The Cabinet Division, Bangladesh National Nutrition Council, and United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) on Sunday held a dissemination workshop on the findings and recommendations of the review of nutrition and gender sensitivity of social security programs.
The review is part of a joint project, promoting nutrition sensitive social security programs, led by the Cabinet Division, with the support of WFP, reads a press release issued on Monday.
It aims to strengthen coordination and collaboration among the line ministries, divisions, and departments implementing social security programs.
While Bangladesh has made major improvements in the health, nutrition, and population sectors, malnutrition in all its forms among children and women still remains high.
With the adoption of the National Social Security Strategy in 2015, social security programs have become the government's principal vehicle for addressing and improving food and nutrition security.
“Good nutrition ensures that children can develop to their full physical and cognitive potential, and adults can perform optimally. Improving nutrition is, therefore, essential for human capital development,” said Cabinet Secretary Md Mahbub Hossain.
Courtesy“To sustain economic growth, we must depend more and more on the quality and efficiency of our human resources. We must consider all necessary steps to make our programs more nutrition and gender-focused to get the maximum benefit from them,” he added.
The review shows that social protection programs offer multiple ways to safeguard nutrition for citizens in the lower wealth quintile by addressing multiple underlying causes, such as education, poverty and women empowerment.
It is, therefore, imperative that these programs adequately integrate nutrition considerations into their objectives, targets, actions, and monitoring mechanisms.
Creating awareness about nutritious food consumption is another important component highlighted in the review's recommendations, said Bangladesh National Nutrition Council Director General Dr Hasan Shahriar Kabir.
“Nutrition and gender-sensitive social protection programs, such as the Mother and Child Benefit Programme (MCBP) and the Vulnerable Women Benefit (VWB) Programme, play a crucial role in addressing malnutrition and gender inequality, both major obstacles to development,” said Dom Scalpelli, WFP resident representative and country director in Bangladesh.
“This review is a great opportunity to see social protection programs through a nutrition and gender lens. WFP pledges its continued support to the government in promoting nutrition and gender-sensitive social security programs to serve the most vulnerable population,” added Scalpelli.
