By Sylvester Kumwenda

Dowa, June 5, Mana: The department of nutrition has said it is important to have vibrant structures that can respond to nutrition emergencies during disasters in order to mitigate cases of nutrition related deficiencies as disasters happen.

Nutrition Officer in the department of nutrition, Pamela Alice Jumbe made the remarks on Tuesday on the sidelines of a training aimed at orienting Dowa District Nutrition Coordination Committee (DNCC) on nutrition emergency response.

Jumbe said DNCCs, which are at the core of nutrition related activities at district level, usually, face challenges on how they can respond to nutrition challenges whenever an emergency happens.

"For this reason, we are orienting the DNCC members on how they can better respond to nutrition in emergencies, whether it is to do with infant and young child feeding, required nutrition interventions, and also how they can coordinate better with other sectors so that our response should be diverse," she said.

Jumbe observed that the last similar orientation took place in 2015, hence it was high time to train the committees considering the recent disasters the country has faced.

She said a recent survey has shown that there is an increase in cases of malnutrition, mostly because of cyclones Freddy, Annah, and other emergencies which recently hit Malawi.

"So we are trying to build capacity so that even if emergencies happen, the DNCC members can intensify their response so that we will reduce cases of malnutrition," she said.

She said after the training, which was financed by Momentum, the DNCC members are also expected to orient local structures like the Area Nutrition Coordinating Committees and Village Nutrition Coordinating Committees.

In his remarks, Principal Nutrition and HIV Officer for Dowa, Noel Chikumbu said the training comes at the right time especially after the district was hit with flash floods last in 2023, which also needed emergency response to nutrition issues.

"There was a gap because our nutrition cluster was not that active. We have had flash floods in Traditional Authorities Mponela and Dzoole which caught us unawares, and needed immediate response in various areas including nutrition.

"So this training will capacitate the DNCC to be able to respond, through the district nutrition cluster, to various nutrition emergencies emanating from disasters that can affect our district," said Chikumbu.