Nutrition Intervention: Kaduna Govt Develops Operational Plan for 2020 Budget

By Uangbaoje Alex, Kaduna

The Kaduna State Government on Wednesday began a two-day meeting to develop 2020 Annual Operational Plan (AOP) for the state’s Multi-sectoral Strategic Plan of Action for Food and Nutrition (KDMSPAN), 2020 to 2024.

Malam Salisu Lawal, Director, Development Aid Coordination, State Planning and Budget Commission, said at the opening of the meeting in Zaria that the plan would guide the implementation of the KDMSPAN in 2020.

Salisu, represented by Mrs Priscila Dariya, a Principal Planning Officer in the commission said that the plan would be costed for implementation in the 2020 budget.

He described the KDMSPAN as the driving force behind nutrition interventions in the state.

“The overall goal of the Plan is to improve the nutritional status of all people in Kaduna state, particularly children aged zero to 23 months, lactating women, pregnant women and
Adolescents.

“The objective of the meeting, supported by Civil Society Scaling-Up Nutrition in Nigeria (CS-SUNN) is to enable line Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to develop an AOP for implementation to be captured in the 2020 budget,“ he said.

He thanked CS-SUNN, Alive and Thrive, Save the Children International, UNICEF, CSOs and other development partners supporting the state in the fight against malnutrition.

Also, Dr Zainab Kwaru, Project Manager, Accelerating Nutrition Result in Nigeria in the state, said that the goal would be achieved through implementation of nutrition-specific and nutrition-sensitive interventions.

Kwaru said the operational plan had set out the objectives and strategies for achieving the needed outcome; a well-nourished citizen that would contribute to the economic growth and prosperity of the state.

“This can be achieved through scaling up of high impact and low-cost nutrition-specific and nutrition-sensitive interventions.

“This will particularly focus on vulnerable groups especially women of reproductive age and children less than five years of age as well as internally displaced persons among others,“ she said.

On his part, Mr. Sunday Okoronkwo, CS-SUNN’s Project Manager who noted that developing the plan was not enough, stressed the need to ensure that the plan was well implemented.

Okoronkwo explained that the AOP would extract activities for 2020 in the five-year KDMSPAN and mainstream the strategy and activities in the 2020 budget for implementation.

“This will ensure that the plan is implemented according to design to prevent gaps usually associated with non-implementation of activities outlined for a given year in a plan,“ he said.