By Chimezie Godfrey
The Civil Society-Scaling Up Nutrition in Nigeria has called on governments at all levels to increase investments in nutrition and implement the national multi-sectoral plan of action for food and nutrition.
The Executive Secretary, Civil Society-Scaling up Nutrition in Nigeria, Beatrice Elueka made this call in a press conference on Wednesday at Abuja in commemoration of this year’s World Food Day, with the theme, “Our Actions are our Future. Healthy Diets for a Zero Hunger World.”
Eluaka noted that in spite of significant interventions in defeating malnutrition, the gains have slowed down in recent years.
She disclosed that Nigeria has the highest burden of stunt in Africa and is the second highest in the world, next to India.
She added that without ground-breaking strategies and cost-effective interventions, Nigeria’s nutritional status might remain abysmal, adding that this would put the country at risk of not achieving the Sustainable Development Goal 2, Zero Hunger by 2030.
She emphasized the need for Nigeria to accelerate progress on eliminating hunger and all forms of malnutrition by 2030 and beyond, adding that it will pave way for other SDGs.
“The Civil Society-Scaling up Nutrition in Nigeria (CS-SUNN) is therefore calling on the governments at all levels to increase investments in nutrition and fully implement the National Multi-sectoral Plan of Action for food and Nutrition.
“This will improve nutrition interventions, nutrition education, address issues around breastfeeding friendly policies, help farmers diversify food production, guide public food procurement and regulations on food marketing, labelling and advertising policies among others,” Eluaka said.
She urged farmers to diversify food production, reduce post-harvest loses and adopt sustainable agricultural methods to preserve natural resources, while also increasing productivity and income.
She also called on private food production companies to introduce more nutritious foods and adhere to nutrition related regulations and standards regarding the production and sale of foods, among other things.
Elueka stressed the need for every Nigerian to limit the consumption of foods that are high in salt, sugar and trans and saturated fats.
“Every Nigerian should make adequate nutrition and zero-hunger a part of their daily lives by getting familiar with the country’s dietary guidelines, eating more diversified diets, understanding nutrition labels and being more physically active,” she said.
The Civil Society-Scaling up Nutrition in Nigeria is a non governmental, non-profit making coalition of organizations with a shared vision to transform Nigeria into a country where every citizen has food and is nutrition secured.
