigeria ranks second to India in the world ranking on world malnutrition burden.
He therefore urged the federal government to ensure an increase in the budgetary allocation for nutrition and child care in Nigeria, as money budgeted for nutrition is often reduced to other health areas.
“Nutrition issues cut across the entire country. Government must ensure that more allocations must be made to cater for nutrition, with more attention paid to the North-east and North-west, where much of the malnutrition burden lies,” he emphasised.
Asides the poor attitude of government towards budgeting on nutrition in Nigeria, Dr. Isokpunwu stressed the need for mothers to re-imbibe the attitude of exclusive breastfeeding, adding that as at 2013, Nigeria recorded an abysmal 17% in exclusive breastfeeding while her sister West African Country, Ghana, had an impressive 63% in exclusive breastfeeding. Exclusive breastfeeding, he explained, does not require giving the baby water at all, throughout the period of six months because breast milk in itself is rich in water.
“13 per cent of children from rich homes in the country are not well-fed. It is also a major problem in the oil-rich Niger-Delta, and other regions in the country.
Malnutrition is also recorded in areas where people are farming very well,” he stressed.
He further emphasised three basic interventions to prevent malnutrition in children, which he listed to include behavioural change, micronutrient and deworming, complementary and therapeutic feeding.
The 2016 edition of the Global Nutrition Report emphasizes the challenges posed by the multiple forms of malnutrition. It also signals the enormous importance of investing in the critical 1,000-day window so that every girl and boy can lead a happy, healthy, and productive life. Investing in nutrition is our collective legacy for a sustainable world in 2030.
