18.39pc households in Pakistan undernourished with majority living in urban areas
Increasing population of undernourished households is driving the nutritional and health crises in the country amid policy gaps and absence of proactive legislation in line with the rapidly changing environment.
This was said by Head of Policy and Advocacy, The Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN), FaizRasool on Friday while speaking at a media debriefing session jointly organized by the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) and GAIN to explore critical aspects around communicating food security, healthy diet and food system and its impact on public health and sustaining the food systems.
He said almost half of the country’s population is persistently facing threat to their health due to poor access to healthy diet, whereas 18.5pc of them were undernourished.
“Malnourishment and obesity as health risks are simultaneously existing in the country, as Pakistan is facing a double burden of malnutrition resulting in aggravated disease burden due to unhealthy diet. Moreover, 6/10 of population diseases are related to food related problems and poor quality diets,” he said.
Since the country is facing nutrition and food safety challenges there is no nutrition policy in the country as there has been no focus of the quarters concerned on establishing such a document, he added.
He underscored that there are serious policy gaps and no guidance available to address nutrition challenges in the National Food Security Policy approved in 2018.
Globally, he said 3.1 billion people, almost 42% of the total world population are unable to afford a healthy diet. He pointed out that there were food authorities in all the four provinces of the country, whereas food safety was the most serious issue after nutrition in the country. “Food security policy lacks a gender aspect to counter food safety challenges faced by women, whereas no youth, the largest part of the country’s population, is addressed in the policy which is contributing in almost every sector,” he said.
FaizRasoool mentioned that food security is a provincial subject after devolution, whereas the input of the provinces on National Food Security Policy is questionable.
“Our children will face 20% obesity alongwith malnutrition and stunting risks as 125,000 children are getting impacted from unsafe food,” he said. Pakistan’s food system transformation pathway document has been prepared and submitted as per its global commitment under international conventions but no progress has been made so far, he added.
“Pakistan only country in the world having the current Secretary Ministry of Food Security as 11th convener but in many regional countries only one convener has been serving throughout but we have repeatedly changed the focal persons in the last three years. Countries like Africa have better progress in that regard due to consistent working of officials designated for this position,” he said. He also mentioned that the climate change and food security nexus is also missing in the Food Security Policy which the media should extensively highlight as growing economic and ecological vulnerability due to environmental degradation is taking a heavy tool on the food security of the country.
