48 Ehsaas Nashonuma Centres on the anvil

PM’s aide says policy action is envisaged to address malnutrition

Officials on Monday said around 48 Ehsaas Nashonuma Centres were being established in the country’s 13 districts to provide health services and conditional cash transfers mainly to prevent children from stunting.

This was informed during the introductory meeting of Ehsaas Nashonuma steering committee held here under the chairmanship of Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Social Protection and Poverty Alleviation Dr Sania Nishtar.

The steering committee was briefed on the progress of Ehsaas Nashonuma programme that is being implemented in partnership with the provinces and the World Food Programme. Alongside, the steering committee’s Terms of Reference, strategic avenues for scaling up the programme, lessons from the first phase, priorities for quality enhancements, adaptations and integrations introduced in the design and roll-out of the programme were discussed.

The committee also discussed coordination of nutrition-specific programmes at the federal level in order to ensure cross-country, cross-ministerial, inter-sectoral and inter-provincial collaboration for prevention of stunting and malnutrition among children.

Ehsaas Nashonuma is a three-year programme that delivers conditional cash transfers to the vulnerable pregnant women and mothers with children less than two years, linked to the consumption of specialised nutritious food, immunisations, and attendance of health awareness sessions.

Turning policy into action, officials said around 48 Ehsaas Nashonuma Centres across 13 districts are being established countrywide at the district and tehsil level to provide health services under one roof through the programme. In keeping with geographical spread out of Balochistan, the Nashonuma Centres are also being opened at the basic health unit level in order to ensure easy access to the facility. Reflecting on the expansion of the first phase from 7-13 of the nutritionally vulnerable districts, Dr Sania said: “The first phase of Ehsaas Nashonuma provides a solid, context-driven and scalable model for integrating nutrition-sensitive approaches within social protection platforms.”

The expansion of the programme would be anchored upon the lessons from the field, operational reviews and impact assessments that have been embedded in the conceptualisation and design of the programme, she added.

The policy action has been envisaged to address high rates of malnutrition in Pakistan where the highest-burden is within the poorest segments of the population, the PM’s aide said.

SAPM Dr Sania said: “In order to enhance the programmatic and awareness outcomes of the Ehsaas Nashonuma in an effective manner, it is highly important to focus on the instructional beneficiary centred communication.”

The meeting was attended by two federal ministries and six provincial ministries representatives along with other officials from Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office, the World Bank, World Food Programme, World Health Organization, Asian Development Bank, Unicef, Federal Expanded Programme for Immunization and Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund and Nashonuma operations team from the BISP. APP