PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CARE INTERNATIONAL AND GRAÇA MACHEL TRUST ANNOUNCE A JOINT COLLABORATION ON NUTRITION ADVOCACY IN SOUTHERN AFRICA
By placing nutrition high on the development agenda, we can ultimately end hunger, achieve food security, improve nutrition outcomes and promote sustainable agriculture in Africa.
Thursday, 18th May 2017 – Johannesburg, South Africa. CARE International (CI) in Southern Africa and Graça Machel Trust (GMT) have today signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for joint collaboration on nutrition advocacy in Southern Africa.
Under the agreement, both organisations will work together to influence Government, the private sector and local civil society organisations to ensure that nutrition is placed high on the development agenda.
Michelle Carter, CARE International Managing Deputy Regional Director: “Malnutrition affects every stage of life and has severe consequences that can impact generations. Malnourished mothers are more likely to die in childbirth and have low birth weight babies and children born to malnourished mothers are at greater risk of disease and death. Furthermore, statistics show that chronically malnourished children face lifelong consequences in reduced mental capacity, lower retention in school and reduced lifetime earnings.”
The Graça Machel Trust, through their Nutrition Programme, is committed to strengthening civil society voices across Africa. They engage with leaders at national, regional and global levels to develop and apply evidence based policies on nutrition that promote multi-sectoral interventions to improve health and wellbeing.
Nomsa Daniels, CEO Graça Machel Trust: ‘’Access to adequate nutrition forms the bedrock of healthy, educated and productive communities. We recognise that if we are to realise our aim of developing our full human capital potential, we need to provide an enabling environment where nutrition plays a central role, to ensure that our children thrive, regardless of where they are born. We look forward to collaborating with CARE International to achieve a shared vision of a malnutrition and hunger free Africa.”
Michelle Carter: “CARE International brings a wealth of experience to this collaboration from our implementation projects in Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Tanzania, Madagascar, and other African countries. We hope to leverage the Trust’s convening power to influence governments and their nutrition policies.”
Through the partnership, both organizations will advocate on the importance and role of nutrition in development, and influence the implementation of the Malabo Declaration on accelerated agricultural growth and transformation for shared prosperity endorsed by the African Union in June 2014. In the process they will raise the profile of nutrition in the national governments’ planning processes.
Read more on the Malabo Declaration http://bit.ly/2rqi6NM
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ABOUT
The Graça Machel Trust works across the continent to drive positive change across women’s and children’s rights, as well as governance and leadership. Through our support of local initiatives and connecting key stakeholders at a regional, national and sub-national level, we help to catalyze action where it is needed. By using our convening power the Trust seeks to amplify the voices of women and children in Africa; influence governance and promote women’s contributions and leadership in the economic, social and political development of Africa.
ABOUT:
CARE International
CARE International is a leading humanitarian organization fighting global poverty and delivering lifesaving assistance in emergencies. In more than 90 countries around the world, CARE places special focus on working alongside poor girls and women to equip them with the proper resources to lift their families and communities out of poverty. To learn more about CARE International’s work on climate change, please visit: www.careclimatechange.org
Issued by:
CARE International
Email: info@care.org /mcarter@care.org
Website: www.care.org
Graça Machel Trust
Communications Unit
Email: info@gracamacheltrust.org – Website: www.gracamacheltrust.org
The Trust supports and mobilises civil society networks on issues of ending child marriage, ending violence against children, ending female genital mutilation and promoting children’s rights, to carry out advocacy and action across Africa. Special focus is placed on Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania and Zambia where child marriage continues to be a problem largely driven by poverty, gender inequality, harmful traditional practices, conflict, low levels of literacy, limited opportunities for girls and weak or non-existent protective and preventive legal frameworks.
Education is a fundamental right for all children, which is also a vehicle for social, economic and political transformation in communities, countries and the African continent at large. Recent studies indicate a lack of progress in some of the critical commitments aimed at improving education quality, access, retention and achievement, particularly for girls. In most African countries, girls may face barriers to learning, especially when they reach post-primary levels of education. By implementing multi-dimensional approaches to education which includes core education, personal development, life skills and economic competencies, the Trust partners with funding partners, governments, civil societies and the private sector to improve education access.
The Nutrition and Reproductive, Maternal, New-born, Child and Adolescent Health and Nutrition, (RMNCAH+N) of the Children’s Rights and Development Programme aims at promoting the Global Strategy for women, children and adolescents’ health within the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) agenda. The strategy emphasises on the importance of effective country leadership as a common factor across countries making progress in improving the health of women, children and adolescents.
Through its Early Childhood Development (ECD) plan, The Trust will seek to put into action the new science and evidence Report that was presented by Lancet Series on Good and early development – the right of every child. This will be achieved by mobilising like-minded partners to contribute in the new science and evidence to reach all young children with ECD. The Trust’s goal is to be a catalyst for doing things differently, in particular, to rid fragmentation and lack of coordination across ECD sectors. In response to evidence showing the importance of political will in turning the tide against the current poor access and quality of ECD. Even before conception, starting with a mother’s health and social economic conditions, the early years of a child’s life form a fundamental foundation that determines whether a child will survive and thrive optimally.