Fofana was speaking at a four-day training of trainers (ToT) forum on basic nutrition held in Bwiam. The event was being organised by National Nutrition Agency (NaNA) with funding from Japan through WFP.
He observed that micronutrient malnutrition is highly prevalent in the country with dire consequences for the population especially women and children.
Fofana noted that good nutrition is a basic building blocks of human capital and as a result contributes to economic development.
“Amongst the strategies to improving nutrition is through supporting interventions to promote personal hygiene and to raise public awareness on the main problems affecting Infant and young child feeding as well as to create an enabling environment for mothers and care givers to make and implement informed feeding choices.”
Interventions in nutrition, he went on, is beneficial as it yields very high returns such as improved physical work capacity -cognitive development, school performance and health by reducing morbidity and mortality leading to an increased productivity, economic development and poverty reduction.
Also speaking, Sulayman Jammeh, representative of World Food Program (WFP) said the training is important as nutrition is fundamental in everyday life.
The Gambia, he added, has a lot of malnutrition and still has a long way to go in improving the nutrition landscape in the country.
Modou Chayassin Phall, Executive Director of National Nutrition Agency urged participants to take good opportunity of the training as it would help in the proper management of their nutrition and that of their families.
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