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By Jude Chinedu, Enugu
An NGO, Civil Society Scaling-Up Nutrition in Nigeria, CS-SUNN, has urged the Enugu State government to extend maternity leave to six months to enable mothers exclusively breastfeed their babies.
The Programme Officer of CS-SUNN, Hope Ikani, made the call while addressing stakeholders and other Civil Society Organizations during a two-day capacity building workshop on Advocacy Strategy and Budget Tracking for CSOs in Enugu State.
She said that the programme was to encourage exclusive breastfeeding, improve the food nutrition budget of the state and improve the health of babies through the extension of maternity leave for nursing mothers to six months.
She said the benefits of breastfeeding and nutrition include improving survival, health and cognitive development, preventing maternal death and improving the economy.
While calling on the state government to make a good budget for nutrition purposes to help the children feed well, she disclosed that malnutrition has an overbearing influence on the growth, development and productivity of every individual and nation.
“We are here for a two-day capacity building workshop, advocacy strategy and budget tracking for CSOs in Enugu. We are trying to build the capacity of CSOs in Enugu to be able to help bring the ongoing UNICEF project to completion. The new project has two important roles, one is to see nutrition investment go up from $2 million to $3 million in 19 states of which Enugu is part of it and the second output is to advocate for six months maternity leave.
“We are trying to see how we can get 3 more states from the 19 states to join the 3 states that are already on the league and Enugu State is looking like a low hanging fruit because they already have four months maternity leave here. We think we can engage the policy makers and relevant stakeholders to see how we can up it from 4 months to six months maternity leave to help the mother exclusively breastfeed their child in a good healthy situation.
“It’s very necessary to see this plan come true because nutrition is the bedrock of health, from the inception of a baby nutrition starts there. Baby feeds from the mother while in the womb. An unhealthy mother will definitely give birth to an unhealthy baby and therefore we have to push for a healthy mother that will in turn give us healthy babies and healthy babies in long terms contribute positively to the economy.
“One thing we are trying to achieve is the preventive cost because it’s cheaper to prevent than to cure. To cure is more expensive. We want to take adequate measures to ensure that 100 days of every child is properly fed with the best nutritious outcome of their life.
“At the end of this programme, the CSOs will be able to track the budget and expenditure of nutrition allocation in the state to see if we can get increased investment in food and nutrition of Enugu State,” she said.
In her goodwill message, the Permanent Secretary, Budget and Planning, Enugu State, Clara Eze, commended CS-SUNN for organising a workshop on nutrition and extension of maternity leave.
Eze who declared her commitment to ensuring they get every support needed to achieve success, said that every mother knows the importance of nutrition in their lives but lacks the knowledge of what to eat.
While commending the CS-SUNN for campaigning for six months maternity leave, she attributed government policy, social health system and commercial factors as being responsible for low exclusive breastfeeding habits in the state.
“I will make sure we get every support we need about food and nutrition because every mother knows the importance of nutrition. The political wave this time will change, it will not be business as usual. I assure you a lot will happen positively this time around.
“The state will take the campaign on food and nutrition to the grassroots. Eating well is not about having money but having the knowledge of what to eat. The state has a robust budget for food and nutrition and it’s determined to do more.
“I commend you for advocating for extension of maternity leave to six months. It’s necessary because a nursing mother needs a relaxed mind to be able to exclusively breastfeed her child. I couldn’t do exclusive breastfeeding to two of my daughters because of the government policy of three months maternity leave,” she lamented.
Earlier in her opening remark, the state Chair Advocacy, Steering Committee, Comrade Onyinye Mama, said the programme is a two year project of UNICEF trying to intensify the amount of money being budgeted for nutrition purposes from national to state level.
She also disclosed that the project is seeking to increase the number of months given to mothers for maternity leave to six months to keep the child and mother safe.
“We are advocating for six months maternity leave because experts on nutrition have discovered that when a woman is not relaxed in an environment, she would find it difficult developing breast milk to feed a child. So, the CSO’s is campaigning for exclusive breastfeeding for at least six months,” she said.
