TANZANIA is set to cooperate with the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) member states to implement Learning Network for Nutrition Surveillance (LeNNS) with the aim of identifying nutrition needs at grassroots level for rightful intervention.
This was revealed by Tanzania Food and Nutrition Centre (TFNC) Managing Director, Dr Germana Leyna in an interview with the ‘Daily News on Saturday’ on the sidelines of LeNNS workshop convened in Dar es Salaam this week.
She said that the move will help meet President Samia Suluhu Hassan’s directive of using data to address economic setbacks in the country.
“It will be difficult to address nutrition deficiency in the country if there is no clear data,” she said.
Dr Leyna said that TFNC will cooperate with IGAD member states to share experience on how to improve surveys on nutrition so as to establish the actual needs in a given district and suggest rightful intervention methods to provide nutritional requirements.
She said the knowledge gained through the LeNNS programme that included eight IGAD member countries would, among other things, help statistical tools on nutritional surveillance, which would be establishing reasons for a given district to have malnutrition while others are doing well.
Dr Leyna explained that, the 2022 Tanzania Demographic and Health Survey shows that over 64 per cent of children under five who had malnutrition were in such state due to poor breast feeding, which led to stunted growth, adversely affecting child’s mental and physical development as well as learning capacity in future life.
“Malnutrition therefore adversely affects on sharpening future human resources needed to push for development, hence increase a number of dependents who cannot produce for themselves,” she expounded.
For her part, IGAD Representative Dr Fatuma Adan, said that LeNNS would help Tanzania and other IGAD member countries not only with tool conduct survey with international standards, but also build capacity for utilising the data to solve dietary challenges.
“This will suggest where to improve the food supply chain to reach grassroots levels and end malnutrition for Africa’s development,” she said.
IGAD member states are Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan and Uganda.
