Sustaining gains of ANRiN project on nutrition is our goal —Oyo govt

Oyo State government said it is implementing a six-month agenda to sustain the gains made by the Accelerating Nutrition Results in Nigeria (ANRiN) World Bank-assisted project that resulted in stunting, a chronic form of malnutrition, reducing from 34.5 per cent to 23.1 per cent in the State.

Dr Oluwaserimi Ajetunmbi, Oyo State’s Health Commissioner, who spoke at the opening of a 2-day stakeholder’s sustainability plan meeting by ANRiN project unit, said indigenous ideas are being considered as part of measures to sustain these gains achieved by increased utilization of quality, cost effective nutrition services by pregnant and lactating women, adolescent girls and children under five years.

She declared that the sustainability plan, to include other line ministries and government agencies, is also to sustain the tempo so that there wouldn’t be children with a triple burden of malnutrition, chronic malnutrition, and even childhood obesity roaming the streets.

 “We had some form of improvements, particularly our stunting, which is a form of chronic malnutrition. It is only wasting that they flagged. So, for this meeting, we want to look at the things that we can do indigenously to be able to improve our nutritional status.

“So, now for this sustainability plan, it is cutting across all ministry departments and agencies to look at the available foodstuffs in the state, how we can improve on the production and storage of these foodstuffs so that we wouldn’t have children roaming about the streets with the triple burden of malnutrition, chronic malnutrition, even childhood obesity.”

Commissioner for Budget and Economic Planning in Oyo State, Professor Musibau Babatunde, said the state government is going to mainstream necessary activities that will be needed to sustain the nutritional gains into the budget of the state all necessary activities.

“Taking this forward, it is going to be adequately put together under the Omituntun 2.0, which is the roadmap for sustainable development that the state is presently running on. The release of the budget is not going to be a problem, because healthcare is one of the main pillars of Governor Seyi Makinde’s administration, in the roadmap for sustainable development.”

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“In the area of food, the government has done a lot of things with respect to sustainable actions for economic growth. It’s SAFER in the agricultural sector; that cuts across crop production, livestock and fishery.”

Director of Nutrition, Oyo State Primary Healthcare Board and Project Coordinator for ANRiN, Dr Khadijah  Alarape, said the promotion of home gardens for caregivers is to ensure sustainable food and nutrition security in the state, as part of a 6-month sustainability plan for ANRiN gains.

“Home gardening is something that you can easily do to boost your nutritional sources. Even if the floor of your house is cemented, you can still have home gardens. We will be going to the local government’s level to scale down training on home gardening. But we are starting with the state stakeholders,” she said.