\nPublishedSeptember 3, 2026UpdatedSeptember 3, 202604:57pm
A two-day international conference, \u2018Act For Nutrition: The Emergency We Can No Longer Ignore\u2019, held at Islamabad\u2019s Serena Hotel, concluded on Thursday, with experts calling for food and nutritional security to be recognised as fundamental rights<\/p>\n
The conference aimed to address Pakistan\u2019s persistent nutrition and stunting crisis<\/p>\n
On the first day, experts at the conference warned that more than four in 10 children under five were stunted and malnutrition was costing Pakistan close to $17 billion annually<\/p>\n
They also said that malnutrition was produced by a combination of poor diets, inadequate healthcare, weak water and sanitation services, poverty and other factors, making a multisectoral response essential<\/p>\n
The two-day conference brought together policymakers, international development leaders, health professionals and nutrition experts to confront the burgeoning crisis and build momentum for urgent, coordinated action<\/p>\n
View the full agenda here<\/p>\n
4:55pm – Conference concludes<\/strong><\/p>\n 4:40pm – Malnutrition \u2018greatest barrier\u2019 to development: WHO official<\/strong><\/p>\n Representative of the World Health Organisation (WHO) in Pakistan Dr Dapeng Luo, in his closing remarks, stressed that malnutrition remained the \u201cgreatest barrier\u201d to health, development, and opportunities<\/p>\n He noted that nutrition was \u201cmuch more than access to food\u201d and further stated that \u201cpredictable and solid regulation\u201d was needed as a way forward<\/p>\n 4:30pm – BNP showed nutrition can be integrated into social protection, says WFP official<\/strong><\/p>\n WFP\u2019s Country Director for Pakistan Anita Hirsch also noted the progress of the Benazir Nashonuma Programme (BNP), which she said had shown that nutrition can be integrated into national social protection<\/p>\n \u201cAs we look ahead, one priority is to sustain those gains, continue to scale up and integrate services for millions of Pakistani women and children,\u201d Hirsch said<\/p>\n 4:22pm – WFP official shares her key takeaways<\/strong><\/p>\n World Food Programme\u2019s Country Director for Pakistan Anita Hirsch shared her key takeaways from the two-day conference<\/p>\n \u201cPakistan continues to face a high level of malnutrition. More than 40pc of children under five are stunted. This means children whose growth and cognitive development are compromised,\u201d Hirsch said<\/p>\n She continued: \u201cSecond takeaway was that timing matters; the first 1,000 days represent a critical window that will have lifelong implications for the potential for children and potential for Pakistan, and that adolescence also matters.\u201d<\/p>\n Hirsch also noted the economic cost of malnutrition, remarking that it remained a barrier to national growth and prosperity. \u201c17bn dollars are lost every year to malnutrition and stunting,\u201d she said<\/p>\n \u201cMy last takeaway was that addressing malnutrition is not just about food alone; it is about health, education, women\u2019s empowerment, behaviour change<\/p>\n \u201cIt takes a village; it is our collective responsibility, and it is also a national emergency and one that we must collectively address.\u201d<\/p>\n 4:15pm- Expert calls on govt to recognise food and nutritional security as a fundamental right<\/strong><\/p>\n Chairperson SUN Movement Dr Irshad Danish also recommended that the government should recognise food and nutritional security as a fundamental right in the Constitution<\/p>\n \u201cThere are some provisions, but nutrition and food security are not fundamental rights,\u201d he said<\/p>\n He also recommended that nutrition should be institutionalised as a sector and stressed the need for multisectoral coordination<\/p>\n 4:10pm – Pakistan\u2019s nutritional burden must be treated as a national emergency, says expert<\/strong><\/p>\n Dr Irshad Danish, who is the chairperson of the Scaling Up Nutrition movement, summarising the two-day conference, said that in the discussions held, it was recognised that \u201cscale and severity of Pakistan\u2019s malnutrition burden must be treated as a national emergency and put forward some recommendations\u201d<\/p>\n Outlining one of the recommendations made, Dr Danish said, \u201cFirst, we propose and recommend that the government should appoint dedicated nutrition coordinators and focal persons at national and international level\u201d<\/p>\n 4:07pm – Closing session titled \u2018Stronger Together \u2014 The Pakistan Nutrition Pact\u2019 begins<\/strong><\/p>\n The final session of the day has begun<\/p>\n 3:45pm – Addressing malnutrition collective responsibility: Sarwat Gillani<\/strong><\/p>\n Actress Sarwat Gillani said that addressing malnutrition was a collective responsibility<\/p>\n \u201cIt should be portrayed as everyone\u2019s responsibility because only then can it be resolved because it is in every province,\u201d Gillani said<\/p>\n \u201cSo we have to work on this problem collectively,\u201d she added<\/p>\n 3:40pm – Sarwat Gillani stresses use of \u2018intelligent marketing\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n Actress Sarwat Gilani emphasised the use of \u201cintelligent marketing\u201d in addressing societal issues, including malnutrition<\/p>\n \u201cIntelligent marketing is the answer