ISLAMABAD: The health ministry is contemplating an action plan to address the dietary deficiencies among the people especially children issue.
“Large-scale fortification with essential vitamin and minerals in wheat flour, edible oil and ghee is the key to improving nutrition”, health ministry’s nutrition Director Dr Baseer Khan Achakzai said while speaking at a seminar organised by The Micronutrient Initiative (MI) and the Ministry of Health Services Regulation and Coordination (MHSRC) here the other day.
Dr Achakzai said the government was committed to making necessary amendments in the legislation and form a technical working group under the flagship of National Fortification Alliance to develop a national plan of action in this regard.
He highlighted the objectives of the seminar and elaborated the importance of conducting the situational analysis for wheat flour, edible oil and ghee fortification.
He elaborated the role of National Fortification Alliance and assured a more proactive role in coming years.
MI Country Director Dr Tausif Akhtar Janjua said that Pakistan could make one of the best investments in its future by addressing the issue of malnutrition.
Highlighting the nutritional situation, he said 44 per cent of the children under the age of five were underdeveloped.
Dr Janjua supported the potential scaling up of large-scale food fortification interventions based on a successful model of universal salt iodisation programme.
The government of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) would launch wheat flour fortification in the region soon with the support of the World Food Programme (WFP).
According to the National Nutritional Survey more than half of the children under five years of age and more than 40 per cent of non-pregnant women were suffering from Vitamin A deficiency.
Similarly, 40 per cent children under the age of five and 66 per cent women of reproductive age were vitamin D deficient in the country.
Speaking on the occasion, representatives of Pakistan Flour Mills and Pakistan Vanaspati Mills Associations reiterated their commitment in supporting government initiatives.
Nutrition Planning Commission of Pakistan Chief Aslam Shaheen highlighted the efforts that the government was undertaking to address malnutrition in the country.
Speaking on the occasion, MNHSRC Director Programmes Dr Malik Safi said that 2-3 per cent of GDP was lost every year due to growing unskilled, economically unproductive population due to impaired cognitive development.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 18th, 2014.
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