Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
The All Progressives Congress (APC) governors under the auspices of Progressive Governors Forum (PGF) have hinted on the need to improve the implementation of the school feeding programmes in all the APC states, stressing that monitoring and accountability should be part of the implementation.
The forum warned that the COVID-19 pandemic has introduced entirely new dimension to the crisis of nutrition by aggravating and widening the scope of the problem beyond the children, to include the adult population.
The governors raised the alarm in a communique issued in Abuja after a teleconference meeting of secretaries to governments of APC states on theme, “Developing Common Policy Initiatives on Promoting Child Nutrition” held within the week, and signed by the governor of Plateau State and Co-Chairman, PGF Governance Programme Steering Committee, Simon Bako Lalong and his Jigawa Satte counterpart, Mohammed Badaru Abubakar.
Part of the communique read: “The issue of malnutrition and undernourishment is a social, economic and developmental challenge that must be addressed holistically, as part of the nation’s commitment towards the attainment of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN-SDGs) and meeting the target of zero hunger in the country by 2030.
“COVID-19 pandemic has introduced entirely new dimensions to the crisis of nutrition by aggravating and widening the scope of the problem beyond the children, also to include the adult population.
“There is the need to adequately plan and develop capacities at all levels for ownership and sustainability of nutrition policies and programmes in the APC states;
“There is an urgent need to improve further the implementation of school feeding programmes and make monitoring and accountability part of the programme implementation in the APC States.”
The forum in its recommendations, stated: “For consideration/implementation by the APC states there should be increased commitment and political will towards improving child nutrition in the APC states through enhancing resource mobilisation and incorporating in the annual budget both nutrition specific interventions and programmes and nutrition sensitive programmes.