Four states get €60m from Netherlands to tackle malnutrition
Amid efforts to tackle the high rate of malnutrition in the country, the government of The Netherlands has provided €60 million to improve the nutrition of 1.1 million women and children across four states.
The project, tagged ‘Catalysing Strengthened Policy Action for Healthy Diets and Resilience (CASCADE) is to be implemented by Cooperative Assistance and Relief Everywhere (CARE) International and Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN), with funding from The Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs, for a period of four and half years.
It will improve nutritional outcomes for 1.1 million women of reproductive age and children under five years of age across Bauchi, Jigawa, Kebbi and Nasarawa states.
Speaking at the launch of the project, yesterday, Country Director of CARE International, Hussein Abdul, noted that the project was apt, given the current nutrition challenges facing the country’s vulnerable population, especially pregnant women and children.
He stated that CASCADE was introduced to tackle the nutrition challenges, adding that states were selected based on the enormity of the challenges they have.
The Netherlands Ambassador to Nigeria, Wouter Plomp, stated that they stand united to launch a transformative project to strengthen nutrition systems, uplifting 1.1 million women as well as children under the age of five.
According to him, strengthening nutrition is not unique to Nigeria in the face of soaring and unpredictable food prices worldwide, adding the kingdom of The Netherlands is championing nutrition globally, knowing that nutrition will always be the bedrock of any society.
He revealed that in the past two years, through a Nigeria programme, they had supported over 50,000 women and men in Kano and Kaduna states in good agricultural practice to boost household nutrition and livelihoods.
Representative of the Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Faniran Sanjo, stated that the government had also demonstrated commitment to strengthen investments in food and nutrition by developing the National Food and Nutrition Policy and the implementing the manual known as National Multi Sectoral Plan of Action that would enable every stakeholder to know what should be done, as well as associated guidelines aimed to strengthen policy implementation and create enabling environment for service delivery.
