Policy dialogue on multisectoral second National Plan of Action for nutrition

A roundtable discussion was held in the capital recently where the focus was to capture the readiness of the enabling environment for programme roll-out and to identify the challenges and opportunities across sectors for inter-sectoral collaboration and programme convergence for the implementation of the second Bangladesh National Plan of Action for Nutrition (NPAN2), says a press release.

In recent years, Bangladesh recorded a 51% to 43% decrease in stunting prevalence in between 2004 to 2007, with the trend being maintained post-2007 with an annual rate of reduction of 1% per year. As a member of the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement, Bangladesh recently launched its NPAN2 (2016-2025), which outlines the implementation framework for its 2015 National Nutrition Policy.

NPAN2 involves 22 ministries and is costed over 10 years at US$ 1.6 billion. It aims to improve the nutritional status of mothers and children in the 1,000-days period, as well as that of adolescents, the elderly, disabled, pre-school, and primary school children. To do this, the plan aims to scale up nutrition-specific and nutrition-sensitive interventions and improve the coverage of programmes to ensure that the most vulnerable are targeted. NPAN2 emphasises the importance of social behaviour change communication.