From Femi Mustapha, in Kaduna
The Chairman of the Kaduna State Committee on Food and Nutrition (SCFN), Bashir Muhammad MNI, has called on the 23 Local Government Areas in the State to ensure that they sustain the recent gains the state has made in its fight against malnutrition.
He said this during three Coordination meetings with Nutrition Focal Persons (NFP) to review 2024 and develop the 2025 Annual Operation Plan (AOP) for the Local Government Committee on Food and Nutrition organized by the Planning and Budget Commission PBC with support from UNICEF in Zaria on Thursday.
According to him, the state recently received an award as one of the states that have achieved results in working hard towards addressing malnutrition in the country.
Bashir Muhammad who doubles as the Permanent Secretary of the Kaduna State Planning and Budget Commission (PBC) said that nutrition is crucial to Human capital Development and the state Governor, Senator Uba Sani is keen on it.
He, however, said the feat wouldn’t have been possible without the contributions of the Nutrition Focal Persons NFP, who are closer to the grassroots and Development Partners that are supportive of the cause of fighting malnutrition in the State.
The SCFN Chairman disclosed that part of the coordination role of the Planning and Budget Commission is to ensure that all the nutrition indices in Kaduna State are reduced, saying stunting, wasting, and other indices of malnutrition have been reduced in the State which is the role and goal of the Committee.
He said that the first step taken recently was to have specific retreats and induction with the 23 newly sworn-in Local Government Chairmen and the State Deputy Governor, Dr.
Hadiza Sabuwa Balarabe was on the ground to get the buy-in of the Chairmen Health indices, which include nutrition.
Speaking earlier, Director, Development Aid Coordination, in the PBC Hajiya Aisha Mohammad welcomed participants and stated that the essence of the gathering was to review the 2024 and develop the 2025 Annual Operation Plan (AOP) for the Local Government Committee on Food and Nutrition.
Hajiya Aisha Mohammad added that the workshop supported by UNICEF has the following overall objectives to review the implementation of the Quarter 3 2024 Nutrition Activities in the LGAs and to review and develop the 2025 Annual Operation Plan (AOP) for LGAs.
She explained that the specific objective of the workshop is to document correct nutrition activities in LGAs.
To document the barriers and opportunities for optimal nutrition practices, to improve the capacity of NFPs on how to implement nutrition activities in Local Government.
“To develop 2025 LGAs AOP, to Strategize on implementation, and to harmonize 2025 AOP,” She said
Hajiya Aisha Mohammad urges Nutrition Focal Persons (NFPs) to continue to show commitment and dedication to their work in maintaining the giant strides archived in the fight against malnutrition.
In her remarks, the Nutrition Specialist of UNICEF, Kaduna field office, Chinwe Ezeife, said her organization is supporting this activism in collaboration with the Planning and Budget Commission and other Development Partners because of its importance.
“It’s a dual objective activity in the sense that we want to review what we have done in the last 11 months, like the end of the year review.
“We are also taking the opportunity to develop our annual operational plan that will be derived from the multi-strategic plan of action on nutrition for Kaduna State.
“This is a very important tool because it will stir up the priority activities we need to achieve our indicators towards improving the health of Kaduna Citizens, especially the vulnerable groups.
“It is Why UNICEF prioritized this 3-day activity with the State Committee on food and nutrition, of which we had the Permanent Secretary and all the 23 LGA Focal Persons and other stakeholders.”
The Project Manager Of Accelerating Nutrition Result in Nigeria (ANRiN), World Bank project, Dr Zainab Kwar, disclosed that they are in Zaria to take stocks of the annual operational plans, the performance of our LGAs and how much they have been able to accomplish in terms of the set target.
She added that they are also going to support the development of the 2025 nutrition plan for our local government committees on food and nutrition.
“This is being strategic, it is also making sure that we narrow down on those specific interventions that will help us to achieve the results that we want to see.
“The moment you don’t plan, it’s like you are planning to fail you or don’t have the plan where we will be able to strategically hit on those issues that will address our nutritional issues.
“We are into ensuring a proper integration, we want to see how resources can be better mobilized and judiciously used to ensure we are not duplicating efforts or wasting resources.
“So the planning will help us to articulate the needs and those specific things that will help us to achieve the desired results,” she said.
