Kaduna, partners to address bottlenecks slowing nutrition interventions at LGAs

Kaduna State Government is working with development partners and other stakeholders to address bottlenecks slowing nutrition interventions in Local Government Areas.

The state’s Permanent Secretary, Planning and Budget Commission, Malam Bashir Muhammad, disclosed this in Zaria on Saturday, on the sidelines of a second-quarter coordination and review meeting with Local Government Nutrition Focal Persons.

The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the PBC organised the meeting with support from the United Nations Children’s Fund.

Muhammad, who is also the Chairman of the state’s Committee on Food and Nutrition told NAN that the government, with the support of the development partners would improve the implementation of high-impact and cost-effective nutrition programmes in communities in the LGAs.

He said access to allocated funds for nutritional activities was one of the major bottlenecks affecting the implementation of nutritional interventions in the communities.

He identified the development partners as UNICEF, Accelerating Nutrition Result in Nigeria, Alive and Thrive, Civil Society-Scaling Up Nutrition in Nigeria, Nutrition Society of Nigeria, and Save the Children International, among others.

According to him, the review meeting will enable the government and its partners to appreciate the efforts of the Local Government Nutrition Focal Persons in addressing malnutrition in communities.

“We will see where they are making progress, where they are having challenges and find ways to address them to reduce the burden of malnutrition at the local government level.

“We will also discuss the challenges during the monthly Economic Planning Meeting with the Local Government Chairmen to see how we can address them together.

Muhammad expressed appreciation to the partners and other stakeholders for their support to the state government in the efforts to eradicate malnutrition and improve the nutritional well-being of women and children.

Earlier, Ms. Linda Yakubu, Director of Development Aid Coordination, PBC said that the objective of the meeting was to review the implementation of the second quarter planned activities.

Yakubu explained that the meeting was also to see what results have been achieved in line with plans and targets and evaluate the impact of interventions, challenges, lessons, and good practices.

“It also provided an opportunity to identify emerging opportunities that would accelerate overall programme results and discuss planned activities for the third quarter,” she said. (NAN)