The media plays a massive role in raising public awareness on nutrition and healthy diets, as well as advocating for nutrition to remain a top priority on the political agenda and ensure the right policies, governance structures, and actions are implemented to encourage accountability among stakeholders, discussed in a an event organized by Nutration International today. This session aimed to sensitize the media persons about the malnutrition challenges in Pakistan and brought attention to their important role in tackling the issue.
“Adequate nutrition is a fundamental cornerstone of any individual’s health but especially critical for women”, said Mr. Shehzad Afzal, acting Country Director Pakistan, Nutrition International. He further said that improving women’s health and nutrition promotes gender equality and empowerment but is also critical to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. Women and girls can have better opportunities to earn, learn, grow, and lead when they have adequate nutrition.This year, Nutrition International commemorates its 30 years of work in improving the health and nutrition of people in need. Addressing maternal nutrition is one of our key priority areas, by 2030 Nutrition International aims to transform the lives of 1 billion people – especially women, adolescent girls, and children – by improving their nutritional status, he added.
Pakistani women of reproductive age (WRA)(15-49 years) bear the triple burden of malnutrition, with almost 42% suffer from anaemia. Similarly,over half (54%) of adolescent girls (10-19 years) are anaemic. High rates of malnutrition among WRA as well as adolescent girls, coupled with underlying complications of early marriages, closely spaced pregnancies, and maternal malnutrition lead to a vicious cycle of high morbidity and mortality with adverse maternal and child health outcomes. Nutrition International is working closely with the federal and provincial governments to address the malnutrition issues ofthis segmentsthrough multiple efforts & interventions; in past five years,155,000 pregnant women reached with 90+ Iron Folic Acid Supplementation (IFAs)& 800,000 counselled with maternal and child nutrition and health, and infant and childcare. To prevent anaemia among adolescent girls, Nutrition International successfully piloted Weekly IFAs in 50 schools in Lodhran, Punjab, which is being scaled up to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan.
“Nutrition plays crucial role in economic and human development”, said by Dr. Irshad Danish, Senior Advocacy Advisor at Nutrition International and Chair of the Global SUN Civil Society Network. He emphasized that every woman and girl have the inherent right to good nutrition, which is essential for achieving gender equality and development. To address the malnutrition crisis, Dr. Danish urged urgent action to generate and analyze data for planning, scale up nutrition services in flood-affected areas, strengthen nutrition governance and multi-sectoral coordination, and increase public financing for nutrition. He emphasized the need for collective and targeted action to ensure that women and girls can thrive and contribute to their communities’ and nations’ development.
For improving malnutrition crises, discussions on active media’s role were emphasized. It was highlighted that media can play a massive role in raising public awareness of nutrition and healthy diets, as well as advocating for nutrition to remain a top priority on the political agenda and ensure the right policies, adequate budgetary allocations, governance structures, and actions are implemented to encourage accountability among stakeholders.
About Nutrition International
Nutrition International is a global nutrition organization headquartered in Ottawa, Canada. For 30 years, we have focused on delivering low-cost, high-impact, nutrition interventions to people in need. Working alongside governments as an expert ally, we combine deep technical expertise with a flexible approach, increasing impact without increasing complexity or cost. In more than 60 countries, primarily in Asia and Africa, Nutrition International nourishes people to nourish life.
