Media role sought in addressing malnutrition

LAHORE: Commitment from media is essential for mobilising the affirmative action to address the malnutrition issue in country.

A workshop was organised here to discuss the role of media in highlighting the impact of malnutrition. The participants pledged to actively play their role in prioritising nutrition agenda at the policy and programme levels in Punjab as well as raise public awareness on the adverse effect of malnutrition to bring about behavioural change. Speaking on the occasion, Dr Irfanullah Khan of technical consultant, provincial SUN unit, Planning and Development Department, Punjab highlighted the progress made by the Punjab government on Multi-Sectoral Nutrition strategy (MSNS).

For effective implementation, a Multi-Sectoral Nutrition Center (MSNC) was established under the Planning and Development Department. He stressed that media can play a very positive role in highlighting the issue of malnutrition for guiding the general public and prioritising the issue at policy level.

Aliya Habib said that malnutrition not only affects individuals but has dire economic and development impacts on the community and nation as well. Punjab has high rate of stunting among children under-five at 39 percent while the prevalence of wasting is 14 percent in the province as compared to 44 percent and 15 percent respectively of the national average.

The current malnutrition had been estimated to cost the Pakistan’s economy $7.6 billion (3% of GDP) annually. She emphasised that a multi-sectoral and holistic approach, including short- term and long-term evidence based approaches to address malnutrition.