News:
October 26, 2020
Speaker of the Economic Community of West African State (ECOWAS) Rt. Honorable Sidie Mohamed Tunis on Monday, October 26, 2020 chaired a high-level regional meeting with the West and Central African parliamentarians on mobilizing, parliamentarians and keeping nutrition as a priority during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The meeting which was sponsored by the Action Against Hunger, Bill and Melinda Gate Foundation, and other international Non-Governmental Organisations was held virtually and comprised lawmakers from nine West and Central Africa countries including Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Gabon, Ghana, Niger, Nigeria Senegal, and Sierra Leone.
Additionally, the meeting is also scheduled to have another session on the situation on the corona virus impact and resilience of West and Central African communities, and would be climaxed by a global discussion and co-chaired by Mamadou Diop Gnoumou and president for Nutrition and Food Security in Africa, Yves Fernand Mamfoumbi.
Meanwhile, Action Against Hunger, the world expert on hunger and malnutrition with over forty years operational experience confirmed during the World Food Day on Friday, October 16, 2020 that over seven percent of the world’s children under age five approximately forty-seven million children in 2019 suffer from a dangerous form of malnutrition referred to as acute malnutrition.
And further suggests that world hunger is projected to rise to an additional one hundred and thirty-two million people this year as a result of the pandemic with acute malnutrition itself projected to rise to fourteen percent, bringing the number of children under age five with acute malnutrition to fifty-four million.
Hence, the organisation calls for urgent action to save children’s lives and avert increased acute malnutrition and hunger during the pandemic and beyond.
Against, this backdrop, the meeting of the Members of Parliament from West and Central Africa comes exactly a period when Action Against Hunger, calls for global response in keeping nutrition as a priority during COVID-19.
Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/Ghanamps.com