Save the Children, an NGO, says Nigeria is the second highest country with stunted under-five children globally and highest in the Sub-Saharan Africa.
Ekene Ifedilichukwu, the organisation’s Nutrition Advocacy Coordinator, said this at a media training on Nutrition Reporting and Budgeting organised by the NGO on Wednesday in Kaduna.
Ifedilichukwu said that the aim of the workshop was to sensitise and build media capacity on how to hold government responsible to its promises.
According to him, the workshop will also equip the media to assist in changing policies of the government to ensure that nutrition is made a priority.
Ifedilichukwu spoke on: “The Current Situation of Food and Nutrition in Nigeria and the Need for Civil Society Advocacy to Government.”
Presenting the paper, he said that the high stunting rate was due to malnutrition, which was common place in the country.
He said: “Stunting is an indicator of chronic or long term insufficient energy micronutrient intake.
“It refers to a child or children who are very short or too short in height for their age.
“The 2013 National Demographic and Health Survey revealed that 37 per cent of children under the age of five were stunted.
“The figure has witnessed little change from the 41 per cent that it was in 2008.
“Under nutrition is responsible for stunting and wasting; it is when children are too thin and underweight for their height and age.
“Malnutrition is a condition that results from eating a diet in which the nutrients are either not enough or too much, such that the diet causes health problems.
“This retards normal growth and affected children grow up with the worst health situations, alongside lowered educational achievement.
“Malnutrition is also associated with lowered vitality of people, leading to lowered productivity and reduced life expectancy.
“Adequate nutrition, good health, caregivers’ attention and opportunities to interact with the environment are some factors that contribute to children’s cognitive abilities.”
The coordinator urged the Federal Government to fulfill its promises made at the 2013 Nutrition for Growth summit in London and in the Abuja Declaration by prioritising nutrition.
According to him, the failure of the government to meet up with such commitments is contributory factor to the nation’s high stunted rate, as well as malnutrition burden.
Ifedilichukwu said that ensuring good nutrition was a collective responsibility of government, private sector, families, religious leaders, individuals, school teachers and other stakeholders.
He said: “All hands must be on deck to reduce this burden; such efforts will go a long way to assist the nation to realise its dreams of improved future development.
“Across the world, 165 million children or one in four children under five years of age are stunted and 80 per cent of those lives are from 14 countries.
“Nigeria has over 11 million stunted children and ranks second behind India among all countries with the greatest number of stunted children.
“ By working with nutrition partners at the national and state levels, we will contribute to the development of evidence based policies and costed work plan.
“These will help to improve nutrition as well as better planning and budgets.”
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