Luapula Province Permanent Secretary, Mighty Mumba has called on cooperating partners under the 1000 Most Critical Days’ Programme to help reduce the stunting levels in the Province.
Speaking when the Permanent Secretary under the Office of the Vice President Lillian Kapusana and cooperating partners called on him at the Provincial Administration in Mansa today, Mr. Mumba observed that the province has been struggling with stunting in children and poor nutrition.
He disclosed the high stunting levels and poor food nutrition are the reason the province should continue being supported through the 1000 most critical days’ programme under the Scaling Up Nutrition Technical Assistance (SUN TA).
“We are all aware that the first 1000 days are critical in a child, when you say this child is intelligent or not, some of the factors that affect the child are associated with food and nutrition,” he said.
Mr. Mumba stated that the government values the support of its cooperating partners and has since encouraged partners to continue with their humanitarian work of helping the Zambians.
The Permanent Secretary in the Office of the Vice, Lilian Kapusana disclosed that Republican Vice President Mutale Nalumango, who is in charge of driving the agenda for food and nutrition in the country, wants to see the food and nutrition agenda be elevated to the national agenda.
Ms. Kapusana observed that the food and nutrition agenda has only been happening in rural communities hence the need to elevate it.
“The President of the Republic of Zambia has said on several occasions that we need to have zero hunger in the country and also the Vice President has echoed that we need to reduce poverty levels in this country and from that point we are very happy to be with you, our partners on this team,” she said.
The Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany Deputy Head of Development Cooperation, Jonathan Gatzer said the team of different cooperating partners will visit selected districts in the Province that are focusing on the 1000 most critical days of the child programme.
He said the team is in the province to learn the challenges of the projects and how they can try to implement them and also how the implementation is going.
The cooperating partners that are in the province are UNICEF, German Cooperation (GIZ) and USAID.