Aamer Mehmood Kiani Federal Minister for National Health Regulations & Coordination held a meeting with the Mr. Illango, Country Director, World Bank at the World Bank campus in Islamabad. Welcoming the Federal Minister the Country Director World bank iterated the fact that the World Bank has been supporting Pakistan in various development projects in the past and reiterated commitment to extend all its support in the future also. Minister Health said that Pakistan’s population is still very young with 62% under age of 30 years and human capital is a driving factor in economic growth. Pakistan is also facing a crisis in terms of malnutrition that is amongst the worst in the world and is losing about 3% of its GDP to stunting every year. Although the recent PHDS shows an improvement from the past with stunting rates at 37.6%, however there is a severe disparity in the nutrition status across the provinces. To address both population and nutrition issues, the WB offered to bring in experts from counties having success as in both the areas to share their experiences. In this regard a conference is tentatively planned for early 2019 involving the policy makers and implementers. World Bank also offered to share analytics on health related issues with the Ministry. It was concluded: a) That work on policies regarding these thematic areas of bilateral interest in light of best practices will be undertaken together with designing and implementation of projects addressing the identified themes. b) Setting up achievable targets to measure success will be mutually negotiated. It was decided by the Minister to hold a coordination meeting with Federal and Provincial partners on population & nutrition. Additionally a media campaign will be launched to promote healthy living.
PREVIOUS NEXT
