Graca Michel a wife to the former South African President late Nelson Mandela through her institution-Graca Michel Trust (GMT) has commended the country’s efforts to reduce the nation’s stunted growth which is now at 42.5% from 48% in 2010.
Michel with GMT team was in the country for a two-visit from Thursday, August 20 to Friday, August 21, 2015 aimed at accelerating efforts to end child marriages and improve education of the girl child and nutrition outcomes.
Partners organizations involved in her coming into the country including Ministry of Gender, Children, Disability and Social Welfare, UN women, World Food Program (WFP), Civil Society Nutrition Alliance (CSONA), Network of African Business Women (NABW), Girls not Brides and Girls Education Network (GEN).
Speaking to the Maravi Post after crossing Members of Parliament (MPs) and Civil Society Organisation (CSOs) nutrition champion conference which CSONA organized on Friday, August 21, Rachel Toku-Appiah, and GMT’s Nutrition Program Manager lauded Malawi’s effort to reduce the stunted growth rate which is currently dropping though still topping the list in SADC region.
Toku- Appiah emphasized the need for working closely with the communities with collaboration among all relevant stakeholders in the nutrition sector with which she said was vital to fight stunted growth in children under the age of five.
“Malawi has good policies and strategies on nutrition with committed authorities but what has remained is implementation by engaging communities including children and women who are on forefront in preparing nutritious foods for proper growth.
“It’s also encouraging to note that the nations’ legislators are leading the way in combating stunted growth which is still high when comparing with other neighboring countries but with efforts put in place, there will great change in coming years”, assures Toku- Appiah.
Later, The Maravi Post caught up with Lucius Banda, a member of Parliamentary Committee on Nutrition who vowed to champion nutrition issues to his constituency by making sure that communities were given right information on right foods to take.
“We will continue lobbying government to increase budget allocation towards nutrition sector as enough resources will an able us scaling up programmes including sensitization of the communities on the right foods with nutrition values which are locally available to them”, says Banda who is also a renowned musician.
Graca Michel Trust works across the African continent on core three issues including women and children rights, democracy and governance whose founder is Graca Michel a renowned international advocate for women and children rights.
