Act for Nutrition conference: BISP chairperson says malnutrition is a human capital, economic issue

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A two-day international conference, ‘Act For Nutrition: The Emergency We Can No Longer Ignore’, is being held at Islamabad’s Serena Hotel on Pakistan’s persistent nutrition and stunting crisis. With more than 40 per cent of children under five stunted, a maternal mortality rate of 155 deaths per 100,000 live births, and malnutrition costing Pakistan upwards of $17 billion annually, the country stands at a crossroads: continue on the current trajectory and surrender an entire generation’s potential, or choose a different future. The two-day conference is bringing together policymakers, international development leaders, health professionals and nutrition experts to confront the burgeoning crisis and build momentum for urgent, coordinated action. The focus of discussions will be on moving the national conversation beyond statistics towards practical, measurable interventions that can improve nutrition outcomes and protect Pakis­tan’s human capital and future generations. View the full agenda here. 12:42pm - ‘We can no longer afford to look away,’ BISP chairperson says Senator Rubina Khalid, the chairperson of Benazir Income Support Programme, said in her keynote address that the responsibility lay not just with providing financial assistance, but with also helping families move from vulnerability towards dignity. “We have gather here today … because we can no longer afford to look away,” she said. She said that more than 40pc of children under five in Pakistan were stunted, while malnutrition placed a huge burden on the economy. “Stunting is not only a health issue. It is a human capital issue, an economic issue and a challenge to Pakistan’s future,” she said. She said that the country lacked integration of the programmes it had to address these issues. At the end of her address, she said: “We must work together so that every child in Pakistan has the opportunity to grow, learn and reach their full potential. Because every child we protect from malnutrition is not simply a life protected, it is the future protected, a family strengthened and a stronger Pakistan secured.” Benazir Income Support Programme Chairperson Senator Rubina Khalid delivers the keynote address. — DawnNewsTV 12:40pm: Session on integrating nutrition into social protection systems begins A session on integrating nutrition into social protection systems begins. 12:30pm - Sri Lankan doctor calls for understanding child growth trajectory in South Asia Dr Rannan-Eliya, in answer to a question, pointed out that the child growth trajectory is South Asia was not the same as the rest of the world. “We have sort of misunderstood the problem,” he remarked, adding: “There is no uniformity in child growth, and because we use a single growth standard, we partly misdiagnose what is going on”. “In my sense, Sri Lankan kids need to be better nourished but there is a limit to what we can do and we need to understand that,” he said. He noted that a similar understanding was also being realised in India. “So we need to do more as South and South East Asian countries, and it’s something that needs better investigation, and it is leading to a misunderstanding of what the problem is.” 12:13pm - Expert says nutrition an issue of human capital, economic growth Dr Irshad Danish, the co-chair of the Global Nutrition Report Stakeholder Group, said that from his experience, Pakistan had low allocation, fragmented spending and implementation challenges. “If we need $10 to feed malnourished children, we are spending only $2,” he said. He added that Pakistan was losing $17bn annually due to malnutrition. He said that this also resulted in poor education outcomes, children with cognitive issues and lower workforce productivity. “So, nutrition is not just a health issue. It is an issue of human capital and economic growth,” he said. He said that the cost of malnutrition was far greater than the cost of prevention. “We need to move from fragmented spending towards strategic investment, and from hidden allocations to transparent budgets,” he said. Co-chair of the Global Nutrition Report Stakeholder Group Dr Irshad Danish speaks at the Act For Nutrition: The Emergency We Can No Longer Ignore’ conference on Sept 2. — DawnNewsTV 12:00pm - Doctor stresses importance of lady health workers Co-chair of the Global Nutrition Report Stakeholder Group Dr Irshad Danish stressed the signifance of the lady health workers programme. “It was one of the strongest community based health workers model and its coverage was around 60pc, with over 100,000 lady health workers,” he said, adding that the workers enjoyed community ownership. “These workers were often the first link of access for healthcare [..] many independent evaluation where these health workers were available, there was better health knowledege and better access to essential services.” 11:46am - Sri Lankan official explains how country scaled health systems Dr Ravi Rannan-Eliya, the executive director of Sri Lanka’s Institute of Health Policy, said that 100 years ago, the South Asian country had worse health outcomes than the rest of the region. “We were the sick man of South Asia, but now we have the best health plan. How did that happen? One simple reason I always tell people was the ballot box … the British decided to give self-rule,” he said. He said that as a consequence, there was a pressure to give free education and to expand health services. He said that voters prioritised access to care over all other things. 11:42am - Session on South and South-East Asia’s current realities The session on South and South-East Asia’s current realities has now begun. 