Femi Mustapha
The Civil Society Scaling-Up Nutrition in Nigeria (CS-SUNN) on Wednesday built the capacity of desk officers in the ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) in Kaduna state to enable them write good memos that can attract release of funds to implement their planned nutrition activities.
The trained desk officers were drawn from relevant MDAs which include Planning and Budget Commission, Human Services and Social Development, Kaduna State Primary Health Care Development Board, State Emergency Management Agency, Kaduna Emergency Nutrition Action Plan, Ministry of Agriculture, Kaduna State University, Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Agency, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Health.
In her opening remarks, Coordinator, CS-SUNN for Kaduna State, Jessica Bartholomew said, the training was premised on a finding that most times the money for nutrition activities are available but the responsible MDAs are not accessing it for their activities.
“So, we found out that we need to improve on the capacity of our desk officers in such a way that they can henceforth write an award-winning memo for funds to carry out their interventions which were why CS-SUNN decided to support the state in developing an award-winning memo sample to enable them access that nutrition intervention funds to implement the purpose they are meant for.
“In addition to what the state government is providing, we have Bill and Melinda Gate funds under Partnership to Improve Nutrition in Nigeria (PINN 2.0)”, she said.
Also, Programme Manager, Accelerating Nutrition Result in Nigeria (ANRIN), Kaduna State, Dr Zainab Kwaru Idris told Journalists at the sideline of the event that the training became necessary to ensure no stone was left unturned to reduce the malnutrition statistics in Kaduna state especially in the are of accessing he available funds for nutritional purposes.
According to her, “we have seen the unpleasant statistics of under-five malnourished children and we need to change that. We want to see zero hunger, zero prevalence of malnutrition and the only way to do that is if all implementing MDAs can come together and implement their planned activities so we can make a great history in Kaduna state.
“With all the investments coming from the government itself and development partners, it is important for us to get the desired results in terms of reducing the unfavourable indices we are currently having in Kaduna state”.
She continued, “we believed that if the different programme officers have the skills and competence to write very good memos, they stand a better chance of getting approval for their planned activities. Having come this far in terms of coming up with their annual operational plans drawn from Kaduna’s multi-sectoral strategic action plan on nutrition, they must see through its implementation.
“So, this training will help them to generate information relating to the planned activities and enable them to keep track and be focused on the activities they have planned to implement for the year which if they can achieve, will allow them to have higher performance in term of rolling out their nutrition activities and basis for documenting those activities”, she added.
She also encouraged the superiors of these desk officers to offer support where and when necessary by providing them with necessary working tools and space.
“They need resources to get these done. Part of what they required is a good computer, befitting office space and giving them chance to implement these activities. Getting approval of their superiors will go a long way at ensuring that nutrition is kept at front burner”, she noted.
