NGO urges Kaduna govt to include nutritionists in plan recruitment of 3,059 health workers

Save the Children International (SCI), an international Non-Governmental Organisation has urged the Kaduna State Government to include nutritionists in its planned 3,059 health workers recruitment.

The Commissioner for Health and Human Services, Dr Paul Dogo, recently announced Gov. Nasir El-Rufa’I’s approval for the recruitment of 3,059 health workers to bridge the manpower gap in the health sector.

However, Malam Isah Ibrahim, the SCI Nutrition Advocacy Adviser, said on Tuesday in a statement in Kaduna that the planned recruitment did not include nutritionist.

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Ibrahim disclosed that there were currently only 55 nutritionists in the state’s health sector, with 49 in 26 Secondary Health Facilities (SHF) out of the 32 in the state.

“There are only four nutritionists in four local government headquarters, namely Chikun, Kajuru, Zaria and Kagarko Local Government Areas (LGAs) out of the 23 LGAs in the state.

“Similarly, there are only two nutritionists at the state’s Primary Health Development Agency.

“This is grossly inadequate, considering the huge number of malnourished children in the state, so also, none of the 255 Primary Healthcare Centres across the 255 political wards in the state has a nutritionist.

“There is, therefore, an urgent need for more professional nutritionist, if possible, in every health facility in the state to provide professional nutrition services in health facilities across the state.

“It is on this note that the organisation is pleading with the state government to include nutritionists in its planned recruitment of health workers to take nutrition services to the grassroots,” Ibrahim said.

The nutrition advocacy adviser also called for improved budgetary provision, release and cash backing for nutrition specific and sensitive interventions.

According to Ibrahim, budgetary allocation for the health sector and nutrition, in particular, has remained very low over the years with a marginal increase in recent times.

“For example, only N17.1 billion, representing 8.5 per cent of the total budget of N200.7 billion in 2015 was allocated to the health sector of which nutrition got zero allocation.

“In 2016, the allocation dropped from N17.1 billion to N12.9 billion, representing 7.5 per cent of the total budget of N172.3 billion. Again, there was no budgetary allocation for nutrition.

“However, in 2017, nutrition, for the first time got 0.5 per cent of the total health budget of N24.8 billion, representing 11.5 per cent of the total budget of N214.9 billion.

“The allocation for nutrition dropped from 0.5 per cent in 2017 to 0.3 per cent in 2018 out of the total health budget of N34.7 billion, representing 16 per cent of the total budget of N216.7 billion for the year,” he said.

He noted that the government and its development partners had invested huge resources to curb the scourge of malnutrition but with minimal success due to inadequate resources.

Ibrahim said that improved budgetary allocation for nutrition interventions would go a long way in avoiding preventable deaths of children under five years from malnutrition.

Findings gathered that Community Management of Acute Malnutrition (CMAM) is currently operating in 11 LGAs in the state, supported by the United Nations Children’s Emergency Funds and Kaduna State Emergency Nutrition Action Plan (KADENAP).

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There are also 42 out-patient therapeutic programme sites in 42 wards in eight local government areas of the state and stabilisation centres in 13 General Hospitals as referral sites for management of severe acute malnutrition.

A document obtained from KADENAP indicates that a total of 40,937 acutely malnourished children less than five years were admitted in the CMAM sites between 2016 and 2018.

A breakdown of the figure shows that 952 children were admitted in 2016, increased to 17,989 in 2017 and further jumped to 21,996 in 2018.

The document shows that out of the 40,937 acutely malnourished children, 28,772 were cured, while 402 children died; 12 in 2016, 169 in 2017 and 221 in 2018, indicating an upward trend in the number of deaths.