The Cross River State's policy on food and nutrition, as well as its strategic multi-sector plan of action, has been formally unveiled by Gov. Bassey Otu.
The unveiling took place at the Metropolitan Hotel, Calabar on Thursday.
The governor was represented by his deputy, Mr Peter Odey at the ceremony attended by representatives from UNICEF and leadership of the State's Planning Commission.
In his address Otu emphasised his government's commitment to improving the health and well-being of the people of the state.
He said the set target was for Cross River to become a state with healthier people by 2027 through investments in food and nutrition programmes.
He also acknowledged that poor planning, coordination and implementation could lead to malnutrition caused by various deprivations such as lack of education, lack of access to potable water and poor health services among others.
He said that such challenges would have short- and long-term consequences that hindered economic progress.
He disclosed that meeting the proposed target effectively by 2027 would require scaling up food and nutrition interventions within the state, adding that the State had provided a matching fund of N100 million for interventions.
Gov. Otu further disclosed that The State Planning Commission chaired by himself alongside Dr Bong Duke as Vice Chairman and the Chief Executive Officer, would drive coordination efforts under the newly inaugurated state policies to achieve better nutritional indices across the board.
He expressed gratitude to the development partners who collaborated with Cross River to improve nutritional indices.
He also acknowledged UNICEF's support in particular regarding the policy launch.
Dr Olusoji Akinleye Officer-in-Charge at UNICEF Nigeria, Enugu Field Office, said that estimates had shown that about 195,227 (23%) children below age five suffered acute malnutrition which was extremely dangerous.
According to Akinleye, half of child mortality is attributable to malnutrition.
He, however, expressed confidence that the new policies would provide an over-reaching framework covering multiple dimensions aimed at improving nutritional status across all vulnerable groups including adolescents, women of reproductive age, the elderly by the end of 2025 in line with the governor's mandate to make Cross River one healthy state by 2027.
Also speaking, Dr. Bong Duke highlighted the multi-sector approach, where line MDAs implementing either nutrition-sensitive or specific programmes were involved in solving problems around malnourishment.
He said improved nutritional standards throughout life cycles targeted majorly, the vulnerable groups, including children aged less than five years, adolescents, women between reproductive ages and the elderly.
