The Bauchi State Government has commended the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) for its commitment towards curbing the surge of malnutrition cases in Nigeria.
Malnutrition in Nigeria is a major issue, affecting 35 million children under five, with 12 million stunted, 3 million wasted, and 23.5 million anemic.
The 2023 Cadre Report revealed 17.7 million hungry people, with 1 million suffering from acute food insecurity. The average reduction in stunting is only 1.4 per cent per year.
Mr Adamu Sambo, Honourable Commissioner for Health, Bauchi State who spoke to NAN on the sidelines of the official Handover of Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Foods (RUTF) SeedStock by USAID on Thursday in Abuja said the agency’s commitment to curbing the surge was a welcome development.
Sambo who received the RUTF on behalf of Bauchi State said they were privileged to be one of the three states selected by USAID for the first phase of distribution.
NAN also reports that the other states selected by the USAID under its “Feed the Future” project, a U.S. Government’s Global Hunger and Food Security Initiative include Sokoto and Kebbi states.
“Today is a really good day for us because one key intervention which is health nutrition is been addressed.
“Fortunately, they selected three states that have the highest burden of malnutrition in the country.
“Even though we are aware that there are alot of malnutrition cases in alot of other states of the Federation which have not been selected.
“But from what we heard today, they have assured us that they are going to scale up and reach out to other states as well.
“So, this is a very good initiative indeed to help reduce the cases of malnutrition on our states,” he said.
The Bauchi State Commissioner appreciated USAID for partnering with the states to reduce malnutrition and make sure that every child was well nourished, healthy and in good state of well being.
He said that the Bauchi State Government was also trying on its part to domesticate the initiative so as to ensure that all affected communities are effectively reached.
“What we are also trying to do in terms of nutrition is to domesticate the initiative to make sure that we really key into this supply chain within our essential drugs commodities.
“This is to ensure that they are available in all hospitals, clinics and children homes where they can access care to malnutrition.
“We have deviced so many ways in doing this including, through advanced share allocation, patnership with UNICEF and the enrollment of those affected into our Social Health Insurance to enable us adequately take care of them.
“We also want to see how the Bauchi State Health Trust Fund can allocate a certain percentage of their funds to funding the nutritional needs of our children in the state,” he said.
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