By Allieu Sahid Tunkara
The Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) movement, an international organisation comprising 56 countries, has disclosed plans to scale up the fight against malnutrition in Sierra Leone.
The organisation was launched in the country in February, 2012 following a research work published in 2010 in the medical journal, The Lancet, which highlighted malnutrition as a major challenge to the development needs of countries. It notes that development problems could be solved if people especially women and children have access to good nutrition.
SUN in Sierra Leone is in the office of the Vice President.
Prior to the outbreak of the Ebola virus, majority of the people were diagnosed with malnutrition and stunted growth for children, Harrett Turay, Minister of State in the Office of the Vice President, told a press conference on Tuesday.
She said the malnutrition rate in the country dropped when the SUN movement was launched but called on the organisation to do more. She informed the audience that malnutrition weakened the immune system of individuals and that this condition leaves its victims vulnerable to various diseases.
“When you are malnourished, your immunity will be affected,” she said at forum held in the conference hall of the VP`s office. “One of the main strategies used in the fight against malnutrition is media engagement.”
Dr Mohamed Foh, National Coordinator for the SUN movement in Sierra Leone, said malnutrition affected the development and prosperity of the country and that as a way of remedying this situation, his organisation identified 10 line ministries, including the ministries of Agriculture, and Social Welfare, Gender and Children’s Affairs, in which SUN focal persons were appointed.
Sierra Leone was moving faster in providing the right health facilities to scale up the fight against malnutrition to save lives, he said, adding that the fight against malnutrition required multi sectoral approach if the desired result can be achieved.
“We will put emphasis on dietary diversity and iodisation of salt. We will also improve our access to safe drinking water,” he said, adding that the fight against malnutrition also called for enough money and resources.
A power-point presentation on the world’s malnutrition rate made by SUN technical officer, Bernadette Allieu, indicates that over 165m children in the world are malnourished; 52m are thin and 43m are overweight.
The presentation also showed that infant mortality rate stands at 185 deaths in every 100, 000 births, while maternal mortality rate is at 890 in every 100, 000 births.
The technical director also indicated in her presentation that 28% of children under age five suffers from stunted growth, 12.9% are under weight and 4.7% are wasted. All these, she said, are attributed to poor nutrition.
The National Director of Food and Nutrition in the Ministry of Health and Sanitation, Aminata Koroma, explained that her ministry had put in place the National Food, Nutrition and Implementation Plan since 2009 which was to map out plans and strategies to scale up nutrition. She disclosed that the plan was being implemented when the Ebola struck last year and that the plan had been expanded to last from 2014 to 2017.
Ms Koroma referred to part three of the plan which she said bordered on institutional structures that will enable SUN movement to tackle what each government ministry, department and agency does towards the fight against malnutrition.
“We will also scale up the surveillance system to monitor the nutrition situation in the country,” she said.
Chairman of Focus 1000, a local civil society organisation, Dr Mohamed Jalloh, said his organisation had a network of 15 NGOs that were fighting to end malnutrition in the country.
They intend to employ a communication strategy that will bring on board mosques and churches in the fight, as religious leaders were seen as credible and well respected in their communities, he said.
“The messenger is equally or more important than the message,” he said.
He also informed the audience that he had been working closely with the media and that a new media organisation had been formed which he called the ‘kombra Media Network’ that would ensure that malnutrition was stopped in the country. He appealed to the media not to accept advertisement that portrays milk as a substitute for breastfeeding, a situation, he said, that encourages malnutrition.
The Programmes Officer of Irish Aid, John Paul Kargbo, assured the SUN movement that the Irish government remained committed to supporting the effort of SUN in eradicating malnutrition.
Politico 10/06/15
