As part of its support in the fight against malnutrition in Borno state, the Executive Directors of the African Development Bank (AfDB) has announced its approval of a $1,000,000 grant as emergency assistance to support the war torn north eastern state.
This development was revealed through a statement issued Tuesday by Fatimah Abubakar Alkali, Senior Communications Officer, AfDB Nigeria Country Office.
According to Alkali, the support is coming on the heels of the nutrition emergency declared in Borno state by Nigeria’s Minister of Health on June 27th, 2016.
“In addition to that, the West and Central Africa Regional Food Security and Nutrition Working Group called on the entire international community to respond in order to prevent the situation from deteriorating further. The AfDB intervention will strengthen the on-going Government and partners (UNICEF, WFP, OCHA, etc.) support in the North East region of the country.
“The Bank will focus on Borno State where the situation is dire, to rationalize funds and be more efficient. This will contribute to reducing malnutrition rate among the most vulnerable population, mainly children under five years and women of childbearing age.”
The support according to the Alkali, aims to contribute to mortality reduction due to Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM) of children under five years of age in Borno State by 46% and to the reduction of infant mortality by 20%.
“The specific objectives of the project are to treat 11,468 children in Borno state with Ready to Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF) and provide 60,000 children between 6-23 months in the affected areas with multiple micronutrient powder. Strengthen sector coordination and monitoring at state level to provide effective coordination of nutrition response.”
To achieve high coverage and quality service delivery of the program, Alkali disclosed that community mobilization, capacity building, coordination and partnership (with International Non-governmental Organizations) and strengthening of information management systems will be employed.
“In addition, monitoring and introduction of surveillance systems using quarterly surveys and mobile technology for real-time reporting and data collection will be introduced.” She stated.
Akinwumi Adesina, AfDB President the statement revealed, had told the Board that the nutrition sector in Nigeria estimates a burden of 296,601 cases of SAM in Borno state in 2017 adding that if these children are left untreated, it is envisaged that an estimated 59,320 would die.
“The intervention is aligned with one of the operational priorities of the Bank’s Ten-Year Strategy, 2013-2022, namely governance and accountability, which is reiterated in two of the High-5s: Feed Africa and Improve the quality of life for the people of Africa,” she stated.
