By Esnart Chingwalu
Civil Society Organisation Nutrition Alliance (CSONA) has called for a policy change on nutrition initiatives as one way of enhancing the sector.
The call was made on Wednesday during a consultation meeting that CSONA held in Zomba district ahead of their plans to disseminate policy analysis findings that they conducted on nutrition.
CSONA Zomba Chapter chairperson Racheal Kalima said the findings which will be disseminated on Thursday in the district discovered that nutrition initiatives are not bearing fruits due to its link to other key sectors such as agriculture and health.
“We plan to represent these findings from the review meetings that we had with CSOs in zomba district to be implemented in the new Social economic plan (SEP) and District Developmental Plan (DDP) underway for the next eight years,” Kalima said.
She added: “As Zomba CSOs we have seen that nutrition sector is laying behind because it has been linked with other key sectors like health and agriculture hence, we want the sector to be a standalone in order to improve the nutrition activities in the district.”
CSONA programs and communication officer Jean Banda advised parents and guardians to always provide dietary foods to their children to minimize stunting among children.
Currently Zomba district continues experiencing high level of malnutrition in all the facets with stunting, underweight and wasting at 36.5%, 11.7% and 4.6% respectively.
