CSOs call Govt to look into food security and nutrition in budget planning

By Elias Hakizimana.

Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) suggest the government of Rwanda to increase the budget allocated to food security and nutrition to effectively reduce the burden of stunting among the children.

CSOs have been reviewing the analysis done by Rwanda Development Organization(RDO) under the funding from SNV-Netherlands Development Organization through Voice for Change Project during five years ago since 2013/2014 until 2017/2018 with the emphasis on the government’s budget allocation in Food Security and nutrition.

RDO Executive Secretary, Eugene Rwibasira said that the analysis was aiming at tracking how the government use the budget to tackle food security and nutrition problems.

The analysis focused on three main areas that include food budget in agriculture, systems of increasing production and productivity and how the government spend expenditures within that sector.

According to RDHS 2014/15, stunting levels stood at 38% wasted at 2% and underweight at 9%, and RDO says this is against the vision 2020 target of 15%.

CSOs were told that despite these alarming levels of stunting, public expenditures on nutrition related interventions have remained very low.

During the fiscal year 2013/2014, the total national budget was Rwf 1,677,693,583,398 and out of this amount only Rwf 117,225,434,016 (6.99%) was allocated to nutrition and food security at central government. In 2017/2018, the national budget was doubled, making the total of Rwf 2,094,910,480,545 but only Rwf 144,982,918,977 (6.92%) went to nutrition and food security.

It has been recommended that the budget allocation should target early child development that includes pregnant and lactating mothers and children under five years.

Districts also were recommended to increase their budget allocations on food security and nutrition specific and sensitive interventions.

Elias Hakizimana @theinspirerpubl