to so many of our problems. In this day and age where everything is on a credit card or a mobile phone [..] if we have all the right creative minds along with experts, we can all sit down and come up with a strategic marketing campaign,\u201d she said<\/p>\n 3:30pm – Film mogul highlights importance of radio, PTV in reaching the masses<\/strong><\/p>\n Satish Anand, the chairman of EverReady Pictures, highlighted the importance of radio and PTV for reaching the masses<\/p>\n He said that radio was widely listened to by people living in rural areas. He added that PTV could also be effectively used to communicate social issues<\/p>\n 3:20pm – Sarwat Gilani says malnutrition caused by host of factors<\/strong><\/p>\n Actress Sarwat Gilani, who is also an ambassador for Special Olympics Pakistan and the Indus Hospital and Health Network, said that there had been a lot of \u201crepetition\u201d during the conference as people cited data and statistics<\/p>\n \u201cIf this repetition, can be disseminated on an every day level, it would have a more lasting result,\u201d she said. She said that malnutrition was not a \u201cdisease\u201d and was caused by a host of factors<\/p>\n She also called for focusing on the solution rather than the problem<\/p> 3:17pm – Journalist notes lack of focus on nutrition in media<\/strong><\/p>\n Journalist Zarrar Khuhro termed malnutrition a \u201csilent crisis\u201d and went on to say that there was limited conversation about the issue in the media<\/p>\n \u201cYou will see a press release perhaps [..] but that does not cause a conversation at the household level and [..] if you can\u2019t do that, then you have no hope of societal change\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat is what we need, not just top-down change but critical mass at the family level, personal individual level, identifying this issue and seeking solutions and creating what we call a public buy-in,\u201d he said<\/p>\n 3:12pm – Panel discussion on communicating for change begins<\/strong><\/p>\n A panel discussion on communicating for societal change has now begun<\/p>\n 3:10pm – Official says 1 in 4 children in Punjab suffering from stunted growth<\/strong><\/p>\n Dr Usman Ali Khan, the programme director of the Punjab Family Planning Programme, said that comparing the surveys from 2018 and 2024 showed progress<\/p>\n However, despite this improvement, there were 5.5m malnourished children in the province, he said. He said that one in four children in the province suffered from stunted growth<\/p>\n He said that the province was actively screening women and children that could be suffering from malnutrition and stunting<\/p>\n 3:05pm – Nutritional financing a provincial budgetary question, says Punjab govt official<\/strong><\/p>\n Punjab government\u2019s special secretary, Aurangzaib Haider Khan, presented three priorities to the forum<\/p>\n \u201cFirst, a common nutritional indicator so that provincial data can be compared, rather than merely collected,\u201d Khan said<\/p>\n Secondly, he called for an \u201chonest recognition of the fiscal architecture [under] the 18th Amendment\u201d and added that nutritional financing was predominantly a provincial budgetary question<\/p>\n Third, Khan said was that \u201cbirth spacing also belongs inside the nutritional agenda, rather than besides it\u201d<\/p>\n 2:57pm – Govt official says Punjab carries majority of nutritional burden<\/strong><\/p>\n Punjab government\u2019s special secretary, Aurangzaib Haider Khan, delivering his address, said that Punjab shouldered the majority of the country\u2019s nutritional burden due to the size of its population<\/p>\n \u201cLet me be direct on what has moved in this scenario: Stunting among children under five has fallen from 36pc in 2018 to 27pc now.\u201d<\/p>\n However, the government official held that the progress made was insufficient, as \u201cmore than one in four children\u201c remain stunted, leading up to around 5.5m children across the province<\/p>\n 2:52pm – Minister says fathers must recognise a child\u2019s nutrition as their responsibility<\/strong><\/p>\n Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said that public service messaging on nutrition must address the whole family, not just the mother<\/p>\n \u201cToo often, we place the entire burden of a child\u2019s nutrition on women, while decisions about food purchases, healthcare and women\u2019s workloads may be taken by other members of the family. A mother cannot carry this responsibility alone,\u201d he said<\/p>\n \u201cFathers must understand that nutrition is also their responsibility,\u201d he said<\/p>\n 2:50pm – Minister calls for improving public service messaging<\/strong><\/p>\n Information Minister Attaullah Tarar highlighted the need for the right kind of messaging to tackle malnutrition. He said that communication could nutrition outcomes if it was done differently<\/p>\n \u201cPublic service messaging must move beyond telling people that malnutrition is a serious problem. Every message must give families practical steps they can take. Every message should have a result-oriented approach,\u201d he said<\/p>\n He said that awareness programmes often focused on the problem rather than the solution<\/p>\n 2:44pm – Info minister says malnutrition not simply a health issues<\/strong><\/p>\n Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said