Wa, Jan. 14, - Alhaji Sulemana
Alhassan, Upper West Regional Minister has stated that they can no longer
neglect nutrition issues as it has become a social canker that affects health,
education achievements and sustainable development.
He said it was for this reason
that the National Nutrition Policy of Ghana called for nutrition agenda in the
policies of each sector to comprehensively address the nutritional problems facing
the country.
Alhaji Alhassan who stated this
during the Regional Nutrition Review and Advocacy Meeting in Wa noted that the
challenge was for them to align their efforts appropriately through
identification of key indicators for each sector.
“We need to work to ensure that
nutrition-sensitive development and people’s nutritional wellbeing were placed
at the centre of our priorities”, he said and added that there was also the
need for them to provide incentives to those who gave increased priority to preventing
and responding to under-nutrition.
Alhaji Alhassan also underscored
the need for the region to set its own regional priorities for nutrition,
saying it was the way to go for sustainable results.
He said in that regard, the
Regional Coordinating Council (RCC) with support from the UN REACH established
the Regional Nutrition Steering Committee to promote multi-sectoral approach in
programming for nutrition.
“Over the past years, the RCC in
close collaboration with the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Civil Society,
Academia, and the UN Agencies worked together to complete a stakeholders
mapping database of nutrition interventions in the region and identified the
nutrition priorities with a clear road map to harness the potential of
stakeholders to scale up nutrition”, he said.
The Regional Minister said all
the efforts, however, have been challenged following the folding up of the UN
REACH programme but was quick to add that the Netherlands Development
Organisation (SNV) supported the work of the committee last year and used the
opportunity to thank the organisation while hoping for the partnership to grow
from strength to strength.
Alhaji Alhassan highlighted the
need for stakeholders to work together to seek ways to tackle malnutrition in
all forms with particular emphasis on interests and needs of women and
children.
“At the local government level,
we must start to support by making consideration for nutrition budgetary
interventions seriously”, he said while urging other departments and NGOs whose
job contributed directly or indirectly to improving nutrition indicators not to
relent on their efforts.
The Regional Minister also urged
the media to play its watchdog role very well by keeping all stakeholders on
their toes to deliver to help kick out malnutrition.
Mr. Eric Banye, SVN Country
Programme Coordinator used the opportunity to remind participants about the
Voice for Change Partnership (V4C) programme, saying it operated on three main
pillars including capacity development, evidence creation and dissemination and
evidence based advocacy.
He said the V4C programme also
placed emphasis on three important thematic areas namely; Nutrition, Water and
Sanitation Hygiene; Post Harvest Losses (PHL); and Clean Energy.
On the importance of sustainable
nutrition for all, Mr. Banye noted that nutrition was increasingly becoming a
fundamental human right but often regarded as an afterthought in most parts of
the globe and underemphasized in most development plans and strategies.
The SNV Country Programme
Coordinator added that under-nutrition was often addressed solely as a health
issue while government programmes rather focused on infrastructure provision.
The consequences of the actions
were captured in the 2017 Global Nutrition Report which revealed worrying forms
of malnutrition including; childhood stunting, anaemia in women in reproductive
age, and overweight adult women.
GNA
Caption: Alhaji Sulemana
Alhassan, Upper West Regional MinisterNSPO 004
No comments:
Post a Comment