
Maputo, 17 Oct (AIM) – Mozambique’s Food and Nutritional Security Technical Secretariat (SETSAN) has warned that over two million people are facing acute food deprivation in the country.
According to Leonor Mondlane, the SETSAN executive secretary, speaking in Maputo on Wednesday, at a ceremony marking World Food Day, under the motto “The right to food for a better life and a better future”, these figures represent nine percent of the Mozambican population.
“Of this number, around five percent are in an emergency situation. In the area of nutrition, 144,270 children aged between six and 59 months and 23,158 pregnant and lactating women suffer from acute malnutrition, which corresponds to around 11 percent of all children in the districts covered by the assessment”, she said.
In order to meet the challenges of food and nutrition security, she said, the government, in August this year, approved the Food and Nutrition Security Policy and the Third National Food and Nutrition Security Strategy (ESAN III) and its respective Action Plan.
She said that the government also created the Provincial Council for Food and Nutrition Security (COPSAN) and is currently working on institutionalizing the District Councils for Food and Nutrition Security.
“The government also plans to carry out the 3rd Baseline Study on Food and Nutrition Security this year, in order to update the statistics on chronic food insecurity and chronic malnutrition”, she said.
For his part, José Fernandez, representative of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), said that despite the progress made, many people are still excluded from adequate food systems due to conflicts, climate shocks, economic inequality and weak governance.
(AIM)
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