Gombe, UNICEF launch N11bn four-year action plan on food, nutrition

…Spend N100m on child nutrition fund

By Rauf Oyewole, Gombe

The Gombe State Government and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) have launched a four-year Multi-Sectoral Strategic Plan of Action on Food and Nutrition (GMSPAFN), spanning through 2023-2027 projected to cost N11bn.

According to the UN Agency, over 50 percent of children and women in Gombe are anemic, contributing to the high rate of malnutrition, stunting and wasting.

While speaking at the official launch of the action plan in Gombe on Tuesday, the Chief Field Officer of Bauchi, Tushar Rane urged the state to strive to eradicate malnutrition in the state.

Tushar said that the Food and Nutrition Policy would guide the State in addressing the problem of food and nutrition security from individuals, households, communities, local governments to state levels.

“The Costed Multi-sectoral Strategic Plan will promote diets, services and practices that support optimal nutrition, growth and development for all children, adolescents, and women.

“The strategic plan estimates that the interventions across the state would require a public investment of N11,169,423,741.16 with an average annual public investment cost estimated of N2,035,892,400.00 over the next four years (2023-2027),” he said.

Tushar, who was represented by the Field’s Nutrition Specialist, Philomena Irene, said that Gombe state has contributed N50 million as counterpart contribution for the Child Nutrition Fund (CNF) to address all forms of malnutrition particularly wasting, anaemia and stunting.

He said, “Today, millions of young children are not reaching their full potential because of inadequate nutrition.

“It is our hope that the new policy will provide an overarching framework, covering the multiple dimensions of food and nutrition improvement, with the special focus on nutrition-specific and nutrition-sensitive interventions.”

The UNICEF Chief added that children in the state “are experiencing chronic food poverty. About 30.7 percent of newborns are exclusively breastfed; only 22.5 percent of children aged 6 to 23 months in Gombe receive a minimum acceptable diet and only 8.4 percent receive minimum dietary diversity.

“More than 50 percent of women and children are anemic. These statistics are available in the 2021 MICS. We envisage that the effective implementation of this policy can contribute to alleviating these nutrition gaps in the state. Hence, at UNICEF, we delightfully supported the development of this policy from the scratch. UNICEF mobilised financial and technical support in terms of providing data on nutrition indices and supporting the costing of the policy,” he said.

Also speaking, the Deputy Governor of the state, Dr. Manassah Daniel Jatau, said that the implementation of the Food and Nutrition Policy and Multisectoral Plan of Action is a task that must be carried out effectively for the optimal nutritional status of residents of Gombe State, within the time frame of 2023-2027.

He admitted that 2023 is gone and that all hands must be on deck “to avoid a situation where set dates and targets by concerned authorities are not met, for example Health for all by year 2000, Shelter for all by year 2000. My contribution to attaining this Policy is that we must encourage an improvement in the production of protein and vitamin sources from our local, indigenous farm produce, such as sorghum, groundnuts, soya beans, etc.”