THE Food and Nutrition Council (FNC) has accelerated its campaign to combat child malnutrition across the country.

Operating under the Office of the President and Cabinet, FNC is rolling out integrated training for District Food and Nutrition Security Committees (DFNSCs) in all provinces, linking nutrition efforts across health, agriculture, education, and social protection.

“We are doing a national training on early childhood development. We are taking into consideration the fact that food and nutrition security issues should not be handled by one ministry, it needs concerted effort from all ministries, hence, we are going for the multi-sectoral approach to addressing food and nutrition security issues. So the ministry, the government, the Food and Nutrition Council, and different ministries in Zimbabwe have come together to conduct this early childhood training. Realising that for early childhood development, we need all key partners to contribute to that,” Food and Nutrition Security Committee National Chair, Nesta Gumbo said.

Recent training sessions in Chipinge and Mt Darwin have highlighted the effectiveness of a multi-sectoral approach to combating malnutrition in Zimbabwe.

“Chipinge is a food-rich district, but malnutrition persists due to poor maternal nutrition and inadequate care systems. Only multi-sector collaboration can resolve this, and these trainings will help us achieve our goal of ending malnutrition since we are having experts from different ministries,” Chief District Development Coordinator, Mr William Mashava noted.

These trainings have been an eye opener as we are now aware of what to do in as far as early childhood development and fighting malnutrition is concerned, and every ministry has a role to play if we are to achieve our goals,” Ministry of Youth Empowerment Development and Vocational Training, Chipinge District Development Officer,  Mr Richard Gore added.

“In terms of nutrition, the government has put some mitigation measures to improve the health quality of children in the school by introducing a school feeding programme, which is improving the turnout of the children to the school and the dropouts of the children to the school. So that it helps in brain development, and the government also introduced what we call a school nutrition programme. That is offering iron and folate to the adolescents,” Mount Darwin Hospital Nutrition Assistant, Mr Rangarirai Chakari said.

The 2024 Zimbabwe Rural Livelihoods Assessment Report shows that 27 percent of children under five are stunted, hence the importance of the Food and Nutrition Council’s intervention.