FAO in Pakistan

Enhancing capacities for better integration of nutrition within food security and livelihoods intervention

02/05/2017

The Food Security Working Group organized two day training in Islamabad to help address the gaps and challenges that are being faced by partners in integrating nutrition in food security and agriculture in Pakistan.

The training titled “Enhancing capacities for better integration of nutrition within food security and livelihoods intervention in protracted crisis settings” was made possible with the financial assistance of ECHO.

The goal of the training was to build capacity of food security and nutrition partners to better integrate nutrition in food security and agriculture programming.

Mr Francisco Gamarro, acting Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) Representative in Pakistan and Mr William Affif, Head of Policy and Programmes at World Food Programme (WFP), jointly opened the training.

Mr Ahmed Raza, Nutrition and Food Systems Officer from FAO headquarters in Rome, along with Dr Noureen Aleem Nishtar, nutritionist from the Food Security Working Group conducted this training for participants from UN agencies, national and international NGOs and government officials working in Pakistan involved in food security, agriculture, livelihoods, health and/or nutrition programmes.
There is strong evidence to suggest that linkages between food security and nutrition need to be considered in the design and delivery of emergency response to address malnutrition and food insecurity. Over 9 million children under five are affected by stunting, which is the third highest population of stunted children in the world. The 2011 National Nutrition Survey (NNS) shows that since the last survey in 2001, stunting and wasting rates for children under five have unfortunately increased from 42% to 43.7% and 13% to 14%, respectively, while for underweight the prevalence rate remains unchanged at 31.5%.
At the end of the training, participants developed a shared understanding of the linkages between nutrition, food security and agriculture, and identified opportunities for collaboration across sectors

Ms Shohreh Naghchbandi, Technical Assistant, ECHO Office in Islamabad, in her closing remarks expressed her confidence that this training would be helpful in better understanding the complexity of undernutrition and how to address it through an integrated approach.
The Food Security Working Group is co led by FAO and WFP. It provides a forum for strategic needs analysis, coordination of response planning and dissemination of timely information to maximise the benefit of humanitarian assistance the affected populations.
More than 300 organizations are members of the Food Security cluster in various capacities, including international, national and local NGOs, government authorities and National and Provincial Disaster Management Authorities and line departments, including Agriculture and Livestock, donors and UN agencies.