The Department of Nutrition, HIV/AIDS was established in the Office of the President and Cabinet (OPC) as a technical authority to assist the Minister responsible for Nutrition, HIV/AIDS and the state President in providing policy direction, guidance and oversight; facilitation of the mainstreaming and creation of operational structures; the production, enactment and enforcement of legislation, and networking on issues of nutrition, HIV/AIDS in Malawi.
Its vision is to enhance adequate nutrition and reduced HIV/AIDS prevalence for all Malawians, with provision of policy direction and guidance on all matters relating to Nutrition, HIV/AIDS in the country.
The department also focuses on promotion of productive lives for all Malawians through the prevention and management of nutrition disorders, as well as HIV/AIDS.
To date, the Department has produced all the necessary policies and legal documents that have facilitated the reduction in mortality rate due to malnutrition from 20% when compared with nutrition rehabilitation units to 2% and default rate to 10% from 50% while survival rate has increased to 86% for the first time in 15 years.
AIDS related mortality rate has also reduced from 10 people per hour to 2.5 per hour, the survival rate 70% while mortality rate has reduced by 75% due to the free ARVs which is being received by 184,405 people (70%) are still arrive from 2004 when they started.
