The Danida Alumni Network Nigeria (DAN-NG) and other stakeholders, including the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), are partnering to chart the way forward on issues of food and drug traceability, antimicrobial resistance, and climate change.
This was disclosed at a two-day training workshop in Abuja yesterday, organised by
The Danida Alumni Network Nigeria (DAN-NG) in collaboration with Danida Fellowship Centre and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark, with the theme, “Strengthening Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) Surveillance, Biosafety and Climate- Smart Agriculture through a One Health Approach in Nigeria.”
Speaking, the NAFDAC representative and the National Coordinator of the Danida Alumni Network Nigeria (DAN-NG), Sidikat Kamal, said that part of the challenges identified is that Nigerian farmers have low awareness about antimicrobial resistance.
“Take, for instance, even within house policymakers, if you talk about antimicrobial resistance, some people will be like, what? Heard people today, rather than saying AMR, somebody will say, you have anti-malaria.”
Kamaru said the workshop was on strengthening antimicrobial resistance, bio-safety, and climate-smart agriculture through the One Health Approach in Nigeria.
“So, we identify those topics, take, for instance, traceability, prevention control, prevention of infectious diseases, or trans-border diseases, as we’re getting to specifically, the agricultural sector.
“We are looking at how we can come together and look at local solutions.
“Nigeria has a population of over 200 million people, so we can’t take policies from countries that are just like 5 million and say, yes, we want to implement it within our country.
“The strategy is, let’s look for an innovative approach to communication, to information.
Yes, the researchers have shown that these are the problems.
“We want to leverage all of that, the research findings. Then, on our own, we will do a SWOT analysis to know the strengths, weaknesses, the opportunities, and the threats within that framework of the things that we’re putting in.”
The national coordinator stated that the programme was a strategy for sector cooperation involving NAFDAC, the Federal Ministry of Livestock Development, the Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture, and Rural Development, and the Danish Veterinary Food Administration.
“So, these three organisations came together to partner to solve some particular problems within the country.”
Earlier, an alumnus of DAN-NG, Ezeudegbunam Eucheria Ebere, educated Nigerians and farmers on the use of farm inputs, such as fertilisers and pesticides, which she warned could result in the build-up of Antimicrobial Resistance.
She said that many Nigerians are not aware that resistance may have been built up over the years, as they have been exposed to various elements.
Ebere said the association recognised the interconnectedness of humans, animals, plants, and ecosystems, and therefore encourages collaboration among health, agriculture, and other sectors to prevent and manage the spread.
She said that agriculture was a significant component of one health because it is the way in which animals live and are treated.
“With the goal being to help, protect, promote, divert, and assist, we talk about animals and humans. Animals have impact issues. And also, the role of agriculture in one health.
“Resistance that had been built by some of us over the years, by struggle, by so many things. What we don’t know is that different elements have washed us. We buy fish and dry foods that we don’t know have been preserved with ‘sniper’.
Antimicrobial Resistance is a serious global health issue in which microorganisms, such as bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites, evolve to become resistant to the medicines used to treat them, making infections difficult to cure.
Another alumnus and deputy director in the Office of International Strategic Partnership and Trade at NAFDAC, Mrs Sarah Ajayi, said they’re using the platform to drive innovative change within the country.
She explained that the Danida Fellowship is a programme that provides opportunities for individuals nominated by their organisations to receive training from the Danida Fellowship Network in Denmark.
“Some people were trained in Denmark, others were trained in Tanzania, Tunisia.
And this network of diverse professionals made of change makers who are willing to build a map on this planet that they pass through the air, that they gain training, and they want a part of the environment to show that they are actually trying to make a change from the norm,” she added.
