NAWOJ, FHI 360/Alive &Thrive Collaborate to Enhance Credibility Reporting of Young Child Nutrition
ZAINAB JUNAID
As part of the vision to promote Maternal, Infant and Young Child Nutrition (MIYCN) in Lagos State, the Nigerian Association of Women Journalists (NAWOJ), Lagos State Chapter in collaboration with FHI 360/Alive &Thrive project have tasked media practitioners on motivational and inspirational human interest stories that can move readers to cause action behaviour change.
The duo made the call at a media parley jointly organised by the two groups recently to discuss issues salient to MIYCN in Lagos.
They reiterated the need to make positive difference in promoting accurate reportage on MIYCN and also strengthen story credibility with adequate data.
While speaking at the roundtable, Chairman, Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) Lagos Council, Mr Adeleye Ajayi, urged journalists in the health sector to extend their health reporting to rural areas and orientates them more on implications of having nutrition deficiency.
Mr. Adeleye enjoined the upcoming health reporters to emulate experts in the health industry who are journalists and have risen to peak positions in the health sector.
According to him, "Journalists in the health sector should try to emulate the likes of Moji Makanjuola, Mr Bukky Ponle, current MD of News Agency of Nigeria, who are professionals in health reporting and others who have made their marks in health reporting. it is when we have health reporters rising to the peak level in their beat or sector they covered that we can say the best has been achieved. Also, each medium should try to create Health Agenda Desk as done in News Agency of Nigeria which will make health reporting to be more effective and appreciable in the system."
Chairperson, NAWOJ, Lagos State Chapter, Dr. Adeola Ekine said the initiative was meant to improve reporting of maternal nutrition.
She added that, "The round table which is an annual event will help promote health status of mothers and thier children. The more we have journalists covering health sector, the more health issues affecting children and their mothers will be identified and likely solutions will be provided."
On the current role of media in MIYCN in Lagos (Opportunities, Challenges, and way forward), Vice Chairperson, NAWOJ, Lagos State, Mrs Bunmi Yekini, during an interactive session, advised Health media professionals to over look the challenges currently faced in reporting crucial issues in the sector especially the non responding attitude of government parastatals to appalling issues and concentrate more on Networking among themsleves, and also create awareness through diverse means to boost their nutritional benefits reportage.
However, while delivering a paper titled "Accelerating the Scale of MIYCN in Nigeria", Patience Ada Agada, Program/Monitoring & Evaluation Assistant/ Alive & Thrive Nigeria, explained that MIYCN is saddled with the responsibilities of meeting the 2025 World Health Assembly targets for nutrition enroute to the 2030 SDGs, provides a practical framework for supporting the Government of Nigeria towards building resilience and accelerating reduction in nutritional vulnerabilities for women and children.
To her, this can be achieved through improving the delivery and expanding the coverage of MIYCN interventions and how it has contribute to reducing maternal newborn and child mortality and morbidity rate.
"Since 2016, the initiative has worked with government, local communities and other key stakeholders in Nigeria to improve IYCF behaviors, services and outcomes. The initiative in Nigeria is funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) and it has so far reached out to Kano, Kaduna, Sokoto, Yobe Borno, Bauchi and Lagos State respectively," She said.
Also Speaking on 'Positioning MIYCN on the National Agenda- the role of Media', Mrs Olawunmi Ajayi, State Coordinator, Alive& Thrive Project, Opined that Media is a powerful platform for driving social change and are major influences whose words, writings and actions impact day to day activities, at such they play major roles in Disseminating health issues to the public.