that malnutrition was not simply a health issue<\/p>\n \u201cIt is a moral challenge, an economic imperative and a national emergency,\u201d he said. The minister went on to say that malnutrition was shaped by maternal health, feeding practices, unsafe water, inadequate healthcare, climate vulnerabilities and unequal access to essential services<\/p>\n He further said that the Act for Nutrition conference should not be a one-off event, saying it should be an \u201caction plan which we can implement throughout the year\u201d<\/p> 2:40pm – Info minister stresses need for communication, awareness to tackle malnutrition<\/strong><\/p>\n Information Minister Attaullah Tarar, in his address, said that communication and awareness were essential for tackling malnutrition. He hailed DawnMedia group for raising awareness of the issue<\/p>\n He said that more than 40pc of children in Pakistan were stunted, while maternal mortality rate was 155 deaths per 100,000 live births<\/p>\n \u201cMalnutrition costs Pakistan more than $17bn annually. If the right kind of strategy can be deployed across the country, the impact it would have on our gross domestic growth would benefit the common man,\u201d he said<\/p>\n \u201cBehind every stunted child is potential that may never be fully realised. Behind every malnourished mother is a family at greater risk. And behind every year of inaction is another generation beginning life at a disadvantage,\u201d he said<\/p>\n 2:00pm – Lunch break<\/strong><\/p>\n 1:40pm – UK expert stresses need for safely managed water and sanitation<\/strong><\/p>\n Oliver Cumming, the environmental health<\/a> lead at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said: \u201cThe prospect of safely managed water and sanitation in Pakistan is not something which can be achieved tomorrow, and it is not as simple as shifting gears that you go from basic to safely managed.\u201d<\/p>\n However, he suggested that recognition towards the goal could lead to universal access to safely managed WASH services sooner rather than later<\/p>\n \u201cWe have to be realistic that it will not happen tomorrow, but putting in place the investment, the political arguments [\u2026] universal access to safely managed services can become possible within a decade,\u201d he added<\/p>\n \u201cThis is where we need to get if we really want to solve the problem of chronic malnutrition.\u201d<\/p>\n 1:25pm – Expert says water quality a \u2018big issue\u2019 for Pakistan<\/strong><\/p>\n Dr Saima Khan \u2014 a water, sanitation and hygiene policy specialist \u2014 called for targeting the 36 districts in the country contributing to stunting in children. She said that WASH infrastructure investments should be done in these districts<\/p>\n She also said that water quality was a \u201cbig issue\u201d for Pakistan. She said that the country\u2019s northern areas, Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan had no infrastructure for sanitation or sewerage. She said that this was deteriorating the quality of drinking water in these areas<\/p>\n 1:05pm – WB official calls for understanding WASH-related drivers of malnutrition<\/strong><\/p>\n Senior water specialist at the World Bank, Basharat Saeed, underscored the significance of gaining a \u201csophisticated understanding\u201d of WASH-related drivers behind child malnutrition<\/p>\n \u201cYou need to look at what are the processes at a given location that are leading to the accumulation of faecal waste, accumulation in a way that it is exposing sensitive ecosystem and exposing people to faecal pathogens,\u201d Saeed said<\/p>\n He added that it should also be made possible to track the common pathways for oral transmission for faecal material<\/p>\n \u201cIf you can map that out at the start of a programme design, then you know what sort of WASH investment is needed,\u201d he said, stressing the need for a sophisticated understanding of WASH-related drivers of malnutrition<\/p>\n He added that as a result of adopting such an approach, the \u201cproposed solution will also become slightly more comprehensive\u201d<\/p>\n 12:49pm – UK expert says water and sanitation alone cannot end stunting<\/strong><\/p>\n Oliver Cumming, the environmental health lead at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said that water and sanitation alone cannot end stunting, but it was essential part of the comprehensive strategies needed to address it<\/p>\n He said that for the water and sanitation sector, nutrition was often peripheral, adding that this needed to change<\/p>\n He said that 20pc of children in South Asia were stunted at birth, highlighting the need for prevention and an integrated approach to the issue<\/p>\n 12:45pm – WaterAid official calls for moving towards delivering multisectoral approach<\/strong><\/p>\n Country director at WaterAid, Mian Muhammad Junaid, stressed that the conversation on a multisectoral approach needed to move beyond talking and towards financing and delivering results<\/p>\n \u201cWe are working in silos; we still tend to organise ourselves in sectors, where nutrition sits in one policy sector, health in another, water and sanitation somewhere else, climate separately, social protection is another,\u201d Junaid said<\/p>\n He went on to note that a child did not experience these boundaries; rather, it was a lived reality for them<\/p>\n \u201cThis is where