Stakeholders seek attention on ending hunger in Nigeria

Stakeholders have identified poor nutrition education, lack of sustainable farming and non-democratization of sustainable development goals as gaps that Nigeria needs to fill in ending hunger and promoting sustainable agriculture and some of the Sustainable Development Goals Nigeria signed to, come 2030.

Founder, Diet234 and a community nutritionist, Mr Collins Akano, speaking at a Protein Challenge digital dialogue with the theme, ‘A UN Decade of Action on Nutrition: Connecting the Dots for Nigeria’ stated that malnutrition is rife in Nigeria and stopping it would require adopting sustainable farming and promotion of nutrition education to ensure people are educated on how best to eat and what is healthy eating.

He declared that without good nutrition education in the country, ensuring proper meal planning to address the high protein deficiency in the country will be difficult.

According to Mr Akanno, “Most people will feel the best way to get protein is from animal sources, they don’t know that there are plant-based sources of protein such as soybean. If you are not harmed with knowledge, you would not even know how to plan your own meals, let alone planning meals for your family. There is what is called a healthy eating plate, which explains how to section one’s food on the plate per meal.

“The biggest portion of food per meal should be vegetables, followed by healthy proteins, grains, fruits and then healthy oils. The more vegetables you have and the greater varieties of them, the better for you and the better healthy eating you are embarking on.”

National coordinator, Media Centre Against Child Malnutrition, Mr Remmy Nweke stressed the need to increase health budget, including creating a budget line for nutrition as well as to know the underlying causes of protein deficiency in Nigeria for it to be tackled appropriately.

Mr Nweke while stating that data is critical to achieving an end to protein deficiency also called for both nutrition-specific and nutrition-sensitive investments at the health system and community levels.

Mrs Foyinsola Oyebola, a social development expert, in an overview of SDG 2, stated that Nigeria is facing a nutrition crisis on multiple fronts, with rising levels of food insecurity.

Mrs Oyebola listed challenges to Nigeria’s nutrition crisis  to include the current security challenges which threaten food production, COVID-19 pandemic and the low level of awareness of the SDGs in relation to zero hunger and poverty.

For Nigeria to attain the SDG2 goal, she said that Nigeria must bridge the gap between policy statements and implementation at all levels and mainstream SDG 2 into  state and local government programmes  as well as to democratize the SDG for better awareness and understanding.

Earlier, Mr John Ehiguese stated that the webinar was the second in the series by Protein Challenge and aimed at reemphasizing the place of protein in good healthy nutrition, creating widespread awareness of the scourge of protein deficiency in Nigeria and to mobilise stakeholders to take action to mitigate it.

 

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