The role of civil society organisations was discussed on Friday during a national consultation on establishment of Scaling Up Nutrition-Civil Society Alliance (SUN-CSA) organised by development partners including Save the Children Pakistan Program and Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund to address malnutrition in the country.
Muhammad Aslam Shaheen, Chief of Nutrition, Planning and Development Division said that the government has agreed with donors and development partners to develop federal and provincial nutrition plans of action and sees nutrition as a key ingredient for overall development.
Dr Irshad Danish, Advocacy and Campaigns Specialist, Save the Children, said that the national consultation is a major step towards establishing SUN-CSA in Pakistan which will monitor the overall situation of nutrition and advocate for policy and legislative reforms as well as adequate budgetary allocations to address malnutrition in the country.
Shujaat H. Zaidi, Senior Social Scientist from Aga Khan University said that the country is facing a silent crisis of malnutrition that is amongst the worst in the world and has not improved for decades. "It's a simple fact that nearly half of all children in Pakistan are malnourished, and this undermines their own mental and physical growth, as well as the country's prospects," he added. Pakistan's leaders must urgently recognise and respond to this challenge, and must prioritise the evidence-based policies and programs which can address this crisis, emphasised Zaidi.
Dr Tauseef Janjua, Country Director Micronutrient Initiatives (MI) said that although nutrition has drawn attention of policy makers, political attention has not materialised into concrete action. He said, currently nutrition interventions are mainly confined to the health sector, while strong political commitment, budgetary allocations, appropriate capacities for implementation multi sectoral nutrition strategies are much needed.
Faiz Rasool, Country Representative GAIN said Pakistan signed the global SUN movement in April, 2013. It is a unique movement founded on the principle that everyone has the right to food and good nutrition. It unites people from government, civil society, the United Nations, donors, businesses and researchers in an effort to improve nutrition.-PR