A non-governmental advocacy group, the Media Centre Against Child Malnutrition (MeCAM) is partnering with the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) and Scale-up Nutrition Business Network (SBN) to boost information sharing on nutrition in Nigeria.
The partnership is sequel to the forthcoming MeCAM Nutrition Symposium scheduled to hold in Lagos on Friday, August 4, this year, with the theme “Malnutrition, child development and the media.”
According to the National Coordinator of Media Centre Against child Malnutrition (MeCAM), Mr. Remmy Nweke, the partnership would go a long way in scaling up mediaparticipation in the crusade to better the lots of Nigerians on nutrition with the right and accurate information.
Specifically, he said that the partnership would benefit child development and the role of media, in a developing economy like Nigeria and beckoned on other stakeholdersto emulate GAIN by partnering with MeCAM in this auspicious event.
Nweke, who doubles as the Group Executive Editor at DigitalSENSE Africa Media, also said that at the forthcoming Nutrition Symposium by MeCAM, would see to the leadership of the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) and Scale-up Nutrition Business Network (SBN) taking discussion on “Communicating Nutrition Messages to Stakeholders: Role of the Media.”
The GAIN and SBN team, he confirmed, would be led by Country Team Lead at GAIN and coordinator of SBN Nigeria, Uduak Igbeka, and would dwell on the sub-theme with expertise and dispatch, alongside other experts with vast experiences on the subject matter.
Further, he quoted the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) as recently declaring that estimated 12.9 per cent of the Nigeria’s 190m population has been projected to be among some 5 million undernourished people in the world today.
Nweke revealed that MeCAM is resolute to use this symposium to not just draw public attention to the threat that malnutrition poses to the future of the country, but to also correct the impression that this menace is restricted to the poor.
He emphasized that UNICEF had estimated, at least 2.5m Nigerian children suffer from acute malnutrition (SAM), thus posing the danger of many of them being at risk of death unless properly treated and of course with rightinformation.
This situation, he said, represents clear and is dangerous to the socioeconomic wellbeing of the entire country.
MeCAM, he said, is peopled exclusively by journalists, and mediapreneurs to push the narratives to save the Nigerian child from the danger of malnutrition through scaling up reporting and advocacy, among others.
The Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) is an independent non-profit foundation based in Geneva, Switzerland. GAIN was developed at the United Nations (UN) 2002 Special Session of the General Assembly on Children and was founded by Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in 2002.
In 2010, the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement was launched to support national leadership and collective action to scale up nutrition in 2010. SUN was convened by the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) and the UN World Food Programme (WFP) and further supported by an Advisory Group comprised of senior business leaders, with aim to reduce malnutrition in all its forms through mobilising business to invest and innovate in responsible and sustainable actions and operations.
To do this SBN provides a neutral platform to broker partnerships and collaboration between business and all actors on nutrition at national, regional and global level to support SUN Country plans.
Media Centre Against Child Malnutrition (MeCAM) Nigeria was founded Thursday, August 28, 2015, as a media advocacy group against child malnutrition and well-being, as well as to strengthen the agro-nutrition capacity and interest of its members professionally in contribution to nation-building, especially in Nigeria and across the continent of Africa among developing countries of the world.
MeCAM is committed to showcasing successful and development efforts in the area of agro-nutrition for the benefit of mankind and for Africa emancipation from extreme hunger especially in children, women and society,centred on Goal 2 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
