Somalia’s Sun Movement held two days consultative discussion to address about cost of the diet analysis, which is a method to determine the minimum cost of locally available foods that meets the nutrient needs of an individual or a typical household in 2019 here in Mogadishu this week, SONNA reported.
The SUN movement focal point for Somalia, Dr. Mohamed Abdi Farah said that conducting the cost of the diet analysis in the country will help us know whether the diet consumed in different livelihood zones is nutritious and affordable, telling that this was intended to help the country to make their policies and projects pro-poor.
Mr. Farah stated that in order to officially conduct the cost of the diet analysis in 2019, Sun Movement is currently undertaking a short-term preliminary assessment.
“This is a readiness assessment to determine whether the country is in a position to conduct the cost of the diet fully and what materials it requires as well as the steps involved”, Mr. Farah said.
The cost of the diet process is a multi-sectoral and requires lots of stakeholder consultations and against this background, SUN Movement Somalia engaged a consultant to facilitate the process.
On Sunday 9th, a stakeholder discussion with several government DGs was held at the Office of the Prime Minister of the Somalia about the cost of the diet and its processes.
The SUN secretariat facilitated a discussion on data availability, reliability and the key sources and the government’s take on secondary data. The DGs unanimously refused the use of secondary data.
Head of Nutrition under the Ministry of Health of Somalia, Ms. Kheyriya remarked,
“Data collected by most NGOs are biased since their goal is to get donor funding. Such data cannot be used as benchmark. She added. ”
The following Monday, The office of the Prime Minister facilitated an FGD workshop with mothers and traders drawn from different neighborhoods within Mogadishu to discuss the diets locally available and mostly consumed in this locality.
This same exercise will be conducted in all states including Somali-land
This was essential to formally put to rest the discussion of whether Somalia has one staple diet or multiple staple diets.
