Health for all, all for health!

Nazia is a brick kiln worker. She also looks after her home and four children. During her pregnancies she didn’t have basic health care, nutritious food or enough medicine because of discrimination and intolerant behaviour towards brick kiln workers on the basis of their low-income status and physical appearance. This ends up leaving them in the hands of unskilled quacks and results in high mother and infant mortality rates. Sadly, Nazia’s case is not rare.

The health indicators in Pakistan are poor. Rapid population growth, mother and child undernutrition and infant mortality are some of the critical challenges that Pakistan needs to overcome. The 2011 National Nutrition Survey indicated that 44% of under five-year-old are stunted, making Pakistan third in the list of countries contributing to chronic malnutrition.

Fewer than one in 10 children between 6 and 23 months eat enough nutritious food and half of pregnant women suffer from anaemia and severe malnutrition). According to UNICEF, every year over 200,000 children die in Pakistan of factors relating to malnutrition before reaching their fifth birthday and many more die from inadequate care at birth and don’t survive their first month of life.

The UK’s Department for International Development (DfID) is currently the biggest nutrition donor in Pakistan. Fighting malnutrition, enabling the provision of good health facilities and ensuring access to family planning for those who want to use it are at the heart of the UK’s work in Pakistan. We are reaching millions of women and children through our health and nutrition initiatives across the country.

Today, as it come to a close, I stand proud to see the impact of DfID’s Provincial Health and Nutrition Programme (PHNP). UKAid has contributed an additional 1.3 million births attended by skilled professionals in public health facilities. I am delighted to know that through this programme, Nazia and millions of other women were approached and provided with the best health care needed for a healthy future.

And more than 207,000 children have been cured of acute malnutrition and almost 2 million children have been immunised in Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa through DfID funded health initiatives.

Population growth is another challenge that cannot be ignored if we wish to address malnutrition. According to the World Bank’s recently launched Pakistan@100 report, Pakistan’s fertility rate is highest in South Asia at 3.7 births per woman whereas the average of other neighbouring countries including India and Bangladesh is less than 2.5 births per woman. I am pleased to say that DfID Pakistan is providing education on family planning and has helped an additional 1.4 million families to choose when and how many children to have.

I believe the imbalance between food supply and population growth needs to be addressed urgently if Pakistan is to have a healthier population for generations to come.

The UK remains committed to supporting opportunities for those in need, and we have a wide range of health programmes aimed at eliminating extreme poverty and ending malnutrition in Pakistan. We want to ensure we leave no one behind, particularly those who are most vulnerable to malnutrition. Through our Food Fortification Programme - working with the private sector - we are investing significantly in public awareness campaigns about the benefits of fortified food, particularly to pregnant and lactating women, adolescent girls and school children. We want every single child in Pakistan to be healthy and nourished.

I believe effective partnerships with private and public sectors are crucial in achieving health targets in Pakistan. I am hopeful that together our joint efforts can make a difference to the health of millions of children and more women like Nazia will have access to the health care they need in the near future.

Author is the head for DfID in Pakistan.