US Gov’t shows concern on Sierra Leone’s nutrition strategy

The United States Government through its USAID Programme in Sierra Leone recently hosted Sierra Leone’s donor partners in a drive to ensure improvement on nutritional plans for the country’s populace under a project entitled “Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Initiative”.
The project was launched at the Miatta Conference Hall and was later followed by a technical meeting at the US Embassy Conference Room.
The meeting, held at the US Embassy in Freetown which was attended by government representatives, agencies of the UN and other members of donor communities, was regarded as very timely, especially as a minimum of 1.2 billion people are malnourished in the world. This alarming figure has enabled nutritional issues to be brought to the fore, as the Sierra Leone Government has partnered with the REACH project to actualize the nutrition project.
In a short comment regarding the SUN Project, the Country Programme Manager of USAID Robert Hanchett said that they are supporting the nutrition initiative through their SNAP and PAGE projects, presently ongoing in different parts of the country.
He said the project specifically chose nutrition considering its importance in the life of individuals and the health of the country.
He said the economy of the country is very dependent on having individuals that are well nourished because, he stated, “if people are not well nourished they can be stunted and limited in other ways”, adding that “nourishment particularly from early pregnancy is very critical to the individual.
He said the USAID through its projects, supported the initiative because of its importance and is working together with other development partners to ensure more success. He said that they have a commodity import project that brings in food and use it to help the nutrition status of mothers and children under the age of 2-an initiative that is considered very important for the development of infants.
He said the meeting at US Embassy was meant to contact wider range of donors, who were not present during the launch at Miatta Conference Centre, so that they too could be reached and be informed about the programme and possibly create an impact in the project, as well.
The Minister of Agriculture Forestry and Food Security, Dr. Sam Sesay, in his speech said that the meeting was an important milestone owing to the fact that it demonstrates to the world that Sierra Leone has become very determined, dedicated and poised to scale-up nutrition.
Professionally, he said that nutrition is part of the country’s food security in terms of its divisional area of availability, accessibility and utilization; a programme under which nutrition falls.
He said Sierra Leone being no exception to the figure as listed, the Ministry is very ardent in supporting programmes that are geared towards scaling up nutrition rather than just food security.
Dr. Sesay maintained that the SUN Project was therefore very apt and that his presence at such technical consultations was a signal to the government’s determination to develop nutrition plans for the populace.
He said they (government) have been able to mobilize its partners to render assistance in not only the formulation of the SUN document but a more serious and practical approach to ensure that they achieve the desired anticipation of the initiative.
He revealed that under the comprehensive Africa Agricultural Development Programme (CAADP), Sierra Leone so far, is the only country that has incorporated nutrition issues in its National Agricultural Investment Programme, and the programme is being emulated by other bodies.
Representative from the Ministry of Health and Sanitation underscored the fact that nutrition is very vital to human development especially the unborn and infants.
She revealed that a total of 46% of women have some form of anaemia and as a result, it was noted from Health Ministry’s perspective that investing in nutrition will help improve lives in the country.
By Poindexter Sama