11:30am- Scaling Up Nutrition movement official highlights its progress Asia Regional Representative of the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement Dr Srikanth Eadara spoke about the objectives of the movement, which he said was comprised of 67 countries and was a country-led global nutrition advocacy platform. “It unites different stakeholders coming from civil society, private sector, donors, UN, agencies and other entities as well as youth to end malnutrition,” he said, adding that it was launched in 2013 to “ ensure a coordinated multisectoral and multi-stakeholder action to address malnutrition in all its forms”. “We are currently in the fourth phase of the SUN Movement, and it is based on the current challenges and current context of nutrition, which shows that, yes, there is progress; however, the progress is slow and uneven,” he noted. Dr Eadara also spoke of the issues surrounding nutrition finance, highlighting that the cost of malnutrition was “estimated to be around 5 to 11pc of the total GDPs of Asia and Africa”. He warned that recent funding cuts, particularly in the World Health Organisation have “threatened to reverse progress” made on nutrition. “The reduction will also result in increased hardships and deaths, with a lot of implications for public health and economic growth and stability,” he said. 11:25am - Doctor says nutrition the ‘outcome of many systems’ Dr Aminah Jahangir, the global lead for health and nutrition at the Aga Khan Foundation, said that nutrition is the outcome of many systems and cannot be solved by one. She said that climate was already shaping the conditions in which children grow. “Our experience suggests that the outcomes are better where health services, food systems and community institutions have worked around the same household over many years. It reminds us that progress is achievable in our own context,” she said. 11:20am - Social protection can address malnutrition, says WFP official The WFP official spoke of one of the three priorities the organisation held for its work in South Asia in South Asia was advocacy for policy engagement. She explained, “this is a continuous effort to work with governments from South Asia to highlight how social protection can be more than a safety net and more than a poverty reduction instrument”. Hobbs said that with the right intentions, social protection held promise to improve nutrition, diets and address malnutrition. “This is because social protection already reaches the families that are the most vulnerable and those are the families that face the highest challenges,” she added. Asia Pacific Regional Nutrition Adviser for the World Food Programme Nora Hobbs. — White Star/Tanveer Shahzad 11:12am: WFP official says over 80pc of stunted children come from middle-income countries Asia Pacific Regional Nutrition Adviser for the World Food Programme Nora Hobbs, in her address, spoke of the geographical realities of stunting, stating that the majority of children affected by stunting are from middle-income countries. “Over 80pc of the world’s stunted children are in middle-income countries,” she said. The WFP official continued: “This means that low-income countries may have the highest rate and prevalence, but because middle-income countries have such a large population, it may have higher numbers of stunted children.” She stressed that the facts highlighted that stunting was a result of “inequalities within countries”. 11:05am - Expert highlights need for coordinated response Dr Giacomo Zanello, an associate professor of Food Economics and Health at the University of Reading, said that neither food nor the health systems could solve malnutrition alone. “Progress requires coordinated action across food systems, health systems and social protection. Countries that built integrated approaches before crisis struck, were able to keep essential services running through disruption,” he said. “Integration cannot be improvised during a crisis. It has to be done in advance,” he said. 11:00am - Expert says 2.6bn people cannot afford a healthy diet Dr Giacomo Zanello, an associate professor of Food Economics and Health at the University of Reading, presented a report on global nutrition. “Around the world, progress on nutrition is under increasing pressure. Climate shocks, conflict, economic uncertainty … are affecting food and health systems,” he said. He said that the 2026 global nutrition report focused on how countries can build healthy diets, through stronger integration of food and health systems while building resilience. “Today, 2.6 billion cannot afford a healthy diet,” he said. He said that extreme weather, rising food prices and pressure on health services were arriving alongside conflict and instability, which was affecting food and health systems. 10:55am - Session on global and regional realities begins The session on global and regional realities has now begun. 10:52am - UN official says nutrition should not be activated only after a crisis Pernille Ironside, the United Nations’ resident coordinator in Pakistan, said that communities must be at the heart of the response to malnutrition and stunting. “Investing in front line workers and community-based platforms and listening to communities themselves can strengthen the uptake of essential services and practices, reinforce local ownership and ensure that women and children most at risk are reached,” she said. She said that Pakistan knew better than most how quickly climate disasters, economic shocks and displacement can undermine years of development programmes. “Nutrition, therefore, cannot be something we activate only after a crisis. It needs to be built into the preparedness, into the anticipatory action and the shock responsive systems so that vulnerable families are identified beforehand,” she said. ernille Ironside, the United Nations’ resident coordinator in Pakistan, addresses the conference. — White Star/Tanveer Shahzad 10:46am - UN official says malnutrition an ‘emergency we can no longer ignore’ Pernille Ironside, the United Nations’ resident coordinator in Pakistan, said that malnutrition was an “emergency we can no longer ignore”. “When we talk about nutrition, we are not only talking about what a child eats. We are talking about whether a child reaches their full potential. We are talking about the strength of Pakistan’s capital. Nutrition is not only a health issue, it’s a development issue, an economic issue and an issue of equity and opportunity,” she said. She said that children living in poorer and remote areas were more likely to be left behind. She also said that at the same time, Pakistan faced a growing burden of obesity-related diseases. 10:40am - World Bank official says malnutrition barrier to health, prosperity of individuals, nations Abigail Perry, the lead nutrition specialist at the World Bank, said malnutrition was a fundamental barrier to the health and prosperity of individuals, communities and nations. “When a child’s development suffers early in life, the effects can last a lifetime,” she said. She said that the challenge for Pakistan was how to act at the scale, speed and quality required. 