03-01-2025
Markela Ndocaj
Pakistan Researcher,
Global Human Rights Defence.
The government has been overlooking its malnutrition programme which feeds mothers and children in the province of Balochistan. As a result, the programme has been depending on the aid of Unicef and other donors, which have enlarged their aid activities in 31 districts of the province, providing food and medicines to families suffering from food deficiency.
Annually, almost half of all worldwide deaths of children under the age of five are attributable to malnutrition, which is also responsible for impaired growth and developmental issues. Around 159 million children under five are stunted with heights much less than normal for that age, while nearly 240 million children are at risk of developmental impairment.
The Pakistani province of Balochistan has one of the highest rates of malnutrition, alongside other rural and impoverished areas such as Sindh or Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. In Sindh alone, over 50 percent of children are stunted, highlighting long-term nutritional deficiencies.
Unicef also reports that 8 out of 10 children in Pakistan do not eat the right type and quantity of food. While programmes to care and treat severe acute malnutrition are highly effective in Pakistan, the coverage remains at less than five per cent of the total numbers of malnourished children.
Another major factor contributing to child malnutrition in Pakistan is the lack of maternal nutrition: children of malnourished women are more likely to face cognitive impairments, short stature, lower resistance to infections, and a higher risk of disease and death throughout their lives.
In his speech emphasising the need for assistance in the malnutrition programme, Dr Gaffar Baloch highlighted the region’s alarming malnutrition indicators and stressed the need for an intersectional approach in order to address said challenges in an effective way.
Sources and further readings:
Dawn News, ‘No Balochistan govt fund for mother, child nutrition plan, moot told’, February 2nd, 2025.
Available at: https://www.dawn.com/news/1889211/no-balochistan-govt-fund-for-mother-child-nutrition-plan-moot-told (Accessed: February 3rd, 2025)
Tereposky, K., Humanium, Highest rates of malnutrition recorded among children in Pakistan, December 3rd, 2024.
Available at: https://www.humanium.org/en/highest-rates-of-malnutrition-recorded-among-children-in-pakistan/#:~:text=In%20Pakistan%2C%20the%20rates%20of,highlighting%20long%2Dterm%20nutritional%20deficiencies. (Accessed: February 3rd, 2025)
Government of Pakistan, UNICEF, UKAid, Key finding report – Complementary feeding practices in Pakistan, September 2017.
Available at: https://www.unicef.org/pakistan/media/1471/file/Complementary%20feeding%20practices%20in%20Pakistan.pdf (Accessed: February 3rd, 2025)
UNICEF, WHO, FAO, IFAD, WFP, The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World, September 2017. Available at: https://www.unicef.org/media/49031/file/State_of_Food_Security_and_Nutrition_in_the_World_2017-ENG.pdf (Accessed: February 3rd, 2025)
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