Nandi County partners with UNICEF to address malnutrition.

Nandi County Government has partnered with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) to address the high levels of child malnutrition in the region.

According to the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey 2014, Nandi is one of the most affected counties.

The findings indicated that stunting among children below the age of five was 29.5 percent against the national level of 26 percent. Underweight children in the county stood at 11 percent.

Nandi Governor Stephen Sang said the figures were alarming and necessitated immediate and long term interventions.

“we have a target of reducing malnutrition in our county by 50 percent in the next five years,” said Sang.

He said his administration had increased nutrition experts from 18 to 74 to salvage the situation.

Together with UNICEF, the county developed a multi sectoral nutrition action plan that will involve interventions from m key sectors including health, social protection, sports, water, hygiene, and sanitation among others.

“The county’s plan will be used as a document for financing nutrition interventions and putting more emphasis on domestic financing which is key in sustainability of nutrition programs,” Sang noted.

Present during the launch of the county nutrition action plan was Nutrition International Delegation president Joel Spicer among other guests.

Spicer congratulated the county government for ensuring that everyone is healthy thru the department of nutrition.