As per the Nepal Health Sector Program (NHSP) for 2010-15, the final draft of which is in the cabinet for approval, the ministry will team up with other line ministries -- Local Development, Education, Agriculture and Children -- to fight malnutrition which is also blamed for hampering the country´s efforts to achieve the target of MDG on child health.[break] The ministry has already formed a committee led by Health Secretary Dr Sudha Sharma to coordinate with the line ministries.
"We are on track to achieve most of Millennium Development Goals. But we are lagging behind in malnutrition," Dr Laxmi Raj Pathak, spokesperson for the ministry, told Republica. "The new multi-pronged approach, we believe, will enable us to reduce the number of malnourished children. If we do well in malnutrition, we will definitely reduce the child mortality rate as well."
As per the National Health Demographic Survey (NHDS) 2006, the number of stunted children is 49 per cent, meaning that every other child suffered the lack of growth owing to malnutrition. NHDS 2001 put the number at 54 per cent. As the progress in fighting malnutrition was not up to the mark between the two surveys, donor agencies had been lobbying for an integrated approach for quite a long time.
Nutrition section to be upgraded
Concluding that the Nutrition Section under the Child Health Division at the Department of Health and Service (DoHS) has failed to decrease the number of malnourished children, the ministry is mulling to upgrade it into a more effective body. "We are currently assessing possibilities of upgrading the nutrition section into a separate division," Dr Pathak said.
Donor agencies, which have expressed commitments to support the government for fighting malnutrition in its new five-year plan, have piled pressure on the ministry to introduce a new structure. "Donors are obviously not satisfied with the under-staffed and ill-equipped nutrition section," he explained.
This is the first occasion that the ministry has given priority to malnutrition in its periodic health plan. In fact, not a single special program, except for that of distributing nutritious flour to infants and their mothers in the Karnali zone, was introduced even after the NHDS-2006 exposed an alarmingly deplorable situation of malnutritio.
The numbers of wasted and under-weight children below five years of age, according to the NHDS-2006, are 12.6 and 39 per cent, respectively. "The number of wasted children is seemingly low. But it is only because they are already stunted," said Dr Sudhir Khanal, who works for UNICEF. In the central Tarai districts, 20 per cent children below five years of age are victims of acute malnutrition. "Albeit late, the government is doing something, which is good," he said.
USAID offers $46m
The USAID has become the first donor agency to pledge support for Nepal´s efforts to combat malnutrition. The USAID has recently announced to provide $ 46 million to various NGOs, which come up with programs aimed at reducing the number of malnourished children. However, this support is different from that meant for the government.
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