‘Right Start Initiative’ is aimed at reducing anaemia, complications and deaths during pregnancy and delivery for mothers ―and low birth weight and neural tube defects such as spina bifida in newborns.
The Canadian government will invest Canadian $3.2 million (Tk 208 million) until 2020 for this initiative that also seeks to reduce stunting in children under five years old.
State Minister for Health Zahid Maleque launched the initiative in Dhaka on Tuesday with the organisation’s President and CEO Joel Spicer.
Through this programme, Nutrition International hopes to build the capacity of healthcare service providers to promote and deliver interventions to improve care for pregnant mothers, reducing risks to their health ― and the health of their newborns.
In addition, it will work with the government and the Ministry of Food and Ministry of Women and Children’s Affairs to ensure that food-based social safety net programme beneficiaries receive rice fortified with iron, folic acid and other micronutrients to reduce the risk of iron deficiency anaemia and folate deficiency in women of reproductive age and adolescent girls.
In total, 2.6 million women and adolescent girls across Bangladesh will benefit from these interventions.
Nutrition International, formerly known as the Micronutrient Initiative, has been supporting government efforts to address malnutrition for millions of Bangladeshi people for more than 20 years.
“Building on the increasing awareness of the importance of nutrition to health, education, economic productivity, and stability – as well as the commitment we are seeing at highest levels - we are now increasing our level of engagement and our scope,” Spicer said at the launch.
“Thanks to Canada’s support, through Right Start – a global initiative - we will have a special focus on women, adolescent girls, and children who suffer a particularly heavy burden and hold the key to ending the cycle of malnutrition and building a better world.”
State Minister Maleque said his ministry will continue to support Nutrition International with the implementation of all programmes benefitting women, adolescent girls and young children.
“Our government will do what is needed to ensure no child or woman in Bangladesh remains undernourished," he said.
Statistics show around 40 percent of women of reproductive age, including adolescent girls, have anaemia , which can impact their physical well-being, performance at work or school and increase the possibility of complications during pregnancy.
Close to half of all newborns are not exclusively breastfed and one in three children under five is stunted.
“Improving the nutrition of women and girls is key to empowering them, but it also benefits entire communities. That is why Canada is proud to partner with Nutrition International to help millions of women and girls around the world, to reach their full potential and become powerful agents of change”, Canadian High Commissioner Benoit Préfontaine said.