‘Malnutrition has lifelong impact on health, economy’

Global Nutrition Report, 2016, launched, followed by discussion on country’s nutrition crisis

KARACHI: Malnutrition has a lifelong impact on Pakistan's children and adults and severe consequences for the economy, said experts at the launch of the Global Nutrition Report, 2016, and in the subsequent discussion on policy on the country's nutrition crisis.

The seminar, titled 'Towards Sustainable Nutrition in Pakistan: Unlocking Barriers', focused on identifying multi-sector interventions that could help combat malnutrition and raise healthy generations. According to the experts, Pakistan has committed to ending malnutrition by 2030 in line with the global Sustainable Development Goal (SGD) 2.

Speakers on the occasion called for simple accelerated actions to improve the quality of life and to meet commitments under the SDGs, particularly goals 2 and 3, on ending hunger and ensuring healthy lives and wellbeing for all ages.

"Inadequate access to nutrition in the first few years of a child's life results in irreversible neurological and physical effects, diminished mental ability and learning capacity, increased vulnerability to deadly diseases as well as lower work productivity and earning capacity as adults," said Prof Zulfiqar Bhutta, Aga Khan University's founding director of the Centre of Excellence in Women and Child Health and a member of the Independent Expert Group that produced the Global Nutrition Report, 2016.

According to him, what is worse is the fact that girls who are malnourished in their early years are more likely to give birth to underweight children, which means that these health problems have a multi-generational impact. Speakers at the event noted that many factors are contributing to Pakistan's nutritional crisis, which calls for a multi-sectorial approach to the problem.

"The menu of multi-sectorial interventions is still being debated [and has] yet to be financed and implemented in Pakistan," commented Dr Shehla Zaidi, the director of the graduate programme for health policy and management, AKU.

Altaf Bijarani, the secretary of the planning and development department, expressed the government's resolve in rooting out malnutrition and stunting in the province.  Findings from the Global Nutrition Report, 2016, highlighted that other countries in South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation have a faster rate of combatting stunted growth as compared to Pakistan.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 13^th, 2016.