HEC joins hands with SUN to fight malnutrition

Islamabad

The Higher Education Commission (HEC), Pakistan and Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement have agreed to join hands in fight against malnutrition through advocacy and promotion of research on nutrition.

The development took place during a meeting of Assistant Secretary General, SUN Movement Gerda Verburg along with a team of the Committee on Nutrition with Executive Director, HEC Dr. Arshad Ali at the Commission Secretariat on Wednesday.

The meeting was also attended by Director General, Planning and Development, HEC, Dr. Mazhar Saeed, Research and Development, HEC, Dr. Latif, Adviser, member Council for Nutrition Dr. Ashraf and other senior officials. 

Speaking on the occasion, Dr. Arshad Ali said that HEC has been promoting research based on solutions to social issues, adding that nutrition and food security are very important areas which need to be focused in research activities. He assured the SUN team of full cooperation in advocacy and promotion of nutrition through the higher education sector. He stressed the need for coordination between academia and private sector with regard to awareness about importance of nutrition particularly for women and children.

He urged the Committee on Nutrition and HEC Curriculum Committee to discuss how to promote significance of nutrition in a proper way. He underlined that an action plan should be devised to move forward.  He emphasized that the real life problems regarding nutrition should be identified for research. “Execution of such plans needs to be ensured in letter and spirit,” he concluded.

In her remarks, Gerda Verburg said that a transparent system needs to be developed to concentrate on health insurance of employees of an organization. Expressing concerns regarding malnutrition among female population, she stressed the need for focus on availability of nutritious food for women and children.