In Pakistan, adolescent girls (aged 15 to 19) show high rates of micronutrient deficiencies:

• 54% are anaemic
• 49% are deficient in folic acid
• 40% are deficient in vitamin A

Anaemia is a severe public health problem:

• 51% of pregnant women are anaemic
• 62% of children under five are anaemic

Pakistan has weak capacity of community outreach workers and low coverage of services, resulting in:

• 48% of all deliveries are not attended by skilled birth attendants
• 50% do not have at least four antenatal checkups

The prevalence of malnutrition among children under five is improving, but it is still high:

• 62% are anaemic
• 60% are not exclusively breastfed to the age of six months
• 69% of children six to 23 months of age do not consume a minimum acceptable diet
• 50% are moderately or severely stunted
• 10% die before age five

Adolescent nutrition

The project aimed to reduce the prevalence of anaemia for school-going adolescent girls through:

• Weekly iron-folic acid supplementation
• Gender-sensitive nutrition education for girls and boys

First 1,000 days

Nutrition International provides support to the Government of Pakistan by developing and implementing comprehensive capacity-building programs for healthcare staff to deliver integrated nutrition and health education to low income, ethnically diverse communities, with a focus on:

• Safer pregnancies and deliveries with healthier outcomes: We have developed behaviour change communication strategies that promote increased uptake of iron and folic acid supplements, timely antenatal care visits, and skilled birth attendance with timely cord clamping
• Newborns: We are implementing kangaroo mother care (KMC) activities, which include establishing KMC wards and strengthening KMC services, in the districts of Swabi, Lodhran, and Jamshoro
• Infants: The focus is on supporting mothers to provide timely initiation of breastfeeding and then to exclusively breastfeed for the first six months
• Caregivers of children six to 23 months: Counselling focuses on age appropriate complementary feeding and continued breastfeeding, keeping a focus on dietary diversity, and minimum meal frequency for the child to remain healthy