BUJUMBURA September 6th (ABP) – The First Lady of the country and Chairperson of the Office of the First Lady for Development in Burundi (OPDD-Burundi), Mrs. Angeline Ndayishimiye proceeded, on Friday September 02, 2022, to the launch of the roadmap for the implementation of the recommendations resulting from the 2nd edition of the high-level forum of women leaders in the fight against malnutrition, held from October 19 to 20, 2021.
In her speech for the occasion, the First Lady indicated that since that date, the objective of the OPDD-Burundi is to see all children under the age of 5 benefit from three meals of good quality and in sufficient quantity per day.
According to Mrs. Ndayishimiye, the worrying situation of nutritional status and food security among children under 5 in Burundi led OPDD-Burundi to take the decision to bring together women leaders in a high-level forum in order to mobilize them to make commitments for the fight against malnutrition and contribute to the implementation of the National Development Plan of Burundi 2018 – 2027, as well as the Multisectoral Strategic Plan for Food Security and Nutrition (2019 – 2023). She further clarified that this also aligns with the OPDAD Strategic Plan 2019-2023 whose vision is: “A developed Africa with healthy and empowered children, youth and women”.
According to Mrs. Ndayishimiye, at the end of the second edition of the high-level forum of women leaders, one of the recommendations of the latter was to develop a roadmap for the implementation of the commitments resulting from the said forum. Thus, she hammered, that roadmap will structure the priority actions in the next 3 years with the general objective of contributing to the reduction of stunting from 52% to 45% and the rate of malnutrition from 6% to less than 3% by 2025.
In addition, the First Lady congratulated all the speakers and stakeholders for their efforts observed in the sector of the fight against malnutrition in Burundi given that an improvement in the reduction of stunting in children under 5 years of age is observed in 2022. However, she pointed out, there is still a long way to go from which everyone’s contributions are still necessary despite the progress already made.
Mrs. Ndayishimiye appeals to all stakeholders, in particular the heads of sectoral ministries, provincial governors but also and above all development partners for close collaboration in order to successfully implement this roadmap.
The representative of the Resident Coordinator of the United Nations system in Burundi, Dr. Richmond Tiemoko, meanwhile, indicated that the United Nations, the World Bank and several partners are ready to support the next steps. In addition, he let it be known that he is delighted that this roadmap has given high priority to women leaders from which he is, without a doubt, convinced that women leaders can effectively contribute to positive change at all levels. in order to accelerate the elimination of malnutrition and guarantee good health for the child and the healthy and sustainable reproductive health of the mother.