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General News on Wednesday, February 13, 2019
Source: ghananewsagency.org
2019-02-13
Logo of the Commission of the African Union
The African Union Commission (AUC), the African Development Bank Group (AfDB) and global partners have launched the Continental Scorecard of Nutrition Responsibility to raise awareness and strengthen commitments taken by African governments to end malnutrition.
King Letsie III of the Kingdom of Lesotho and champion of the African Union for Nutrition, and Dr. Akinwumi A. Adesina, President of the AfDB, co-organized the launch of the scoreboard.
The launch was on the sidelines of the 32nd Ordinary Session of the Conference of African Union Heads of State and Government in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, said Tuesday a press release, forwarded to the 39, Ghana News Agency.
King Letsie said, "The Nutrition Accountability Scorecard provides an opportunity to lay a solid foundation for helping African leaders to act strategically and purposefully in policy implementation and investment. in nutrition programs that tackle malnutrition in our respective countries ".
"As responsible leaders, it behooves us to act for the good of the African people. We must take appropriate and decisive action now rather than later. "
The President of the Republic of Botswana, Eric Keabetswe Masisi, Mokgweetsi, congratulated the Bank on this initiative.
"I am very proud of the participation of the African Development Bank … the dashboard is an extremely useful tool. It is important to draw up a continental picture of the state of our nutrition so that we can ask ourselves the right questions to ensure that our priorities are well defined and that we resolve them. "
The Continental Nutrition Accountability Scorecard is produced by the African Leaders Initiative for Nutrition (ALN), based at the African Development Bank, in collaboration with partners such as the Global Expert Group on Nutrition. Agricultural and Food Systems for Nutrition and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
"We need to change the way we look at the problem of malnutrition. The infrastructure that contributes most to economic growth is not physical infrastructure but intellectual resources, which I call "gray matter infrastructure".
While it is evident that a road and a harbor can contribute to improving commercial and economic growth, it is often not known that stunting reduces the size of the brain and thus compromises current and future economic growth. country, "said Dr. Adesina.
"Let's stand up and do what is good for Africa's children: secure their future with better nutrition. Let's move the red colors of these dashboards to green. Let us set goals for nutrition in Africa. "
Africa remains the only continent with high levels of malnutrition and is making slow progress to reverse the situation in relation to the rest of the world.
United Nations data indicate that the number of stunted children in Africa has risen sharply, from 50.6 million in 2000 to 58.7 million in 2017.
More and more evidence is acknowledging that malnutrition and economic development are closely linked.
Malnutrition is responsible for slowing child growth, affecting their educational development and future economic prospects.
The launch of the scoreboard therefore presented the main findings and recommendations, including calls for governments to increase budget allocations for multisectoral nutrition plans.
He also called for empowering women and adolescent girls and providing nutritional support at the most critical time in a child's life – during pregnancy and early childhood.
The nutrition badessment tool provides an overview of the status of key nutrition indicators, including internationally agreed nutrition goals, specific interventions, sensitive interventions, policy and legal nutrition financing and socio-economic impacts.
Jennifer Blanke, Vice President of Agriculture, Human and Social Development, AfDB, said: "Over time, the Global Nutrition Accountability Scorecard will deepen our knowledge, its data and its usefulness, and help find solutions to alleviate the burden of malnutrition. which has hindered the continent in recent decades. "
The African Leaders Initiative for Nutrition is targeting the highest levels of African governments to strengthen advocacy for improved nutrition on the continent.
Participants included members of the diplomatic corps, health ministers from Ghana, Malawi, Botswana, Kenya, Senegal and The Gambia, as well as development partners such as FAO, WHO, UNFPA and UNICEF.
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