|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
By Ogbu Linus, Lafia
Civil Society Scaling Up Nutrition in Nigeria (CS -SUNN) has called on government at all levels to prioritise investing in women to foster economic empowerment and access to optimal nutrition.
Executive Secretary, CS -SUNN, Mr Sunday Okoronkwo made the call in a statement to commemorate International Women’s Day.
He called on governments to evolve policies to end gender inequality in Nigeria.
According to him, ending gender inequality and empowering women will enhance priority interventions for improved food and nutrition security outcomes.
The Executive Secretary underscored the role of women in attaining each of the pillars of food security availability, access, and utilization and throughout the agricultural value chain.
He appealed to governments to leverage the Multiple Micronutrient Supplements (MMS) at scale to strengthen Antenatal Care platforms across Primary Health Care centres to deliver high impact maternal nutrition interventions for Nigeria.
This, he said would reduce anaemia among pregnant women to 40 percent by 2025, according to the “National Multisectoral Plan of action for Food and Nutrition” and reduce anaemia among pregnant women by 50% by 2030 (SDGs 2030).
He said, “Nigeria cannot continue to miss out on Nutrition and gender-equality dividends. Ending gender inequality and empowering women will enhance priority interventions for improved food and nutrition security outcomes.
“On this International Women’s Day, CS-SUNN calls on the government of Nigeria at all levels to “Invest in Women, and accelerate Progress for optimal nutritional outcomes.
“4.5 million (58%) of an estimated 7.8 million pregnant women in Nigeria are anaemic, Nigeria has the third highest maternal mortality ratio (512 / 100,000) translating to 225 deaths per day with Post Partum Haemorrhage being a key cause. (NDHS 2018, UNICEF estimates).
“One in every 10 women in the world lives in extreme poverty, at prime working age, only 61 per cent of women are in the labour force versus 90 per cent of men, (UN Women)”.
He disclosed that CS-SUNN had recently supported the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development to develop and validate the National Guideline on Women and Girl’s empowerment for optimal nutrition.
He said the Guideline was designed to create a convergence of different interventions across sectors/policies, addressing specifically the empowerment needs of women and girls to enhance their access to optimal nutrition to be adopted by policymakers, stakeholders, including governments.
“We therefore, call for the domestication of this guideline in the states and its full implementation and funding to promote women and girls’ empowerment to achieve optimal nutrition outcomes in Nigeria through a multi-sectoral approach.
“We call for the implementation of 6 months maternity leave with pay for working women by the government, states and organizations who are yet to, we urge employers to establish breastfeeding corners in workplaces to facilitate nursing mothers’ access to a private and comfortable space.
“Beyond these, more investments are needed to promote women’s access to income-generating activities and financial services as key drivers of economic empowerment and poverty alleviation,” he said.
Comments are closed, but trackbacks and pingbacks are open.