The number of Early Childhood Development Centres (ECDs) have increased from 4,000 to 11,000 ECDs in 18 months and have contributed to the reduction of stunting among children, Dr Alex Mucumbitsi, head of Nutrition and hygiene Department at National Early Childhood Development Program, has revealed. ECDs are supposed to have various services including the fight against stunting among children, providing antenatal care to pregnant mothers, early childhood education, improve hygiene and sanitation among others. He said that the strategies to fight stunting among children include both prevention and treating those already affected further stressing that households have also chipped in with their own initiatives to set up ECDs on their own. “The villages’ households have understood their role and are gathering their efforts to set up ECDs on their own. About six households join efforts to set up an ECD,” he said. At least one community-based ECD facility with the capacity of a minimum of 15 children are needed per village. In 2005, stunting among children stood at 51 per cent and it reduced to 44 per cent in 2010 before further sliding to 38 per cent in 2015. Besides the contribution of ECDS in eliminating malnutrition among children, officials say that at least $52 million has also been mobilised to reduce stunting among children by 50 per cent in 13 districts across the country that have a high levels of malnutrition. The districts include Rusizi, Karongi, Rutsiro, Ngororero, Rubavu and Nyabihu in the Western Province. In Southern Province is rife inNyamagabe, Nyaruguru, Huye and Ruhango. Kayonza and Bugesera are the districts with the highest stunting in the Eastern Province while in Northern Province there’s only Gakenke. Dr. Innocent Turate, Head of Institute of HIV/AIDS Disease Prevention and Control (IHDPC) at Rwanda Biomedical Centre (RBC) said that children suffering from diseases related to stunting are gradually decreasing thanks to prevention measures put in place. “We are soon going to introduce new methods that will be used by community health workers to test and detect stunting among children under five years on a regular basis. We are training them on the new method,” he said. Rehema Namutebi, the Director-General of National Budget at the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning (Minecofin) said that government investments towards nutritional was 3.6% in the 2017/18 fiscal year, 3.8% in 2018/19 which increased to 4.2% in 2019/20. Speaking as part of civil society organizations, Eugene Rwibasira, the Executive Secretary of Rwanda Development Organisation (RDO) said that if Rwanda wants to become a middle-income country by 2035, stunting must be eliminated. “There remains a few years to that vision. We have to assess if it will be possible. We have to assess budgeting processes, the poverty trends, social protection initiatives to know if we are on the right track,” he said. He added that in order to eradicate malnutrition, there was need for clinical interventions. “Clinical interventions do not require a big budget. We have to discern crops that we grow and provide nutrients we need,” he said.
