UPDATE: JANUARY 2013
Graça Machel applauds Namibia for Strong Commitment to Scale Up Nutrition
Global Children’s Advocate and Child Rights Advocate, Mrs. Graca Machel arrived in Namibia on 20 November 2012 for a three day visit to support the government and its partners to accelerate efforts to scale up nutrition and reduce stunting in the country. The visit, hosted by the Rt. Honourable Prime Minister of the Government of the Republic of Namibia was to highlight the urgent investments needed to reduce stunting (chronic malnutrition), poverty and inequalities facing the country.Read More ▶
The National Alliance for Improved Nutrition (NAFIN) in Namibia is the multi-sector, multi-stakeholder platform for nutrition and involves participation of ten line ministries, including the Ministry of Finance and the National Planning Commission. It was established in November 2010 to tackle the high levels of stunting in Namibia.
Namibia is currently working on the development of a Country Implementation Plan with a common results framework to ensure delivery at scale. With ongoing collaboration and input from key sectors, the Implementation Plan is expected to include a results matrix with a dashboard of indicators for improved nutrition.
Currently, the Ministry of Health is implementing nationwide programs including vitamin A supplementation, deworming, iron/folic acid supplementation, zinc treatment for diarrhea and treatment of severe and acute malnutrition (SAM). Nutrition-relevant programs are in place led by cross-sector ministries, including agriculture, social protection and education.
Costing efforts for nutrition-related interventions are being taken up by each individual line ministry. Efforts are underway focusing on bottom-up approaches to costing and identifying support for conducting a needs assessment in order to accurately determine costing.
