Visiting UN official urges Pakistan to translate nutrition policies into concrete actions 

Islamabad

Pakistan has good policies and laws but it is now time to translate those policies into actions.  For every single dollar that the country invests in nutrition, the return would be $16. Capacity-building, behaviour change communication and generating the evidence base for policy formulation, planning and implementation are areas that require to be prioritized.

This was one of the key messages disseminated by Gerda Verberg, UN Assistant Secretary General and Global SUN Coordinator, here on Tuesday. Gerda was addressing participants of a national consultative meeting on ‘Fill in the Nutrient Gap (FNG) Analysis,’ organized by Pakistan SUN Secretariat, and the Ministry of Planning Development and Reform with support of the World Food Programme (WFP) and other other ministries and partners. All stakeholders from line ministries, provincial departments, development partners, businesses, donors, UN, academicians, and researchers contributed to the meeting. 

Gerda was confident that the FNG consultation and supporting recommendations generated could significantly and positively impact on improving nutrition and health outcomes of those most in need in Pakistan. She stressed the need for multi-sectoral efforts to improve nutrition, and suggested for the national and sub-national SUN focal points to work together to improve nutrition of population. She also stressed the need for capacity-building and behaviour change communication of local communities at the grassroots level. 

The participants were divided into groups around thematic areas of agriculture and food security, health, education, WASH and gender/safety nets to deliberate on challenges, strategies required to address the challenges, identifying major steps for achieving strategies and then fixing responsibilities on stakeholders who would facilitate the process. In the end, to take process forward, the provinces agreed on dates and timelines for replicating these consultative meetings in the provinces.

Finbarr Curan, Country Director of WFP, reiterated the need for concerted efforts from all partners under the leadership of Planning Commission for scaling up nutrition in Pakistan. “It is a very opportune time to further prioritize our actions based on needs for the short, medium, and long terms. The provinces have done the work in identifying their priorities, and today we will have the national priorities set, based on the analysis undertaken over the past few months,” Finbarr explained.

Explaining FNG, Giulia Baldi and Frances Knight from WFP Headquarter shared that it is an innovative tool to help countries understand their nutritional issues across the lifecycle and help inform decision-making around interventions to address the challenges. It helps to assess the most cost-effective means to address low nutrition intakes with a clear focus on the most vulnerable children less than 2 years, adolescent girls and pregnant and lactating women. Main messages from the FNG included affordability as one of the greatest barriers to achieving a nutritious diet. Also, under-nutrition in infants and young children highlights a problem with maternal and adolescent diets.

Speaking on the occasion, Francesco Branca from the WHO headquarter stated that too much capital is lost due to malnutrition. He called for immediate action on malnutrition; and said, “what is needed is actions across sectors and changes in food systems. Pakistan is at a stage where it can take action to prevent malnutrition, but without adequate nutrients, it is not possible.” Summarizing the issue at hand, he said, “Issue is in production, investment and affordability and all these need holistic efforts in the food systems and providing nutritious foods to the vulnerable for improving nutrition.” 

Welcoming the audience, Dr. Mubarak Ali, Member Food Security and Climate Change, Ministry of Planning Development and Reform, stated that WFP Pakistan, as well as the regional and headquarter offices have been collaborating in many great initiatives for scaling up nutrition in the country. He termed FNG as a recent example of collaboration under the SUN Movement. “This tool, which is being employed in Pakistan, is an example of strengthening efforts to strategically use country data to inform decision-making on multi-sectoral nutrition actions targeted towards the most vulnerable,” he added, before congratulating all experts for their contribution. He hoped that ongoing efforts will lead to necessary actions for scaling up nutrition in the country.

During her visit to Pakistan, Gerda also met with Speaker of the National Assembly, and the ministers of education, information, and planning development and reform.