Nepal makes significant progress in nutrition of mothers, children at risk: UNICEF

Nepal has made significant progress in the nutrition of mothers and children at risk due to inequities and the COVID-19 pandemic, said the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

Nepal has achieved globally renowned progress in reducing child stunting and scaling up nutrition services during the Millennium Development Goals era (2002 -2016), despite periods of political and economic instability, according to a special supplement of the Maternal and Child Nutrition Journal published by UNICEF Thursday.

However, the country still faces considerable nutrition-related challenges. Progress towards the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) targets on stunting and wasting is not advancing at the speed, scale or equity required and may be further derailed by the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

UNICEF’s “Nutrition in Nepal: Three decades of progress for children and women”, brings together a set of nine original articles that examine the drivers of success and identify where greater policy and programmatic action is needed to achieve the SDG nutrition targets.

UNICEF has presented few examples of the extraordinary success in Nepal around maternal and child nutrition include:

Stunting in children (under the age of two) decreased by 24-percentage points between 1996 (57 percent) and 2016 (33 percent). This was due to the increased coverage of health and nutrition services and improvements in household wealth, parental education, and sanitation.
Between 1996 and 2016, the early initiation of breastfeeding saw an increase from 18 percent to 56 percent, and complementary feeding increased from 54 percent to 77 percent.
More women took sufficient iron and folic acid supplements during their pregnancy, with an increase in the percentage from only 6 per cent in 2001 to 71 per cent in 2016.
Thanks to the involvement of more than 50,000 female community health volunteers, Nepal saw an increase in access to and demand for iron-folic acid supplementation by communities. This was combined with earlier and more frequent antenatal care visits.
Vitamin A supplements have been given consistently to over 80 per cent of children (aged between 6 and 59 months) and saved the lives of an estimated 45,000 children under the age of five, between 2002 and 2015.
Between 1998 and 2016, the percentage of households using adequately iodized salt doubled from 35 percent to 77 percent.

“Optimal maternal and child nutrition is the basis for developing a resilient society. The decline in the number of malnourished children, improvements in health facilities and services, and the multisectoral approach used in Nepal over the past three decades are a testament to Nepal government commitment to reducing all forms of malnutrition,” EU Ambassador to Nepal, H.E. Nona Deprez.

Today, Nepal has a very different policy and programmatic landscape from that at the start of the MDG era, and there are new opportunities and challenges in the quest to achieve the national and global targets on nutrition.

Recently, the COVID-19 pandemic has become a human and socio-economic crisis that threatens to unravel past progress on nutrition.

“The learning from the past 25 years that are incorporated in the supplement of the Maternal and Child Nutrition Journal are invaluable. These will inform and contribute to future improvements within the nutrition program in Nepal,” said Ms. Elke Wisch, UNICEF Representative to Nepal.

UNICEF also calls upon the government and partners to improve the health of children in Nepal by:

Giving greater attention to improving access to nutritious, safe, affordable, and sustainable diets throughout childhood, adolescence and in the years of childbearing. As economic, social, and physical constraints to nutritious diets coexist, a multisystem approach involving food, health, water and sanitation, education and social protection systems are needed.
Integrating essential nutrition services into the existing service delivery platforms of facility-based health workers (e.g., family planning, antenatal, delivery and post-natal care and well-child and sick-child care) and continuing to strengthen community-based nutrition services through Female Community Health Volunteers to reach more women and children.
Using multiple communication channels to reach caregivers with factual information, advice and counselling on infant and young child feeding and dietary practices for older children, adolescents and women.
Strengthening local government leadership and management capacities to plan, budget, implement and monitor nutrition programmes and services, and maintain Nepal’s commitment to generating data, information, and evidence to assess progress and inform decisions.

Source: UNICEF

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