A two-day retreat bringing together development partners and government opened yesterday in Rubavu District with a call for mor efforts to fight malnutrition.

The retreat is being held under the theme; "strengthening Partnership for sustainable development.”

"The issue of child nutrition is so important for many reasons; Rwanda has passed almost all the MDGs but one of the very few areas where the target has not been met is the reduction of stunting,” Lamin Manneh, the UN Resident Coordinator said.

He noted that when a child is stunted, especially in the first a thousand days of their lives, this becomes a very hindering cornerstone of their life. This is why the issue of nutrition is very important.

The Minister for Finance and Economic planning, Claver Gatete pledged more efforts to ensure proper child nutrition and development.

"Efforts are needed in fighting malnutrition, and the government is giving it a priority,” Gatete said.

"Whenever there is something affecting the ordinary people, the government is always concerned. We have to make sure that all indicators of development are moving at the same rate. That’s why we are putting it at the forefront of our programme in the retreat and to deal with this issue of malnutrition even in schools, once and for all,” the Minister added.

Laure Beaufils, the DFID country representative emphasised that addressing child malnutrition will ensure a healthy future generation.

According to the 2015 household survey conducted by the national institute of statistics, 38 per cent of children were found stunted.

In the region, Rwanda lags behind Uganda and Kenya which have 33.4 percent and 26 percent of stunted children respectively.

Tanzania has 42 percent while Burundi has 57.7 percent of stunted children in the first a thousand days.

The retreat, that is in its 12th edition, is taking place at Lake Kivu Serena.

Manneh vouched for the retreats saying that they have contributed towards successful achievement of targets by both government and the development partners.

"Generally, the outcomes of the retreats are very encouraging. We respect the implementation of the recommendations made last year, which mostly revolved around MDG targets.

"Majority of them have been well implemented. Only three resolutions out of 13 made during last year’s retreat were not met,” Manneh said.

With Rwanda financing about 63 per cent of her national budget, Manneh, lauded the country’s efforts to ensure self-reliance for sustainable development.

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