Worried about the situation of Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM) in Bauchi State which has claimed lives of several innocent children who are under the age of five due to out-of-stock of Ready To Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF), the state government has expressed its resolve to partner with UNICEF and other development partners to effectively tackle the situation.
The expression was made by the State Governor, Sen Bala Mohammed Abdulkadir who lamented the situation when he received the UNICEF Chief of D Office, Bauchi, Bhanu Pathak who paid him an advocacy visit at the Government House.
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A sympathetic Bala Mohammed said that “the present administration would ensure timely release of counterpart funding to UNICEF for the supply of commodities for the treatment of Malnourished Children in the state”.
The Governor also expressed his dismay at the actions of the immediate administration in the state for spending the sum of N732 Million in health-related activities that were unaccountable, attributing it to poor documentation, saying that, “the State Recovery Committee will be directed to recover the funds and ensure that it was refunded”.
In his remarks at the interactive session, the UNICEF Chief Field Officer, Mr Bhanu Pathak said that UNICEF has already set aside the sum of N270 million for the supply of RUTF commodities for the treatment of malnourished children and appealed to Governor to allocate more resources for tackling malnutrition in the state.
Bhanu Pathak further disclosed that UNICEF is supporting the state in the implementation of 5 programmes in the areas of Health, Education, WASH, Nutrition and Child Protection.
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