MMD youths calls on govt to repeal Nutrition Act

MDD Youth Secretary Bowman Lusambo

The opposition Movement for Multi Party Democracy (MMD) Youths have called on government to expedite the process of repealing the current Nutrition Act by presenting a bill to the National Assembly in the next sitting.

And the MMD Youths have appealed to President Edgar Lungu to elevate the National Food and Nutrition Commission to the Office of the Vice President.

MDD Youth Secretary Bowman Lusambo believes that this will be a step towards prioritizing the fight against malnutrition and enable smooth implementation of nutrition targets agreed upon at the London Nutrition for Growth Hunger Summit in June 2013.

Mr. Lusambo says it is unacceptable that Zambia has close to 40 percent of its children under the age of five stunted due to poor management of nutrition issues.

He states that politicians have devoted immense amount of time to bickering and insulting each other without offering workable solutions to the country’s myriad of social and economic challenges.

He says if one examines the development indicators, Zambia is still lowly ranked on the UN Human Development Index which over 68 percent of its citizens classified as living in poverty.

Mr. Lusambo says one of the key challenges facing the people today is malnutrition.

He says President Lungu needs to pronounce himself and his vision to eliminating malnutrition and poor sanitation which afflicts millions of the people.

Mr. Lusambo says in its current state, the National Food and Nutrition Commission is handicap to effectively push the nutrition agenda.