By Eunice Orike
Federal capital territory administration FCTA,has shifted greater responsibility for tackling malnutrition to the six Area Councils, charging local authorities to take ownership of nutrition programmes and ensure resources reach vulnerable households.
The Administration said policies developed at the higher levels of government would have little impact unless they were effectively implemented in wards, villages and homes where nutrition challenges are most pronounced.
The Mandate Secretary, Economic Planning, Revenue Generation and Public-Private Partnership (EPRGPPP) Secretariat, Arc. Ubokutom Nyah, said this while declaring open the second-quarter meeting and capacity-building programme of the Area Council Committees on Food and Nutrition.
Represented by the Acting Permanent Secretary of the Secretariat, Uba Bala, Nyah described nutrition security as a critical component of human capital development, stressing that a healthy population was essential to productivity and sustainable economic growth.
He urged the six Area Councils to strengthen coordination among relevant sectors and take greater responsibility for implementing nutrition interventions in their communities.
According to him, while government policies and strategic frameworks are developed at the Secretariat level, their success is ultimately determined by what happens at the grassroots.
Nyah also called on nutrition focal officers in the Area Councils to ensure that available resources and interventions are targeted at people who need them most.
The Director, Food and Nutrition Department of the EPRGPPP Secretariat, Princess Celina Gaza-Oluwafemi, said the capacity-building programme was designed to equip stakeholders with practical knowledge needed to tackle the causes and burden of malnutrition in the Territory.
She said participants were trained on basic nutrition, the first 1,000 days of life, priority interventions, nutrition governance, monitoring and evaluation, reporting and accountability.
Other areas covered included multisectoral coordination, the Child Nutrition Fund matching mechanism and the preparation of practical work plans for the Area Councils.
Gaza-Oluwafemi urged participants to move beyond acquiring knowledge at the workshop and translate the lessons into concrete interventions in their respective councils.
She noted that Area Council officials were closest to the communities where nutrition interventions were implemented and therefore had a critical role in determining their success.
The Acting Executive Secretary of the FCT Primary Health Care Board, Dr Dan Gadzama, also stressed the importance of local-level coordination in addressing nutrition challenges, particularly among children and pregnant women.
Gadzama said that although nutrition policies were developed at the national and higher administrative levels, implementation largely took place at the Area Council level.
He described the Area Council Committees on Food and Nutrition as critical structures for translating government policies into measurable improvements in communities.
The UNICEF representative under the US Department of State MCH Umbrella Grant on preventing malnutrition during the first 1,000 days of life, Dr Chizoba Steve-Edemba, said the committees were strategically positioned to drive nutrition interventions because of their proximity to beneficiaries.
