4 assemblies in the Upper East region have been tasked to capture nutrition action in their Medium-Term Development Plan. These 4 assemblies include Bawku Municipal, Bawku West district, Garu district, and Tempani district.
The selection of these assemblies is in line with the USAID Advancing Nutrition project that seeks to improve the nutritional status and health of the vulnerable populations around the globe.
This was made known during the Regional Learning Event held in Bolgatanga to showcase the progress of the 5-year project and lessons learned.
The USAID Advancing Nutrition will provide technical support and assessment services to advance the Government of Ghana’s efforts to improve district planning for equitable delivery of services that promote household resilience and early childhood growth and development.
A consultant, Hajia Alimatu Sagito Saeed who is the Director for Savannah Women Integrated Development (SWIDE), underscored the relevance of nutrition to the attainment of the Ghana Beyond Aid agenda.
“We are talking about Ghana Beyond Aid and it is people that we are going to use to achieve this but, if we don’t have the right people, the Ghana Beyond Aid is going to be a slogan. So we are planning for children that will grow to become the right human resource of the assemblies. That is why it is important for the assemblies to capture nutrition issues to move the process of development forward”
The USAID’s flagship multi-sectoral nutrition project is aimed at addressing the root causes of malnutrition to save lives and enhance long-term health and development.
The project started in June 2020 and will end in March 2022 and be implemented in 17 districts, 4 regions.
Upper East regional minister, Stephen Yakubu in a speech read on his behalf regretted that the percentage of children in the region stunting, increased from 14 percent in 2014 to 18 percent in 2018 due to malnutrition.
Regardless, the minister said the government is leaving no stone unturned to adequately integrated nutrition plans in its major policies to address the underlying causes of malnutrition.
Source: A1Radioonline.com|101.1Mhz|Joshua Asaah
