By Robert Katuli

Lilongwe, March 8, Mana: Chairperson of Parliamentary Committee on Health, Mathews Ngwale, has said it is high time stakeholders put in place strategies specifically focusing on nutrition financing, which is mostly buried in general health interventions.

Ngwale said this at a 2024/25 nutrition-focused budget analysis dissemination meeting organized by Civil Society Organization Nutrition Alliance (CSONA) at Capital Hotel in Lilongwe on Thursday.

He said despite the Ministry of Health recording the highest budget allocation ever, his committee is aware that money channeled towards nutrition is still not adequate.

“I think this year the Ministry of Health is the one that's got the giant share, 12.2% contribution has gone towards health. This is a record, and we are happy in that regard. As health committee, we were pushing for an upward adjustment towards health, and this has happened.

“But when you look at nutrition, it is only 1.1% of that budget. So the CSOs here are complaining that it's too little, and we agree that is too little,” said Ngwale.

He attributed this to lack of clear interventions, directly focusing on nutrition, observing that most of the time nutrition financing issues suffocate under general health issues, hence not receiving the needed attention.

“We've been talking about health in general, but nutrition wasn't given the attention it deserves. So today we have agreed we are going to gang up and tackle nutrition and press for an increased budget for nutrition next year. Now we've learnt we should be talking about nutrition specifically,” Ngwale added.

In his remarks, CSONA Board Chairperson John Chipeta highlighted a declining trend of resources for nutrition from 3.7% from 2020’s national budget to 1.1% this year, which is a further decline from last year’s 1.6%.

He said while this is happening, Malawi is still grappling with the triple burden of malnutrition, which includes undernutrition, micro-nutrient deficiencies and over nutrition.

“Compounding over nutrition is the issue of nutrition-related Non-Communicable Diseases which are on the rise with 32% of deaths associated with NCDs, a situation which can be managed if resources are properly invested.

“Let’s not forget that we are a country that was hit by Cyclone Freddy last year and this year more families are expected to be food insecure due to drought that has affected the quality of crops grown in this agriculture year,” warned Chipeta.

Among others, Chipeta recommended the adoption and fast-tracking of the budgetary allocation to nutrition at council level to 5% as committed by the Malawi Government at the 2021 Tokyo Nutrition for Growth Summit.

CSONA partnered with United States Agency for International Development and Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources, among others, to come up with the analysis.

Founded in 2013, CSONA is a national coalition of CSOs, NGOs and Community Based Organizations committed to ensuring sustained improvements in nutrition in Malawi.