Stakeholders to tackle malnutrition in N/East through Sensitive Business Models
In its effort to tackle malnutrition in Northeastern Nigeria, through Nutrition Sensitive Business Models, Feed the Future Nigeria Rural Resilience Activity funded by United States Agency for International Development, has held a North-East Nutrition Roundtable with the theme; ‘Addressing Malnutrition through Nutrition sensitive business in North-Eastern Nigeria’.
The Nort-East Nutrition Roundtable Meeting with food handler’s processors’ held at the International Conference Centre Gombe, brought diverse range of participants, including; Private sector entities and businesses specialising in the manufacturing and production of nutrition-dense foods, financial service institutions and agribusiness service providers, government agencies and traditional rulers, National Agency For Drug Administration and Control Standard Organisation of Nigeria, Food processors and implementing partners.
The roundtable meeting was to achieve several key outcomes which include facilitating collaboration and networking among professionals and organisations involved in nutrition to identify potential areas for collaboration, drive investment, and explore joint initiatives while Identifying key challenges, lessons learned, and opportunities for scaling up successful nutrition strategies and business models in northeast Nigeria to develop a roadmap for collaborative action to accelerate nutrition-sensitive business models through partnership, investment, and information sharing.
In a keynote address, Permanent Secretary Gombe State Budget, Planning and Partner Coordination office, Alhaji Ibrahim Jalo, said North East Nigeria, has long been grappling with multi-faceted crisis, exacerbated by conflict, displacement and food insecurity and amid the challenges, malnutrition emerged as silent yet deadly adversity particularly affecting the most vulnerable members of the society.
He said the Nutrition Roundtable is a testament to concerted commitment to improving the lives of those who have been affected by the scourge of malnutrition in the North-East.
“To combat malnutrition effectively, we must adopt a holistic approach that goes beyond the conventional methods of food aid and humanitarian relief. I want to emphasis the role of Nutrition sensitive businesses in transforming the landscape of Nutrition in North-East Nigeria,” Jalo said.
The Permanent Secretary added that Nutrition sensitive businesses play a pivotal role in the production and distribution of foods that are fortified with essential vitamins and minerals and that the businesses can serve as a source employment and income generation.
He said Gombe State Government is committed to improving the Nutrition status of the people hence it collaboration with relevant organisations to address malnutrition and improve agricultural activities.
Also, representative of the Gombe State Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Science and Technology who is the Director Science and Technology, Alhaji Aliyu Mohammad, enumerated nutrition sensitive activities conducted by the ministry to include production of 120,000 sachet one hundred grams of children’s complementary food and distributed free to children of two to five years across the state which he said had improved the nutritional status of the children.
“Other activities are sensitization of women on exclusive breastfeeding and Collaboration with Mercy Corps to empower women on production of complementary feeds,” he added.
On his part, acting Deputy Chief of Party of the Rural Resilience Activity Mr Nurein Abdallahfattah Shitu, while giving an overview of RRA food and Nutrition strategy said Nigeria ranks one in Africa and Second in the world with highest number of Malnutrition and alot of actors have been struggling to find solution to the issue of malnutrition.
He said malnutrition had remained a pressing concern in North-East Nigeria, fueled by ongoing conflicts, population displacement, food insecurity, and limited access to healthcare facilities.
“The region has struggled with one of the highest rates of acute malnutrition globally, impacting millions of children, including severe acute malnutrition cases. This dire situation is further exacerbated by conflict-related disruptions in agriculture, limiting food production and access to nutritious meals,” Shitu said.
He added that the Nutrition Roundtable meeting was aimed at bringing together key actors and stakeholders to seek innovative solutions that would leverage partnerships between the private and public.
Shitu added, “We getting into year five of the project which is the final year, we deliberated on what we want to leave for the people of north east Nigeria. We came up the nutrition sensitive business models because we want to see wellbeing outcome at household level.We felt it is important to have a special focus on businesses that look at issues of nutrition in North East Nigeria.”
Earlier in an address of welcome, the Ajiyan Gombe, and Senior District Head of Kwami, Alhaji Aminu Haruna, appreciated collaborative effort of government and partners in addressing malnutrition in the state.
He emphasised the need to use locally grown food to produce nutritional healthy food for children in the state.
Some of the food processors interviewed by Periscope Nigeria include Mrs Malan Daniel, the CEO Maldans Traditional Cuisines said Feed the future Activity has helped improve her production and sales.
“Initially, I was using the normal polythene bag to package my product but with mercy corps’ intervention,i now use modern bag for packaging,This has improved my sales. Customers from within and outside gombe state patronise my product,” she explained.
She added that the Nutrition Roundtable had enlightened her the more on how to improve the nutritional value of her product to help reduce malnutrition.
Also, Fatima Ali Isa, of Teemas Global Nigeria Limited Biu, Borno State said her business had also improved greatly because she has been linked to different processors and with effective networking, her product is now sold across Nigeria.
The event featured panel discussion and exhibition of products by food processors.
The Feed the Future Nigeria Rural Resilience Activity is a five-year, USAID-funded programme which seeks to facilitate economic recovery and growth in vulnerable, conflict-affected areas by promoting systemic change in market systems. The Activity is implemented by Mercy Corps, with support from the International Fertiliser Development Centre and Save the Children, primarily in the North-East states of Adamawa, Borno, Gombe, and Yobe. Through the COVID-19 Mitigation Response Programme, the Activity’s operational areas also include Benue, Kebbi, Niger and Ebonyi states, as well as the Federal Capital Territory. Using market-led approaches, the Activity will move over 600,000 individuals out of chronic vulnerability and poverty.
