110
KATSINA- The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the Katsina Stare Government are conducting a ‘Standardised Monitoring and Assessment of Relief Transitions (SMART) Survey’, to have an automatic data to curb the rising cases of malnutrition.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the SMART Survey estimates the prevalence of wasting, stunting and underweight among children aged six-to-59 months.
It also provides a framework for collecting and analysing data on acute malnutrition, mortality rates and other key indicators.
The UNICEF Nutrition Specialist, Mr Niyi Oyedokun, stated this at a 2025 SMART planning meeting with stakeholders, on Tuesday in Katsina.
He said that UNICEF was contributing over 100 USD for the nutrition project and the state government was also contributing its matching grant.
“UNICEF is funding from the support we got from the United States Agency for International Development (UNDP),” he said.
In his remarks, the Executive Secretary, State Primary Healthcare Development Agency, Dr Shamsudeen Yahaya, said that the state government would contribute about N500 million for malnutrition control in the state.
According to him, the amount would be used to purchase the Ready to Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF) and distributed to malnourished children, and for other services for the management of the disease.
He said that the survey would enable the government to know the magnitude and the distribution of malnutrition across 34 local government areas of the state.
Yahaya said that they had received reports that some unpatriotic healthcare workers and mothers were trading the RUTF instead of using the high energy giving food supplement to treat malnourished children.
He, therefore, warned such workers and caregivers to either desist from that habit or face wrath of the law.
The executive secretary revealed that the government would engage security personnel to fight against diversion of the supplements.
Also speaking, Mr Nura Shehu, a Nutritionist, said that malnutrition was a local problem that required local solution tackle it.
“All the food varieties are available in communities, but people lack proper knowledge on how to use them,” he said.(NAN)
