UNB, Dhaka :
Speakers at a discussion in the city on Wednesday called for breaking the cycle of malnutrition by stamping out the menace of girls’ getting married early in Bangladesh.
They also urged for scaling up nutrition programme alongside efforts to ensure food security through higher productivity and more investments in agriculture. They were speaking at a gathering of food and nutrition stakeholders held at a city hotel under the aegis of the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP). There were 40 attendees representing leaders in private sector, academia, NGOs and civil society. Their wide-range discussion on food security and nutrition aimed to identify new areas for collaboration to address challenges in nutrition. Rasheda K Chowdhury, a former adviser to a caretaker government, underscored the need for launching a social movement against the trend of early marriages because girls’ getting married early is one of the root causes of stunted growth in many children in Bangladesh.
Hossain Zillur Rahman, another ex-adviser of a caretaker government, who moderated the discussion, urged all stakeholders to focus on urban poor, adolescents, lowly-paid jobholders and other marginalized communities during policy
formulation exercises on food and nutrition issues. He underscored the need of policy researches on emerging food security, food safety and nutrition issues as other discussants also said this is high time to do so as government would be soon starting preparatory exercise to formulate the 8th five-year plan.
Akhter Ahmed, who heads the Washington-based International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) operations in Bangladesh, emphasised on accelerating growth in farm productions.
Speakers at a discussion in the city on Wednesday called for breaking the cycle of malnutrition by stamping out the menace of girls’ getting married early in Bangladesh.
They also urged for scaling up nutrition programme alongside efforts to ensure food security through higher productivity and more investments in agriculture. They were speaking at a gathering of food and nutrition stakeholders held at a city hotel under the aegis of the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP). There were 40 attendees representing leaders in private sector, academia, NGOs and civil society. Their wide-range discussion on food security and nutrition aimed to identify new areas for collaboration to address challenges in nutrition. Rasheda K Chowdhury, a former adviser to a caretaker government, underscored the need for launching a social movement against the trend of early marriages because girls’ getting married early is one of the root causes of stunted growth in many children in Bangladesh.
Hossain Zillur Rahman, another ex-adviser of a caretaker government, who moderated the discussion, urged all stakeholders to focus on urban poor, adolescents, lowly-paid jobholders and other marginalized communities during policy
formulation exercises on food and nutrition issues. He underscored the need of policy researches on emerging food security, food safety and nutrition issues as other discussants also said this is high time to do so as government would be soon starting preparatory exercise to formulate the 8th five-year plan.
Akhter Ahmed, who heads the Washington-based International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) operations in Bangladesh, emphasised on accelerating growth in farm productions.
