By Steve Chirombo

Dedza, December 12, Mana: Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) working towards nutrition interventions under Dedza District Council have been commended for their support for the year ending, saying their usual coordination with government departments has been a landmark in ensuring nutrition levels in the district are enhanced.

The council’s Nutrition HIV/AIDS Officer Juliet Jinazali made the remarks on the sidelines for the year end presentation for the District Nutrition Coordinating Committee (DNCC) meeting on care group evaluation study by GIZ, which Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources conducted from five sampled districts of Salima, Dowa, Zomba, Ntchisi and Karonga.

Jinazali said apart from government, which also supports nutrition interventions, at times there could be more Traditional Authorities that require such interventions and that funding may not be adequate.

“As DNCC, we work with partners to financially support where there are gaps in order to cover up all the nutrition indicators in the district.

“Let me also emphasise that the year 2023 has been good in terms of implementing nutrition activities in the district because as DNCC, we have been having DNCC review meetings throughout the months and sometimes we have had these meetings right in communities,” she said.

Reacting to the revelations from the study by GIZ, the district’s Nutrition HIV/AIDS Officer said the study reflected issues in Dedza surrounding the care group model structures while adding that other cluster leaders or volunteers were dropping out or worked reluctantly because they were not being motivated in one way or another.

She was quick to say that the district’s DNCC is working towards ensuring that people are motivated through inviting them to review meetings and that her office is talking to partners to work towards provision of incentives to the community volunteers, such as t-shirts, wrappers and many other materials.

“The study will also be shared to other players in nutrition sector in the district so that they can as well adopt some of the recommendations like implementation plan and proper phasing out strategies which will help us as DNCC not to disturb the care group model structures,” she stated.

However, Jinazali further said partners had challenges on livestock pass-on programmes where most of the animals were not sustained, making them to suspect unkind weather conditions or poor management.