The Vice-president of the Republic of Liberia Opens 16th ECOWAS Nutrition Forum in Monrovia

The Vice-president of the Republic of Liberia, Her Excellency Chief Dr Jewel Howard-Taylor Opens 16th ECOWAS Nutrition Forum in Monrovia, Liberia

Monrovia, 18 November 2019 – The Vice-president of the Republic of Liberia, Her Excellency Chief Dr Jewel Howard-Taylor has officially opened the 16th ECOWAS Nutrition Forum in Monrovia, Liberia.

She said: “A profound change in the approach to improving nutrition involving increased political commitment, transformation of working methods, a stronger focus on results and a focus on the long term, is needed”.  She also charged delegates who came from the 15 ECOWAS countries to come up with innovative ideas of how to leverage the demographic dividend into a potential driver of growth and transformation in the region.

She also reminded the delegates including representatives of Development Partners, regional bodies, International NGOs, civil society, academics to propose sustainable actions to ensure that adolescents were not left behind.

In attendance were:

1. The Special Representative of President of ECOWAS Commission
2. The Honorable Minister of Health of the Republic of Liberia
3. The Honorable Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection
4. The UN Representative
5. The Chair of the Committee on Health and Social Affairs
6. Representative from ECOWAS Parliament
7. Members of the Diplomatic Corps
8. The Doyen of the Diplomatic, Guinea Ambassador.

The overall expected outcome of the Forum is to accelerate the Adolescent Nutrition agenda in West Africa, which remains a marginalized population in most of public health programmes.

The specific objectives of the 2019 Nutrition Forum are as follows:

• To update participants on the regional nutrition situation and current initiatives for adolescents
• To review the current state of adolescent diet-related diseases, risk factors, consequences, co-morbidities and current response in the region
• To evaluate the current (nutrition-specific and nutrition-sensitive) policies, programmes, interventions and best practices to improve and sustain adolescent nutrition in the region
• To explore mechanisms for strengthening health systems and financing for adolescent nutrition
• To analyze existing surveillance systems and the needed information on adolescent nutrition in the region

After officially opening the 16th ECOWAS Nutrition Forum, H.E. the Vice-President of the Republic of Liberia proceeded to visit the exhibition stands mounted as part of the forum. She interacted with exhibitors.

Exhibitors include WAHO, partners and ECOWAS countries.