By Sarah Nansikombi.
A new report has found that Uganda is one of the countries that has been affected by malnutrition and hunger.
The Report Journalists Reporting Skills Survey-2019 prepared by the Convener of Civil Society Alliance for Nutrition ISANU Mr Richard Baguma says that currently Covid-19 has really affected the world. Uganda is among these countries hit by food insecurity and Malnutrition.
A new report further adds that the pandemic has really hurt several people especially children and the elderly. He added that also after interviewing 200 journalists lack adequate skills in nutrition reporting.
The report dubbed Journalists Nutrition Reporting Skills Survey Report-2019 presented by the Convener of CSIANU Mr Richard Baguma recently said that that journalists have inadequate knowledge and are not able to access information on nutrition issues.
The report also stated that journalists lack inadequate skills to produce and report nutrition stories as well as inadequate support from media houses.
The survey was aimed at; finding out whether journalists had been exposed to any form of training on nutrition reporting highlights inadequate knowledge on nutrition issues and lack of information on nutrition issues among others.
Most journalists (92.50%) revealed they would recommend for training on reporting about nutrition. They add that the training will promote better sensitization of the masses, help them improve on reporting skills, increase on the coverage of nutrition stories as well as increase on their knowledge base.
Mr Baguma recommended that trained Journalists authoritatively increase awareness about nutrition and training which will make them sensitize the masses from an informed point of view as well as sharpen their reporting skills and report about nutrition with more confidence.
The report recommended the following; develop a nutrition media training guide, incorporate nutrition reporting in journalism curriculum, undertake regular nutrition reporting skills training among others.
The report further highlighted the following as challenges journalists face; inadequate knowledge and absence of easily accessible information on nutrition issues and inadequate skills to produce and report nutrition stories.
Civil Society Alliance for Nutrition Uganda (CISANU) with support from Uganda Health Communication Alliance (UHCA) and United Nations Association of Uganda (UNAU) undertook the study in May 2019. The results of the study generated proposed recommendations intended to improve nutrition reporting in Uganda. A total of 160 journalists out of the 200 targeted responded to the survey.
Mr Baguma added that the ‘2020 Global Nutrition Report’ released on 12th May, disclosed how malnutrition remains a pressing global challenge especially amidst the current pandemic of COVID 19. The report reveals that malnutrition is the leading cause of poor health and death globally accounting for 19% of all deaths.
Similarly, the 2019 ‘The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World’ report released on 5th July 2019, New York, disclosed that an estimated 820 million people did not have enough to eat in 2018, up from 811 million in the previous year, which was the third year of increase in a row.
Today, Uganda still faces various nutrition challenges; 29% of children aged 6-59 months are stunted, 4% over weight and 4% are wasted according to the 2016 Uganda Demographic Health survey (UDHS). Other drivers of malnutrition include lack of access to clean water and sanitation, high disease burden, especially childhood diarrhea and malaria, and poor infant and young child feeding practices.
The Government of Uganda developed the first Nutrition Advocacy and Communication Strategy (NACS: 2015 – 2018) with the second one (2020 – 2023) currently in progress to support the Uganda Nutrition Action Plan (UNAP). This Strategy is built fewer than four thematic pillars. It is against this backdrop that Civil Society Alliance for Nutrition Uganda (CISANU) found it wise to conduct a Nutrition Media Skills Survey because of the limited media coverage on nutrition issues.
