Date: 2017-10-25 08:35:08 ID: 1742
Launched on 24 October 2017 in Bissau, the deliberations of the 15th ECOWAS nutrition forum, under the theme: “nutrition surveillance: towards an improvement in planning and evidence-based decision-making in nutrition security in West Africa”, brought together delegates from ECOWAS countries as well as many partners, including WAEMU, UNICEF, NUTRITION INTERNATIONAL, FAO and WHO.
Besides the country of participants, the opening ceremony was marked by the presence of many members of government, including the Minister of finance of Guinea-Bissau, the Minister of foreign affairs, the Minister of public health, the representative of partners and finally the African Union representative.
At the opening of deliberations, the partners’ representative, Mr David Karr, Coordinator of the United Nations system, commended the holding of the Guinea-Bissau meeting because it was held at a timely moment when all available data on malnutrition, particularly among disadvantaged groups, requires special attention in view of the impact of malnutrition on the general health of the people and consequently on the development of the countries. The nutritional situation of the vulnerable groups leads to a shortfall in GDP, hence the need to invest in good nutrition so as to achieve economic development of the country, in the long run. It is for this reason that nutrition is one of the priorities of partners and it is important for the various countries to integrate this priority into their national agenda.
Thus, a call was made to partners present at this 15th Forum, for the prevention of malnutrition, the control of serious diseases resulting from malnutrition, but also an effort to support an continue with food fortification.
The various members of the government of Guinea-Bissau commended the holding of this event and recalled the country’s efforts towards nutrition security of the population. The Minister of public health recalled various activities undertaken by Guinea-Bissau to control malnutrition and how his country, right from the beginning, joined the ECOWAS Nutrition Forum. Indeed, Guinea-Bissau actively participated in regional fora on nutrition since its creation, through focal points from the Ministries of Health and Agriculture.
During the 14th Forum held in November 2015 in Togo, the country was chosen to host the 15th ECOWAS Nutrition Forum. This choice is not fortuitous, considering the nutritional situation of the country. Indeed, the prevalence of food insecurity in Guinea-Bissau is 15.5% (WFP, 2017) and an overall nutritional situation of 6% for severe acute malnutrition, 27.6% for chronic malnutrition and 17% for underweight (MICS 5-2014). This is why the Ministry of public health, through the Division of the Department for food, nutrition and child survival (DSANSC) has a fundamental mission to design guideline policies and strategies (with emphasis on the normative aspects), training, implementation and monitoring of activities in the area of nutrition.
Responding to the various statements, the Deputy Director General of WAHO particularly dwelt on the sombre picture of the nutritional status of the West Africa region: “Our countries are experiencing today a double nutritional burden, namely the weight deficiency situation (under-nutrition) and overweight (over-nutrition). To that we can add the socio-political crisis as well as epidemics such Ebola in 2014 in some countries, which led to the aggravation of the nutritional situation of vulnerable groups whose situation was already worrisome. Terrorist attacks in north-eastern Nigeria resulted in challenges regarding responses to the needs of internally displaced populations. In this regard, WAHO, in line with the implementation of its mandate, has always given premium to nutrition in its activities. Indeed, nutrition constitutes for us a priority in the region and that is why WAHO considers the organisation of nutrition fora in the ECOWAS region not only as a simple duty but as an actual requirement”, stated Dr Laurent ASSOGBA.
Faced with this worrisome situation, the nutrition forum offers an opportunity for member countries to share their experiences on nutrition, develop a common vision of the nutritional profile of the sub-region, review the level of implementation of recommendations from previous fora and provide participants with a technical update on key issues in the sub-region.
It may be recalled that it was during the 14th ECOWAS nutrition forum held in November 2015 in Lomé, Togo, that Guinea-Bissau was nominated to host the 15th forum on the theme Nutrition Surveillance, following the midterm review of the implementation of recommendations from the nutrition forum in Bissau in November 2016.
It is also worth noting that on the eve of the opening of the 15th nutrition forum, the Minister of Public Health of Guinea-Bissau and the Special Representative of the President of the ECOWAS commission in Guinea-Bissau granted audience to the Director General of WAHO. Dr Laurent ASSOGBA conveyed a message of congratulations and encouragement from the Director General of WAHO, Dr Xavier CRESPIN, to the two personalities and renewed WAHO’s gratitude to the representative of the President of the ECOWAS Commission and the Minister of public health of Guinea-Bissau for their involvement in the activities of WAHO.
