Businesses challenged to eliminate malnutrition
Newly formed Scaling up Nutrition (SUN) Business Network Malawi Chapter has challenged businesses to contribute towards reducing malnutrition by making good nutrition aspiration accessible, affordable and available to the consumer.
SUN Business Network chairperson Oswald Bwemba made the call at a news conference on Friday ahead of the group’s official launch this Wednesday in Blantyre.
“Successful businesses need to see a direct commercial linkage between their contribution to the health and well-being of communities within which they operate and their business performance. Nutrition and business is, thus, a win-win deal,” he said.
On her part, Malawi Confederation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry (MCCCI) communications manager Millie Kasunda said nutrition is critical for cognitive development which determines a persons performance and professional achievement as well as work productivity.
A recent report by the Department of Nutrition titled Cost of Hunger states that Malawi is losing about 10 percent of its Gross Domestic Product because of the toll under- nutrition is having on sectors such as health and education.
SUN Business Network is a global platform for business and nutrition, which seeks to reduce malnutrition in all its forms through engaging and supporting businesses to act, invest and innovate in responsible and sustainable actions and operations to improve nutrition. n
