By Hassan Zaggi
The households of the three states of Borno, Adamawa and Yobe are currently undergoing harsh and unprecedented food crisis and hunger, the United Nation Children Fund (UNICEF), Chief of Field Office in Borno State, Samuel Sesay, has disclosed.
He further explained that malnutrition is the biggest threat to child survival and development in the north east.
Sesay made the disclosure at a 3-day media dialogue organised by the Child Right Bureau of the Federal Ministry of Information and Culture in partnership with UNICEF on children undernutrition in Maiduguri.
According to him: “There is no sugar coating it- malnutrition is the underlining cause of nearly half of all deaths in under-five children globally and it is currently the biggest threat to child survival and development in northeast Nigeria.
“Households in the region are experiencing unprecedented levels of food crisis and hunger.
“Household food insecurity, poor infant and young child feeding and care practices, as well as poor feeding environment, hygiene, and health services have been identified as the underlying causes of undernutrition in children.
“In North-East Nigeria, however,, conflict, multiple displacements, destruction of sources of livelihood for households, destruction of basic infrastructures and services, climate change, and the COVID-19 pandemic are peculiar contributors to the growing number of children affected by undernutrition.
“The importance of good nutrition on children’s development is enormous, with far-reaching impact on child education, health, adult earning power, individual and family finance as well as the country’s economy. Therefore, it is unacceptable that children continue to bear the greatest burden of conflict, climate change and COVID-19. Ensuring good nutrition in children helps families and is a cheaper route to nation-building.”
On his part, the UNICEF Nutrition Specialist in Borno State, Ifeanyi Maduanisi, called for multi-sectoral approach to combat child malnutrition in the north east.
He, however, revealed there are indications that the child malnutrition situation in the north east is not improving.
“I am advocating for multi-sectoral kind of planning to combat child malnutrition in such a way that both food security, livelihood, nutrition section, health, water sanitation and hygiene are done together to give a synergistic impact,” he stressed.
According to Ifeanyi, apart from the general insecurity in the north east, socio cultural believe is another driver that fuels malnutrition in children in the north east.
“Part of the drivers of the malnutrition we have in the north east aside of the conflict and the attendant consequences like displacement, loss of livelihood, destruction of infrastructure and basic services, there is issue of socio-cultural believe and behaviours.
“These things take time to address. You don’t change these behaviours overnight.
“But it becomes aggravated when there is no environment for people to adopt good behavior.
On the level of improvement of the malnutrition situation in the north east, he said: “The data we are seeing from different surveillance and analysis, it is actually indicating that the malnutrition situation is not actually improving. “But that does not mean that we have not had gains.
“In 2016 to around 2018, there were some gains, but those gains were not sustained. It was reversed from 2019 to date.”