I think Pakistan needs to move from talking about a multisectoral approach to actually financing and delivering one,\u201d he added<\/p>\n 12:41pm – WaterAid official says child\u2019s environment important for addressing malnutrition<\/strong><\/p>\n In his keynote speech, Mian Muhammad Junaid, the country director for WaterAid, raised alarm at the impact of lack of water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) services on a child\u2019s development and nutrition<\/p>\n \u201cA child cannot be well nourished if the environment in which the child grows is making them sick,\u201d he said. He said WASH services were often an \u201cimportant but missed\u201d aspect of addressing malnutrition<\/p>\n \u201cWASH is a part of nutrition,\u201c Junaid said<\/p>\n \u201cA child may receive the right food, nutritional counselling, cash transfer and access to health facilities, but if the child is repeatedly exposed to contaminated drinking water, faecal contamination, poor sanitation and an unhealthy environment, we are asking that child to grow and develop against very difficult odds,\u201d he said<\/p>\n 12:40pm – Panel discussion on contribution of dirty water, poor sanitation to stunting begins<\/strong><\/p>\n A panel discussion on how dirty water and poor sanitation contribute to stunting has now begun<\/p>\n 12:38pm – BISP official says policies, legislation remain \u2018only on paper\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n Tehmina Gulzar, the deputy director of nutrition at the Benazir Income Support Programme, said that hygiene, agricultural, sanitation sectors had to come together to respond to malnutrition<\/p>\n She said that BISP had trained doctors, paramedical staff and teachers on adolescent nutrition to bring knowledge to communities<\/p>\n She also said that while policies and legislation were drafted, they were \u201conly on paper\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe need to bring them into practice. All sectors are working on [nutrition], but they are fragmented efforts,\u201d she said, highlighting the need for the digital integration of all sectors<\/p>\n 12:31pm – Expert says malnutrition not \u2018poverty-related\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n Dr Farhana Memon, the programme director of Reproductive, Maternal, Neonatal and Child Health, dispelled the perception that malnutrition was tied to poverty<\/p>\n \u201cIt is said that malnutrition is just poverty-related; I don\u2019t think so. I have been in the field for 27 years, and whenever I ask a woman what she has eaten for breakfast, she will tell me she had tea and rusk,\u201d Dr Memon said<\/p>\n \u201cWe have failed to convince her that she can get an egg for the same cost,\u201d she said<\/p>\n \u201cLet\u2019s take an example of two issues in public health \u2014 breastfeeding and micronutrient deficiencies \u2014 these are not poverty-related; it\u2019s knowledge-related,\u201d she said<\/p>\n 12:15pm – BISP official says social protection programmes can play \u2018significant role\u2019 in improving nutrition outcomes<\/strong><\/p>\n Tehmina Gulzar, the deputy director of nutrition at the Benazir Income Support Programme, said that social protection programmes can play a \u201csignificant role\u201d in improving nutrition outcomes<\/p>\n She added that BISP was a very good example of how social protection programmes could contribute toward human capital development<\/p>\n She also said that BISP had a huge collection of data that could be used by different sectors involved in addressing nutrition<\/p>\n 12:01pm – Expert says nutrition cannot be viewed in isolation<\/strong><\/p>\n CEO of the Pakistan Alliance on Early Childhood Development Khadija Khan warned against viewing nutrition in isolation<\/p>\n \u201cBecause for holistic development, you need a complete package and that package is described in the nurturing care framework, which is talking about good health, adequate nutrition, responsive caregiving, safety, security and early learning opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n She held that until and unless these inputs were met, it was not possible to achieve holistic child development<\/p>\n \u201cWe do talk about a multisectoral approach and an integrated approach, but still the families are knocking on different doors for different services. In reality, we do not really give integrated services to our children,\u201d Khan added<\/p>\n 11:49am – Non-profit head says people do not \u2018believe in the system\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n Shahid Lone, the chairman of the Allah Walay Foundation, said that if policymakers and those responsible for implementation did not put their \u201csoul\u201d into what they were doing, then what they were aiming for \u201cwould never work\u201d<\/p>\n He acknowledged that his take was more \u201cphilosophical\u201d. He highlighted that government officials say one thing on stage and another when they are behind the scenes<\/p>\n \u201cWe have policies, we have departments, but we have people who do not believe in the system,\u201d he said. He questioned how those who did not have vision or believed in their work could implement policies<\/p>\n![\"Satish](\"https:\/\/lumeamara.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/03155755e64aa5d.webp\")
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