The Government of Netherland through the Cooperative Assistance and Relief Everywhere (CARE) International Nigeria has launched a 60m Euros with four states of Bauchi, Jigawa, Kebbi, and Nasarawa listed among beneficiaries to tackle malnutrition.
The project to be implemented by CARE International Nigeria and the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN), was funded by the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs, for a period of four and a half years in six Sub-Saharan African Countries.
The project targeted to improve nutritional outcomes for over 1.1m women of reproductive age and children under five years across the four states it to be implemented under the Catalyzing Strengthened Policy Action for Healthy Diets and Resilience (CASCADE) project.
The Country Director of CARE International Nigeria, Dr. Hussein Abdul speaking at the launch of the project in Wednesday in Abuja said that the project is apt given the current malnutrition challenges facing the country.
He noted that under-nutrition is affecting the vulnerable population especially pregnant women and children, while over-nutrition in the urban is recording rise in tide-related diseases.
He said that CASCADE was introduced to tackle the nutrition challenges and that the designated states were selected based on the enormity of the challenges in the four states.
“The project will promote consumption of healthy diets amongst pregnant women in the states as well as under 5 children. They will also increase their resilience to shocks and economy stress that impact nutrition outcomes. This is also intend to increase the resilience of households to climate change shocks that impact their nutrition outcomes,” Abdu said.
The Netherlands Ambassador in Nigeria, Walter Plomp, said that they stand united to launch the transformative project aimed at strengthening nutrition systems, uplifting 1.1m women and children under the age of five.
“Strengthening nutrition is not unique to Nigeria in the face of soaring and unpredictable food prices worldwide. The Kingdom of Netherlands is championing nutrition globally knowing that nutrition will always be the bedrock of any society,” Plomp said.
He said that in the past two years through a Nigeria program, they have supported over 50,000 women and men in Kano and Kaduna states in good agricultural practice to boost household nutrition and livelihoods.
The representative of the Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Faniran Sanjo, said that the government has also demonstrated commitment to strengthen investments in food and nutrition by developing the National Food and Nutrition Policy and the implementation manual known as National Multi Sectoral Plan of Action.
He said that will enable each and every stakeholders to know what and what should be done, as well as associated guidelines aimed at strengthening policy implementation and creating an enabling environment for service delivery to thrive.
He said that the CASCADE project align with the federal government’s focus on food security, and the mandates of the Federal Ministry of budget and National planning to strengthen Nigeria’s collaboration with donors and development partners.