10:35am - WHO chief says nutrition is not just about food World Health Organisation Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said nutrition was not only about food. “It is about access to safe, healthy, diets and strong food systems. Government, academia, civil society and the private sector all have a role to play,” he said. World Health Organisation Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus’ video message plays during the conference. — White Star/Tanveer Shahzad 10:30am - WHO chief says malnutrition one of the greatest barriers to health, development and opportunity World Health Organisation Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, in a recorded message, said that malnutrition remained one of the greatest barriers to health, development and opportunity. “Every year, it contributes to millions of preventable deaths,” he said. He said that the problem was not a lack of knowledge, rather a lack of action. 10:20am - Minister says equity begins in the womb Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal said that the Pakistan of 2047 is being built today. “It is being built in the health of our mothers. It is being built in the nutrition of our infants. It is being built in our homes and communities and it is being built in the developing minds and bodies of our youngest children,” he said. “We all have to work as a whole,” he said, calling for the conference to spur action. “Let this be our commitment: every child nourished is protected, every child given a fair start brings Pakistan one step closer to the future we seek,” he said. 10:10am - Minister says investment in nutrition is not charity “Pakistan cannot win the economic race of the 21st century if millions of children begin the race of life several steps behind than others. There can be no knowledge economy without developing the capacity of the human brain. There can be no productivity revolution without healthy and capable workers. There can be no genuine equality if inequality begins before a child is even born,” said Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal. “Therefore, investment in nutrition is not charity, it is economic policy,” he said. Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal addresses the conference as the guest speaker. — White Star/Tanveer Shahzad 10:03am - Minister says first 5 years of a child’s life critical Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal said that human resource development had not been prioritised in the past. He appreciated the initiative by DawnMedia Group to address the nutrition crisis and called on civil society to take up social issues. “90 per cent of a children’s brain develops by the age of five .. so the first five years in the life of a child are the most critical,” he said. “If we fail to develop that human infrastructure during the earliest years of life, we weaken every other investment we subsequently make,” he said. “That is why stunting cannot remain merely a statistic. For the planning minister, it is a national development challenge,” he said. 9:57am - Planning minister says quality of human resource critical for countries In his remarks, Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal, the chief guest, conveyed Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s firm commitment to addressing malnutrition and stunting as a national development priority. He said that as the planning minister, he spent much of his time dealing with the architecture of Pakistan’s development. “We discuss motorways, energy, dams and digital networks. All of these are essential, but there is one investment more fundamental than all others: the investment in human development,” he said. “Ultimately it is humans and people who build nations. Therefore, the quality of human resource is critical for any country,” he said. 9:55am - Dawn CEO says nutrition crisis does not ‘look the same’ across the country Dawn CEO Nazafreen Saigol Lakhani said the nutrition crisis did not “look the same in Tharparkar as it does in Chitral or in southern Punjab”, adding that the response could not be the same either. “You will hear the economics of financing nutrition, the science of why children fail to grow even when food is technically available, and, I hope, the voices of the women and the mothers who carry the heaviest share of this burden and are so rarely asked to speak about it,” she said. “With all those who have a role to play gathered around the same table, we have an opportunity to move from recognition of the scale of the problem towards urgent, coordinated and measurable action — action that can improve maternal and child nutrition, strengthen Pakistan’s human capital, and give future generations the opportunity to grow, learn and thrive,” she said. “That is what this conference ultimately aims to achieve: to build a shared understanding of what needs to be done, and to begin charting a clear and practical roadmap for how we get there,” she added. Dawn CEO Nazafreen Saigol Lakhani addresses the conference. — White Star/Tanveer Shahzad 9:53am - Dawn CEO says nutrition not a problem for health ministry to solve alone Dawn CEO Nazafreen Saigol Lakhani said that Pakistan loses close to $17 billion a year to the consequences of malnutrition, “more than what we typically borrow from the International Monetary Fund in any given year”. “We spend enormous energy negotiating that borrowing. We spend comparatively little energy addressing a loss nearly as large, happening quietly, inside our own households,” she said. “So this conference starts from a simple premise: nutrition is not a problem for a health ministry to solve alone. It sits at the intersection of health, agriculture, water, education, social protection, our economy and ultimately, our national security,” she added. She said that countries such as Bangladesh, Peru, and Rwanda had demonstrated that stunting can be dramatically reduced within a generation, but “only when a nation decides, at the highest levels, that the future of its children is important enough to make it a collective priority”. 9:52am - Dawn CEO calls stunting crisis ‘a national emergency’ In her welcome remarks, Dawn CEO Nazafreen Saigol Lakhani said that four out of every ten children under the age of five in Pakistan were stunted. “These are children whose physical growth and cognitive development may be permanently compromised – often before they have spoken their first words, entered a classroom or had the slightest chance to even dream of their own future,” she said. “And when this is the reality for four out of every ten children in our country, we cannot merely call it a health problem. It is a national emergency – and a profound failure of our collective priorities,” she said. 9:45am - Conference begins The conference has begun with the playing of the national anthem and the recitation of the Holy Quran. Attendees of the Act For Nutrition conference. — White Star/Tanveer Shahzad

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