Lusekelo Philemon : 25th January 2011
The Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (Gain) and New Partnership for Africa’s Development (Nepad) have signed a memorandum of understanding which aims to significantly reduce malnutrition in Africa.
The pact aims to develop a five-year joint programme which fully integrates nutrition security into the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP).
According to a Nepad statement, the agreement was co-signed on Sunday in Addis Ababa during Nepad’s steering committee meeting by Jay Naidoo, chair of the Gain Board, and Ibrahim Mayaki, CEO of the Nepad Planning and Coordinating Agency.
In Africa, it said, one in four people suffer from malnutrition, twenty-five per cent of children are undernourished and forty per cent are stunted while fifty three per cent of pregnant women are anaemic.
“Malnutrition is costing millions of lives, in particular women and children. It also prevents millions of people from contributing to the continent’s growth and development,” said Naidoo, adding:
“It is directly linked to achieving the MDGs, including poverty reduction, child mortality, maternal health, AIDS and many other infectious diseases.” He also said, it’s estimated that countries lose up to 3 per cent of GDP due to malnutrition.
“We know solutions exist to reduce malnutrition through a number of simple, targeted and cost-effective interventions,” Naidoo said in the statement.
For his part, Ibrahim Mayaki of Nepad said, “Since malnutrition has multiple causes, improvement requires multi-sectoral action across the food security, agriculture, social protection, health and educational sectors.”
The official further said, “This poses a significant delivery challenge for national governments. Although tested, affordable and effective interventions are available; implementation has not yet reached the desired scale.”
Under the agreement, the statement said, Gain and Nepad will assess existing policies, practices and capacities in agriculture, nutrition and food security before engaging the private sector, donors and national decision makers in a bid to facilitate coordination of actions geared to expanding access to more nutritious food.
http://www.ippmedia.com/frontend/index.php?l=25418
The Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (Gain) and New Partnership for Africa’s Development (Nepad) have signed a memorandum of understanding which aims to significantly reduce malnutrition in Africa.
The pact aims to develop a five-year joint programme which fully integrates nutrition security into the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP).
According to a Nepad statement, the agreement was co-signed on Sunday in Addis Ababa during Nepad’s steering committee meeting by Jay Naidoo, chair of the Gain Board, and Ibrahim Mayaki, CEO of the Nepad Planning and Coordinating Agency.
In Africa, it said, one in four people suffer from malnutrition, twenty-five per cent of children are undernourished and forty per cent are stunted while fifty three per cent of pregnant women are anaemic.
“Malnutrition is costing millions of lives, in particular women and children. It also prevents millions of people from contributing to the continent’s growth and development,” said Naidoo, adding:
“It is directly linked to achieving the MDGs, including poverty reduction, child mortality, maternal health, AIDS and many other infectious diseases.” He also said, it’s estimated that countries lose up to 3 per cent of GDP due to malnutrition.
“We know solutions exist to reduce malnutrition through a number of simple, targeted and cost-effective interventions,” Naidoo said in the statement.
For his part, Ibrahim Mayaki of Nepad said, “Since malnutrition has multiple causes, improvement requires multi-sectoral action across the food security, agriculture, social protection, health and educational sectors.”
The official further said, “This poses a significant delivery challenge for national governments. Although tested, affordable and effective interventions are available; implementation has not yet reached the desired scale.”
Under the agreement, the statement said, Gain and Nepad will assess existing policies, practices and capacities in agriculture, nutrition and food security before engaging the private sector, donors and national decision makers in a bid to facilitate coordination of actions geared to expanding access to more nutritious food.
http://www.ippmedia.com/frontend/index.php?l=25418
No comments:
Post a Comment