By: Monday Danladi, Bauchi
United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) has stressed that, to reduce child wasting and stunting, there is the need
to ensure that Children are born with a healthy weight; benefit from nutritious and safe diets, nutritional supplement and positive feeding and care practices;
and have access to essential nutrition, health, water, and sanitation services.
This was contained in presentation by UNICEF Nutrition Specialist with the Bauchi Field Office, Philomena Irene at a 2-day Media Dialogue on age-appropriate complementary feeding for infants and young children held in Gombe.
She also stressed that there must be proper investment in improving women and girls conditions and providing them with equitable opportunities is undertaken.
According to her, the programming is grounded in a systems-strengthening approach to improve nutrition outcomes for children, adolescents and women.
The approach activates 5 key systems that have the potential to deliver critical interventions at scale and impact
on nutrition programmes.
The 5 Key Systems are Food, Health
Water, education and safer environment stressing that with conflicts, the socioeconomic crisis, and the impact of climate change, the Sahel is a region of high vulnerability where food insecurity is a chronical issue.
Also, COVID-19, the negative
impacts of the war in Ukraine and protracted conflicts in the region make everything worse, with malnutrition hotspot areas growing in size and intensity.
While treatment remains an imperative to save the lives of children most severely affected, there must shift in the paradigm and focus on scaling
interventions to prevent malnutrition.
According to Marie-Pierre Poirier,
UNICEF Regional Director, West and Central Africa, a fair chance at life begins with good nutrition, because if a child does not receive optimal nutrition within their first 1000 days, from conception to 23 months, their body and brain will fail to develop properly.
Also, if a child doesn’t have proper
access to basic water and sanitation services as well as health services, they won’t be able to thrive.
“We need to adapt and re-imagine our existing nutrition programmes to make sure that every mother and child has access to healthy diets and essential
services now, and in the future,” She said.
According to her, “To achieve this, we
need sustainable commitments and resources to scale up efforts and implement what we know works
for the prevention, early detection and treatment of undernutrition.”
The Sahel region is full of opportunities, and the population has a strong resilience, but needs support.
The UNICEF Nutrition Specialist added that, “Only by working together and making the right investments we can break the intergenerational cycle of malnutrition and ensure that Sahelian children have the chance to survive now and thrive in the future.”
“Isn’t only about fighting undernourishment. It requires a wide-ranging approach,” says Souley Adamu,
UNICEF Nutrition Specialist in Niger
NICEF’s Nutrition strategy 2020-
2030 offers a comprehensive and
purposeful framework to guide our
collective efforts over the next decade.
Guided by key Strategies such as 1st Food and No Time to Waste is our approach to scale up prevention, early detection and treatment of stunting and wasting for the most vulnerable children: the youngest of the young,
the poorest of the poor, and those left behind by humanitarian crises.”
UNICEF stressed that,” We must act now to help the Sahel recover. We each have a role to play. This is how taking action now can lead to Nutrition.”
According to UNICEF, “Now in the Sahel:
Investing in maternal, adolescent and child nutrition by supporting and promoting breastfeeding, access to essential services and healthy diets to prevent malnutrition.”
Also Supporting innovative approaches and scaling-up of services for the early detection and treatment of infants and young children. Expanding social protection services to facilitate
access to nutritious diets and essential services for the most vulnerable.
Others are Investing in the nutrition knowledge and skills of primary health care workers, who are the front line
between the health system, children and families. Services to prevent malnutrition must be delivered during pre- and postnatal health care contacts.
Providing safe and palatable drinking water, along with safe sanitation and hygiene services, Empowering communities and strengthening their
engagement to build resilience.
UNICEF added that Breastfeeding Promote early initiation of breastfeeding in primary health care, exclusive
breastfeeding until 6 months, and then continued breastfeeding up to two
years.
It also Support governments with a legal framework and on-the-ground
interventions to ban inappropriate promotion and distribution of breastmilk substitutes, and to support healthy food production.
Furthermore, Complementary food
and feeding (6-23 months) support families with information/solutions for healthy and safe diets for
their young children and Promote access to affordable nutritious complementary foods produced
and transformed locally by mobilizing social small and medium enterprises
(SMEs) and young entrepreneurs.
It Ensure the continuity of essential nutrition services for young children
through food, health, social protection, food and water and sanitation systems and Support governments with a legal framework and on-the-ground
interventions to support healthy food production.
Micronutrient Supplementation adapt delivery platforms for Vitamin A supplementation, including via routine
health system contacts and child health days.
Healthy food environments Employ multi-sectoral efforts such as social protection, education and water
and sanitation to ensure continued local availability and affordability of
healthy foods, including local solutions and promotion of the production
of local complementary foods working with social small and medium
enterprises (SME).
Investing in nutrition well-being and closing the funding gaps will enable UNICEF and partners to strengthen priority systems to deliver for
children.
UNICEF stresses that Early detection and treatment of life-threatening
malnutrition in early childhood early detection of wasting, Intensify efforts to strengthen the capacity of mothers, caregivers and community actors to detect and monitor their children’s nutritional status.
Empowering mothers is key to tackle undernutrition while treatment of child
wasting require Initiate/intensify decentralization of treatment for uncomplicated -wasting by shifting to community-based treatment whenever possible, and prevent disruptions in key commodities.
Simplified combined protocol (MUAC/Oedema as the only criteria for
admissions and discharge; expanded admissions criteria; use of RUTF to
treat both MAM and SAM; reduce dosage of RUTF) results in recovery rates as good as those of standard protocol.
Thanks to simplified approaches, the
most vulnerable children living in the most remote and inaccessible areas
can access treatment.
Decentralization also reinforce community resilience,
putting mothers, caregivers and community workers at the forefront of curbing issues of malnutrition.
