Burkina Faso’s health ministry has responded to criticism by international aid organisations of its malnutrition policies, which have led to a 10-year downward slide of malnutrition rates among children, by calling on them to join it in a new coordinated effort.

“For the first time, a budget is going to be allocated to combat malnutrition [and this money will be used by all departments],” Sylvestre Tapsoba, the health ministry official in charge of nutrition, announced to IRIN in an exclusive interview last week, following a cabinet-level meeting attended by the President and Prime Minister on malnutrition in July.

The health ministry will form a National Committee of Consultation on Nutrition, Tapsoba said, which will include the agriculture, hydraulics and fisheries, women’s promotion, education and defence ministries, as well as non-governmental organisations and international organisations.

Nutritionists will be placed in the 13 health zones around the country, and surveillance among pregnant women and young children will be improved. The health ministry will also conduct health surveys every two years, and set up early warning posts in high-risk areas during the five-month lean season which happens every summer, Tapsoba said.

“We hope to use the decentralised services of government ministries and NGOs to reach communities and sensitize them and to gather acute cases before it is too late,” he said. “All partners are asked to help the government finance this fight, because whatever the government does, it cannot do it alone.”

Non-governmental organisations including the major French aid agency Medecins sans Frontiers in Ouagadougou who were contacted by IRIN said they had not been consulted about the government decree, and did not know about the consultative committee’s formation prior to Tapsoba’s interview with IRIN.

“This is something we had been waiting a long time for, it was a necessity for the country”, said Jean Celestin Somda, a nutritionist with the international NGO Helen Keller International (HKI). “It was a matter of political will and the fact that a minister clearly exposes the necessity of such a structure is important,” he said.

“We welcome the new structure for effective decentralization of actions and information will help populations understand that simple actions can save children from chronic malnutrition that can lead to death serious handicap”, Salamata Sawadogo, an official with the NGO Sentinelles told IRIN.

“The impact of poverty and ignorance can be alleviated with a good coordination that will target populations who need help and tell them what to do when first symptoms occur”, Sawadogo argued.

Malnutrition still contributes to at least 50 percent of child deaths and nutrition is getting worse, according to data made available to IRIN by the Ministry of Health, believed to date from 2003, the last time widespread nutritional surveying took place. In some places, around 23 percent of under fives suffer from acute malnutrition, the stage at which emaciation sets in, the Ministry of Health told IRIN earlier this year.

In its communiqué announcing the measures last month, the government noted that malnutrition in Burkina Faso has worsened over the last decade, despite the increasing presence of foreign NGOs and donors, and improved nutritional feeding technologies available in the region.