Nigerians urged to prioritise first 1000 days of child life - NaijaAgroNet

NaijaAgroNet:

Nigerians have been urged to prioritize the first 1000 days of life of a child, reports NaijaAgroNet.

The participants made this call at the three-day Media Training at Consort Luxury Suites, Abuja, on the theme, “The Journalists’ Role in Ensuring Transparency and Accountability in Allocation and Use of Health and Nutrition Funds in Nigeria.”

The event organized by the Civil Society Scaling up Nutrition in Nigeria (CS-SUNN) under the Partnership for Improving Nigeria Nutrition Systems (PINNS) project, saw to building of capacity of media practitioners to develop stories and programmes focusing on transparency and accountability in allocation and use of health cum nutrition funds in focal states and the country at large.

The training was also organized to engender passion and commitment to reporting health and nutrition issues through site visited to Kwali Primary Health Care (PHC) Centre for firsthand experience of the challenges in the sector among other important issues.

Rising from the workshop, participants in a communique made available to NaijaAgroNet noted the importance of Nigerians prioritizing the first 1000 (one thousand) days of life of a child, saying it’s very crucial to the survival and ability of such child to live beyond five years.

For this, participants urged most Nigerian mothers at the Public Health Care (PHC) centres, have been found not practicing Exclusive Breast Feeding (EBF), at least in the first 1000 days of a child.

They also urged Nigerian media to sensitize women more on the need to exclusively breastfeed their children in the first six months of life, without addition of water.

“Media should also sensitize women to continue to breastfeed their children for two years in addition to adequate complementary feeding,” the communique stated, just as they called on husband to get involved on how their children are handled especially in matters regarding Exclusive Breast Feeding for the first 1000 days of infants.

NaijaAgroNet  recalls that breast milk provides the ideal nutrition for infants and lowers baby's risk of having asthma or allergies, just as experts have often said that babies breastfed exclusively for the first 6 months, without any formula, have fewer ear infections, respiratory illnesses, and bouts of diarrhea.

Also, they lamented that government across the state, should make adequate budgetary allocation, approval, timely release and cash backing in support of nutrition interventions.

“Where budgets are allocated and released, they focus more on the curative measures than preventive measures,” part of the communique read.

Chuks Egbune/GEE

... Linking agrobiz, sustainable environs, people & technology

Prioritise rural people in post-Ebola recovery plans - IFAD

NaijaAgroNet:

The President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), Dr. Kanayo F. Nwanze, has tasked the government and people of Sierra Leone and Liberia to prioritise rural people in the post-Ebola recovery plans, reports NaijaAgroNet.

IFAD president who was in the two West-African countries made this call during his visit to Sierra Leone (4-6 August) and in Liberia (6-8 August), where he met with presidents of both countries.

In Sierra Leone, Nwanze met President Ernest Bai Koroma, the Ministers of Agriculture, Finance and Gender and the Governor of the Bank of Sierra Leone. While in Liberia he met President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the Minister of Agriculture and project implementation partners.

For him, Ebola has had an enormous impact on the lives of rural people – many of whom are small-scale farmers who could not grow food or earn a living during the epidemic.

“If we do not channel our investments to the rural areas now, these farmers may have to migrate in search of work. This could compromise the future food security of these countries,” he said.

NaijaAgroNet gathered that discussions were focused on how IFAD could further support the two countries post-Ebola recovery plans, particularly in rural areas.

Over 11,310 people, NaijaAgroNet recalls died from the Ebola virus between 2014 and 2016 in the three affected countries, namely Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

Isaac Oyimah/GEE 

... Linking agrobiz, sustainable environs, people & technology
Pix: Nwanze and labourers tilling the land for recovery