Katsina: Stakeholders in Katsina State have advocated for the extension of paid maternity leave from four to six months to encourage exclusive breastfeeding among working mothers. The call was made in a communique jointly signed by Alhaji Badamasi Sani of the state’s Primary Health Care Agency, Mr. Umar Shehu from the Ministry for Local Government and Emirate Affairs, Mr. Yusuf Ibrahim-Kaita of the Ministry of Finance, Prof. Saifullahi Sani-Ibrahim, the state’s Statistician General, and Abdulazeez Abba-Balarabe from the Ministry of Agriculture.
According to News Agency of Nigeria, the meeting was convened by the Civil Society Scaling Up Nutrition in Nigeria (CS-SUNN) with support from the United Nations Children’s Fund. The communique emphasized that extending paid maternity leave is crucial for promoting exclusive breastfeeding, which is essential for child nutrition and health.
The stakeholders urged the state government to expedite the implementation of a multi-sectoral nutrition strategic plan and to conduct a comprehensive assessment of malnutrition across the 34 local government areas in the state. This assessment aims to provide reliable data for effective planning, budgeting, and developing localized solutions to tackle malnutrition challenges.
In addition to advocating for the extension of maternity leave, the stakeholders called for adequate funding for nutrition interventions and the timely release of such funds. They also highlighted the importance of local manufacturing of nutrition commodities and the need for technology-driven data generation to facilitate real-time decision-making.
The stakeholders underscored that sustained investment in nutrition is a vital component for sustainable development, economic prosperity, and the overall well-being of Nigerians. With malnutrition affecting one in three people globally and Nigeria ranking as the country with the second-highest number of stunted children, they stressed the urgency of continued advocacy and action.
In Katsina, alarming statistics from the NDHS 2023 indicate that 60.5 percent of children under five are stunted, 26.8 percent are underweight, and 16.7 percent are wasted. The stakeholders emphasized the need for strategic efforts to address these figures.
NAN reports that this meeting aimed to build on commitments and resolutions from a previous stakeholders’ meeting held on July 15.