From Mika’il Tsoho, Dutse
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) through Civil Society Scaling-Up Nutrition in Nigeria (CS-SUNN) collaborated with Jigawa state government to strengthen and increase Investment on Nutrition with aims to reduce the stunting rates in the state.
The move was announced by the Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning officer of CS-SUNN, Jibrin Ogbaji during the two-day capacity building workshop and advocacy strategy and budget tracking, held in Dutse.
He explained that, CS-SUNN on their part will build capacity of Civil Society Organizations working around Nutritions to advocate for budget increase on Nutrition and as well as the extension of maternity leave for lactating mothers.
“Our objectives is to support for Budget Releases and utilization for Nutrition programming at federal and selected states including Jigawa, increased from 2million to 3million USD by October 2024.
He maintained that other objective is “the states with approved policies for civil servants on extended paid maternity leave for six months increased by three times”.
While making his remarks, the Jigawa state Nutrition officer, Sa’id Umar who was represented by his Assistant said, the state government has already embarked on many Nutrition interventions and programs to reduce the number of malnurished children in the state.
According to him, some of the interventions are MASAKI program that involves food demonstration, Nutrition screening for children, and Routine immunization, adding that, the state also embarked on free Anti-natal services for pregnant women, health talk on importance of consumption of locally nutritious foods.
