NEPAL NUTRITION AND FOOD SECURITY PORTAL

Nutrition and food security have been identified as crucial for national development and the Government of Nepal has accorded it as a top priority.

Nepal has enshrined “rights to food” as fundamental rights of citizens in its new federal constitution promulgated in 2015. This explicit constitutional recognition of the right to food shows unprecedented commitment to ensuring that no one is left behind from accessing adequate food and essential nutrition services. It is also evident in the endorsement of international declarations and conventions (such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), the Declaration of the World Summit for Children, the World Declaration on Nutrition and Plan of Action for Nutrition, and the Declaration of the World Summit of Food Security) by Government of Nepal that has recognized the need to respect and uphold every individual’s right to adequate food, nutrition, and health. In addition, an array of national documents affirms the government’s commitment to improving nutrition, including the current fifteenth Plan (2019/20-2023/24), the Second-Long Term Health Plan (1997–2017), National Nutrition Strategy, 2020, National Health Policy, 2019, and the Nepal Health Sector Strategy Implementation (NHSSIP 2016–2021), Zero Hunger Challenge National Action Plan (2016-2025). Besides, Nepal is one of the first countries to join the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement in 2011 and has embraced its ethos of a country-led, multisectoral and multistakeholder effort to improve nutrition through its Multi-Sector Nutrition Plan (2013–2017).

Following the successful implementation of MSNP-I, MSNP-II (2018-2022) was formulated that envisioned improving maternal, child, and adolescent nutrition, so that malnutrition no longer impedes human capital and the socio-economic development of Nepal. To date (Fiscal Year 2078/2079) MSNP-II is under implementation at 720 local levels of 72 districts. In the implementation process, tremendous support has been received from sectoral ministries and notable contributions have been made by developmental partners and relevant stakeholders by aligning their efforts to MSNP-II. As a result, impressive progress has been made in reducing malnutrition, particularly stunting and underweight among children under five (stunting has reduced from 57 percent in 2001 to 32 percent in 2019 while underweight has been reduced from 42% to 24 % during the same period).

While there is some positive progress towards achieving global nutrition targets (WHA 2025 and SDG 2030 targets for nutrition), progress is not advancing at the speed, scale or equity required. Stunting currently stands at 32 percent among children under five years of age. Similarly, wasting has remained nearly stagnant at around 10 percent for a decade among the children of this age group. Another important concern is the high prevalence of micronutrient deficiency in women and children which has remained a challenge despite concerted programmatic interventions.  Data showed that 35 percent of all women and 39 percent of adolescent girls are anemic and over half of the children below five years of age are also anemic. On top of that, the rate of decline of malnutrition is not uniform across the country and pervasive inequality exists across the country according to province, location, age, sex, education, and wealth. In addition, the escalation in the proportion of overweight/obese women, children, and adolescents found in recent times due to changes in the dietary pattern has been a deep concern. Moreover, the climate-related crisis has been emerging as a serious threat to global food security and nutrition. To add to this, the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic are knocking us further off course.

The growing reality is that malnutrition in all its forms – undernutrition, overweight, and micronutrient deficiencies – co-exists in Nepal. To drive the transformative change and achieve nutrition equity, and end malnutrition in all its forms by 2030, efforts need to be intensified. There needs to be an intensified effort and take necessary actions to intervene in the aggravating situation of malnutrition and curtail the burden. Efforts to meet national and international commitments, particularly those relating to achieving SDG 2030 targets nutrition and allocating resources for MSNP by the government and the relevant stakeholders must be intensified to improve children's and women's access to nutritious, affordable, safe, and sustainable diets in ways that address socio-economic, socio-cultural, and geographic inequalities. We must reform the systems and structures that are holding us back to achieve these commitments.

I believe the commitment made during the 2021 UN Food System Summit and Nutrition for Growth (N4G) Summit came at an opportune time as COVID-19 and other global shocks continue to threaten progress towards achieving nutrition goals around the world and in Nepal. To fulfill these commitments, the time is right for governments, with the support of international organizations and other concerns to reconsider how best to address the malnutrition and renew the collective commitment to addressing the triple burden of malnutrition and align the efforts to meet the commitment made during the UN Food Summit and N4G Summit.

 

For collective, concerted, and coherent efforts and data-driven decision making, it is important to have information but it’s just as important to be able to provide credible and updated information from a single platform when needed. To this, I believe Nepal Nutrition and Food Security Portal (NNFSP) will serve as a single point of access for integrated, ubiquitous, and useful information related to nutrition and food security and a rich knowledge base for government, developmental partners, researchers, academia, and public. The portal will offer a wealth of nutrition and food-security related data, resources, events, and news with convenient links to the website of different sectoral ministries, development partners, INGOs, and the information management system used by different ministries including the efforts made by different agencies to promote nutrition and food security in Nepal.

It is believed that the portal will effectively engender a fundamental shift in the way information is made available by providing a single platform to easily navigate the organized and structured information on the progress of nutrition and food security situation and the ongoing efforts. Therefore, with great pleasure, I would like to inform you that NPC is hosting the Nepal Nutrition and Food Security Portal. I believe by simplifying the process of having access to information and by providing an organized view of critical data, government and development partners can streamline their operations and collaboratively deliver the results for better nutrition. In this regard, I urge all the concerned stakeholders to provide valid information and data on time, to support the continued development of this portal and make its optimum use. Lastly, I would like to express my sincere commitment to providing the necessary support for the smooth functioning and continuation of the portal. NPC looks forward to working with sectoral ministries and other partners to put children’s right to nutrition first and pave the way to a more equitable and sustainable future in the decade to come.