By Donald Iorchir
A civil society organisation, Women Friendly Initiative (WFI), has raised the alarm over “the high rate of malnutrition among women of reproductive age and children below five years in the Federal Capital territory (FCT)” and advocated for concerted effort to rid the society of the problem.
Chief Executive Officer of the organization, Dr Francis Eremutha, suggested that the best approach to tackling and reducing malnutrition in the Territory “lies in the quick and effective implementation of the National Strategic Plan of Action for Nutrition (NSPAN) which has not been introduced in any part of the six area councils.”
“Nigeria is one of the six countries that accounts for half of all child deaths from malnutrition worldwide every year, one million children under five die, 45% of them due to causes attributed to malnutrition.
“Prevalence of child malnutrition vary significantly across the six geopolitical zones: children living in the North-west and in the North- east stand out as being particularly disadvantaged (per cent stunted in North-west and North-east is 50 and 47, 29 in North-central, 20 in the South-south and in the South-west, and 10 in the South-east.”
He also said malnutrition prevalence among women of reproductive age “is also high and geographically widespread.”
