Commit more resources to health

Page 14, Nov 14, 2008
Story: Emmanuel Adu-Gyamerah

THE African Regional Representative of the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN), Larry Umunna, has advised West African countries to commit more resources to health-related issues to ensure proper health of their people.
GAIN, an international non-governmental organisation (NGO), is committed to fighting against malnutrition to make people and economies healthier and more productive.
The organisation mobilises public-private partnerships and provides the financial and technical support to get healthier food supplements to people at risk of malnutrition.
Speaking at a press conference preceding a high-level meeting of the organisation in Accra on Tuesday, Mr Umunna noted that though malnutrition was preventable, it was the underlying cause of the 3.5 million child deaths worldwide.
According to a Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) 2004 report, 37.2 million people were undernourished in West Africa, while under-five and maternal mortality rates were among the highest in the world.
He said it was for that reason that GAIN had committed $9 million in West Africa for food fortification projects as a strategy aimed at reducing macronutrient deficiencies and alleviating hunger.
He said in Ghana, GAIN was supporting the National Food Fortification Programme with $1.8 million for a three-year public-private initiative to reduce anaemia, folic acid and vitamin A deficiencies through consumption of fortified wheat flour and vegetable oil.
It is the goal of the NGO to improve the nutritional situation of the vulnerable and those at risk, explaining that 65 per cent of children from two to five years and 40 per cent of women of reproductive age suffer from vitamin A deficiencies.
Mr Umunna said GAIN was also in a process of financing projects in Ghana on complementary foods for children between ??? and 24 months, with UNICEF in the area of salt iodisation.
He, however regretted that despite the impact of malnutrition on mortality, morbidity and national economies, a disturbing low proportion of the international resources for health-related development assistance were allocated to nutrition activities.
Mr Umunna noted that adequate food was a human right issue, while good nutrition was essential to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), adding that without progress towards the tackling of malnutrition in West Africa, it would be difficult to achieve these goals.