Health Sector Strategy for Addressing Maternal Undernutrition (2013-17).

This Health Sector Strategy for Addressing Maternal Undernutrition (2013-17) is a national wide sectoral policy document. The Vision of the Policy is proposed as: All Nepali women are well nourished, reach their intellectual potential and are able to lead a healthy and economically productive life to benefit themselves and their families. The goal is: Improve the nutrition and health of adolescent girls, pregnant and lactating women.
The Policy seeks to help eliminate hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition. The Government of Nepal (GoN) prioritises good nutrition as a fundamental right of its citizens. According to the Policy, to date, there is no comprehensive strategy to address the problem of maternal under-nutrition. The current interventions focus mainly on micronutrient supplementation with less emphasis on food-based approaches including dietary diversity. Furthermore, there has been less emphasis on continuum of care, a life cycle approach and addressing the root causes for inequity. The strategic approaches identified by this strategy are: 1. Institutional strengthening and capacity building, by enhancing the capacity of the government to design, implement and evaluate programmes at central, regional and district levels with a particular focus on enhancing management and technical skills. 2. Maternal nutrition integrated in health programmes by integrating maternal nutrition into key health programmes, including community based approaches; 3. Communication for improved maternal nutrition by improving knowledge regarding maternal nutrition, including diet and care practices, through advocacy, community mobilization and behaviour change communications; 4. Maternal nutrition beyond the health sector by involving appropriate non-health sectors in maternal nutrition efforts; 5. Nutrition surveillance, monitoring, evaluation and research by strengthening knowledge and contributing to information on best practices for evidence-based planning, implementation and monitoring for effective maternal nutrition programming.
The Policy sets up the overall objective as: Accelerate and sustain reductions in chronic undernutrition and micronutrient deficiencies in adolescent girls and pregnant and lactating women, particularly among disadvantaged and vulnerable groups, which will contribute to rural poverty reduction. The causes of malnutrition include household food insecurity and poverty. The components proposed in the Policy include: Ensure equitable access to family food by adolescent girls, pregnant and lactating women; Increase family and community members’ knowledge regarding access to health services, particularly among disadvantaged and vulnerable groups; Strengthen the linkages for adolescent girls and pregnant and lactating women with social protection programmes e.g. child cash grants, especially in the poorest and most food insecure districts, in coordination with MoHP and for the adoption of food-based dietary guidelines; Advocate that village development committee (VDC) block grants be used to improve the nutrition of adolescent girls and mothers; Link adolescent girl, pregnant and lactating women and their families with programmes that increase household production and consumption of micronutrient rich plant and animal source foods; Conduct research to explore various social transfer options in order to improve nutritional status during pregnancy as well as birth outcomes.