According to senior nutritionist Sarah Ngalombi at the Ministry of Health in Uganda, the ministry is benchmarking the notion to deal with the problem of newborn mortality and malnutrition. To that effect, the government has mooted a proposal to establish breast milk banks within the country. Breast milk banks donate pasteurized human milk for infants whose moms cannot adequately breastfeed.

In 2021, St. Francis Hospital Nsambya opened Uganda’s first and only milk bank. Ngalombi stated during a press conference with media on Friday at a nutrition workshop organized by the Right 2 Grow consortium that the proposal is being considered due to the huge number of low birth weight babies who need breast milk but can’t obtain it from their moms 

“So, one of the options is the breast milk bank, and we have started benchmarking with other countries to see how it will be socially acceptable in our country and also to make sure that within the policies, it is incorporated there if it can work,” Ngalombi said.

She claimed that the ministry held extensive deliberations and determined that the concept may be successful in Uganda. Ngalombi stated that the procedure should be finished in one to two years and that they have already begun steps such as determining whether there will be enough milk donors.

According to the currently available information, 54% of people in Uganda experienced malnutrition as children. If Uganda wants to have a productive labor force, according to Right 2 Grow consortium national lead Richard Kato, the trends on malnutrition must be changed.

“So, we are saying; Can we change the trends of our children, and reduce the number of children who are getting stunted when they are young because we want to have a productive workforce in the future,” Kato said.

Kato emphasized journalists’ impact on reforms in other industries and urged them to have a similar impact on the direction of nutrition-related developments.

“We want to hear from you, but also to mention that we are very interested in the programme but also as partners to walk with you in this journey because we know and recognize the unique role and position that you have in influencing how government works, how donors invest resources, how civil society organizations function, how people eat food..”

The Right 2 Grow project, funded by the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs and lasting through 2025, is an alliance of partners led by Project Hunger Uganda with nutrition as its primary focus.

The partnership, which is currently active in areas where malnutrition rates are high, intends to bring together decision-makers and significant stakeholders to cooperatively and successfully address undernutrition in Uganda in a multisectoral, gender-sensitive, and inclusive manner.