By Amara Thoronka
The Honourable Vice President Alhaji Dr. Mohamed Juldeh Jalloh has been sharing his enviable experience at the ongoing 37th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of African Union (AU) Heads of State and Government taking place in Ethiopia, Addis Ababa.
“I participated in the African Union High-Level Round Table in Ethiopia today focused on “Addressing Malnutrition: Catalysing Africa’s Transformation Through Enhanced Multi-Sectoral Investments”. I shared our experiences over the years, particularly the innovative interventions to address malnutrition and scale up nutrition in Sierra Leone. We were applauded specifically for our initiatives to create a dedicated budget line for nutrition, and the use of a Multi-Sectoral Information Strategy and Digital Dashboard which was introduced in 2023 to inform and guide policy decisions and actions. I also underlined how nutrition has been vital to our success to improve maternal and infant health,” the Vice President wrote on his official social media handles.
Vice President Jalloh arrived Addis on Thursday, 15th February, 2024 as he represents His Excellency the President [Brigadier Rtd] Dr. Julius Maada Bio and the People of Sierra Leone at the high-powered African leaders’ forum beginning on Saturday, 17th February, 2024.
Vice President Juldeh Jalloh was warmly received by top officials of the Ethiopian Government and that of the African Union.
Interventions made by the President Bio administration is said to have made positive impacts in curbing malnutrition and hunger, while recent interventions are projected to drastically and progressively reduce malnutrition and hunger.
“The Feed Sierra Leone programme aims to increase domestic food production by 65% and reduce hunger by 50%. Sierra Leone created a dedicated budget line for nutrition.
In Sierra Leone, 26% of children under 5 are stunted with 63,000 children at risk for malnutrition. Since the rollout of these interventions beginning 2016, this has gone down to 23%,” the African Development Bank twitted, tagging Vice President Juldeh Jalloh.
In October 2012, Sierra Leone joined a global course in establishing a national entity on nutrition. The Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Secretariat was launched and put under the Office of the Vice President. There have been vice presidents since the initiative came into force, but nutrition is said to have significantly improved under the leadership of Vice President Juldeh Jalloh.
Copyright –Published in Expo Times News on Saturday, February 17th, 2024 (ExpoTimes News – Expo Media Group (expomediasl.com)