Callista challenges UN countries on nutrition

BY WATIPASO MZUNGU JNR

Malawi’s First Lady, Madamme Callista Mutharika, on Monday challenged UN member states that no government will achieve the Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015 if they do not prioritize issues of nutrition and eradication of extreme poverty among women and children in their respect countries.

Mutharika made the remarks in New York, USA, at this year’s African First Ladies Summit on Malnutrition, which Global Alliance for Imrpoved Nutrition (GAIN) hosted.

But the first lady was optimistic of Malawi’s likelihood to fighting the deficiency by the set year, saying her husband’s leadership was determined to do it as it has employed more action that talk.

“The developed roadmap on scaling up nutrition with nutrition being at the heart of the MDGs will be achieved by 2015 in Malawi.  Malawi is, therefore, calling upon the globe to walk the talk and not to superficially place nutrition as a weight in documents without action,” said Mutharika.

Currently, malnutrition is said to be affecting 2 billion people worldwide, with 1 in 4 children in Africa physically and mentally stunted as a result.  Malnutrition is particularly hazardous for mothers and their unborn children.  Zinc deficiencies mean that women are more likely to bleed to death in childbirth and a newborn has a window of just 1000 days to get the vitamins and minerals they need to become healthy, productive citizens in later life.

And in her presentation at the summit, Principal Secretary for Nutrition, HIV and Aids in the Office of the President and Cabinet, Dr. Mary Shawa, recommended that people should be eating foods that have high value in nutrition, especially Vitamin A, if their sexual life is to remain active.

Shawa was asked to present paper on Malawi’s success story in fighting malnutrition, achieving an impressive reduction and being among the few countries in line with the Millenium Development Goals (MDGs) targets.

“Vitamin A has proven to be the only producer of sperms hence the need for people at child-bearing ages to consume foods with Vitamin A so that their sexual life does not falter. Scientifically, it is proven Vitamin A is the only producer of sperms.  So if your sexual life has to be active, you need to consume foods that are high in Vitamin A, especially for men,” said Shawa without mentioning the recommended foods. “So, we need to make nutrition sexy”.

On malnutrition, the PS explained that the deficiency was dangerous as it leads to stunted growth, which then reduces somebody’s productivity.

"The reason is very simple, if somebody is stunted in the first five years of life, you lose 11 percent of your normal height.  Your productivity is lost by another 1.1 percent.  So for every one percent you lose, you are losing productivity by 1.1 percent, so that when you put that in monetary terms; you lose about $29-70 US million dollars per person per year," she stated.

First ladies that attended the summit included Ida Odinga (Kenya); Viviane Wade (Senegal); Sarah Mosisili (Lesotho), Penehupifo Pohamba (Namibia) and Sia Nyama Koroma (Sierra Leone) and Callista Mutharika (Malawi).  Also present at the function were World Food Program (WFP) Chief Executive Josette Sheeran besides Dr. Mary Shawa whom GAIN described as Malawi’s indomitable Secretary of Nutrition.
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