279,542 Malnourished Kaduna Children: CISLAC, UNICEF others Harp on Timely Budget Release, Cash-backing
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(Participants at a one-day stakeholders on malnutrition in Kaduna organised by CISLAC, UNICEF)
NIGERIA –
Worried by alarming statistics of children suffering acute malnutrition in Kaduna State, Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC) in partnership with United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) on Friday, September 28, harped on the need for the State Government to ensure timely release and cash-backing of budgetary allocation for malnutrition.
This was coming even as UNICEF elsewhere, raised the alarm that 279,542 children in the State were suffering from acute malnutrition due to pure funding, poor planning among others.
It was against this background that, CISLAC, UNICEF partner to hold a one-day executive-legislative-CSOs-Media roundtable conference on budgeting for Nutrition in Kaduna State on Thursday.
Programme Manager, CISLAC, Chioma Kanu said, her organisation believed the state government can do much more in addressing the scourge of malnutrition in the state
“We want to use the project to advocate states government on timely release of allocation for nutrition and domestic investment on community management of acute malnutrition (CMAM)”, Chioma said.
On the meeting she said, “the stakeholders meeting became necessary because it will provide a platform for them to make commitment on what role they can play in ensuring the timely release of nutrition funding in the State budget.
“We are also looking at how we can collectively explore financial and budgetary opportunities and options for states in addressing malnutrition in 2019 and beyond and to provide more visibility to nutrition and the efforts of UNICEF to address malnutrition in the State.”
There were representatives of Kaduna State Assembly, Civil Society Organisations and media at the meeting.