Somalia has suffered conflict, political instability, natural and economic shocks that have resulted in acute hunger and malnutrition. The country experienced cyclical droughts, which led to a famine that resulted in severe levels of malnutrition.
Both economic hardships and lack of knowledge about types of food that contain vitamins are likely contributing to malnutrition problems, which adversely affect women and children.
Also continued displacement, poor quality of health services and lack of awareness is part of pervasive malnutrition in the country.
With the staggering number of malnourished people in the country due to the above-mentioned problems, health nutritionists are trying hard to reduce the suffering.
Among the organizations fighting to end the suffering of the malnutrition in the world includes scaling up Nutrition known as the SUN, Sun is a global movement united with sixty countries of the worldwide in order to end malnutrition in all its forms.
Somalia officially joined the SUN movement in 2014, since then Somalia branch of SUN led by the focal point who is also the advisor of prime minister’s office of health and nutrition have begun engaging with government ministries both regional and federal level and as well as stakeholders including academia and the business community.
The government of his Excellency Hassan Ali Kheyre has expressed a gesture of goodwill for the SUN movement vowing for his full commitment and cooperation which will, in turn, pave the way for a new era of sustainable nutrition in the country, unlike his predecessors.
The aim of the workshop was to interact with multi-stakeholders, share progress and learn from each other and be inspired to achieve even more.
As part of their mission to inform and raise awareness about malnutrition and to discuss the best way to improve the quality of the food we use, the SUN held a one-day workshop for Somalia chamber of commerce, an umbrella that unites Somalia business sector.
The workshop brought together a cross-section of key businessmen to discuss nutrition strategy and to identify challenges, knowledge gaps and priorities for implementation and scale-up.
As many as 40 people from business sectors, nutritionists and researchers attended the workshop to improve their job performance, gain insight into specialized areas of food and nutrition and network with colleagues.
