The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has advised the Imo State government to enhance its investment in maternal and child nutrition.

UNICEF’s chief of the Enugu field office, Juliet Chiluwe, made the call at a stakeholders’ meeting in Owerri on Thursday.

The meeting focused on resource mobilisation and Multiple Micronutrient Supplementation (MMS) for improved maternal and child nutrition.

Ms Chiluwe, represented by Ngozi Onuorah, UNICEF nutrition officer, Enugu Field Office, urged the state government to take ownership of the shift to MMS.

She said the ownership should include policy formulation, implementation and adequate funding to ensure the programme achieved its intended impact.

Ms Chiluwe also urged the state to commit to the child nutrition fund to scale up MMS for pregnant women.

She said such commitment would also ensure adequate implementation of maternal and child health programmes across the state.

Ms Chiluwe further said UNICEF and its support partners would provide funding support, if the government made a commitment to the programme.

“Nutrition is an investment in human capital and every naira invested in it contributes to healthier children.

“Let us invest in nutrition today to ensure the health, support and prosperity of Imo children tomorrow,” she said.

Also speaking, the Imo Commissioner for Health, Chioma Egu, assured stakeholders that the ministry would provide necessary policy direction.

Ms Egu, represented by the ministry’s permanent secretary, Kennedy Adinnu, said the government would also coordinate efforts to ensure MMS reached all pregnant women.

She restated the government’s commitment to health as an investment rather than expenditure and appealed to stakeholders to make concrete commitments to MMS and ensure immediate follow-up actions.

The ministry’s nutrition officer, Etienne Obidah, said the state had remained stagnant in maternal and child health.

Mr Obidah called for holistic action that would not only be reflected in statistics but also be felt by communities.

He said sustained commitment was necessary to achieve meaningful improvement in maternal and child health outcomes across the state.

Each local government area was represented at the meeting by health officers.

(NAN)