Islamabad :Dr Nausheed Hamid, Parliamentary Secretary, National Health Services, has said that due to climate change, the food security situation in Pakistan is making different vulnerable gender groups especially women.
Dr Nausheed was addressing a National Conference on ‘Gender and Nutrition’ organised here by Action Against Hunger. Ali Tauqeer Sheikh, CEO, LEAD-Pakistan, moderated the session on climate change and nutrition.
Dr Nausheed said that education, literacy and other indicators of women’s empowerment are strongly related to the improved nutrition status of their children. She said that there is need for an urgent policy response requiring coordinated action among all relevant stakeholders.
She commended the efforts of Action Against Hunger in Pakistan for using an indigenous approach to eradicate hunger in Pakistan by focusing on gender.
Sitara Ayaz, Chairperson, Senate Standing Committee on Climate Change, said that Pakistan is particularly vulnerable to food insecurity due to its geopolitical position and climate risks. She stressed that Pakistan is the 8th most vulnerable country to climate change globally and now temperatures are rising and extreme weather and climatic events are becoming more frequent and severe in Pakistan. She raised the importance of stakeholder consensus and the importance of public-private- partnership to take sustainable climate change policy measures to eradicate hunger.
Christopher Golden, Regional Director, Action Against Hunger, welcoming the audience highlighted the resolve of his NGO to eradicate hunger. He said that the very fact that this workshop is taking place this year in Pakistan is an affirmation that the idea of sustainable development and eradicating hunger gained importance despite increasing arms race and economic competition among powerful countries and an understanding is growing for powerful companies to work together to overcome poverty by taking relevant policy actions.