Programme

Nutrition

We work to ensure that all children in Nepal are well-nourished with healthy and balanced nutrition to survive and grow

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नेपाली

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The Challenge

To reduce stunting and wasting among children through maternal, infant and young child feeding and management of severe acute malnutrition.

Investments in nutrition – particularly in the earliest years of life – can yield dramatic results for children, their families and communities.

Good nutrition is the bedrock of child survival, health and development. Well-nourished children are better able to grow and learn, to participate in and contribute to their communities, and be resilient in the face of disease, disasters, and other global crises. But for the millions of children suffering from malnutrition, reality is stark. For millions more, this chronic malnutrition will result in stunting – an irreversible condition that literally stunts the physical and cognitive growth of children.

The good news is that we can change this and Nepal has made some big changes in the past two decades.

Child undernutrition rates substantially declined over the past two decades. The prevalence of stunting (short height for age) among children under five decreased from 57 per cent in 1996 to 25 per cent in 2022. During the same period, the prevalence of underweight (low weight for age) reduced from 43 per cent to 19percent and child wasting (low weight for height) from 11 per cent to 8 per cent.
98 per cent of children live in households that consume iodized salt.
Vitamin A prophylaxis coverage for children aged 6 to 59 months in Nepal consistently reaches or exceeds 85 per cent.
Nepal has been recognized globally as an ‘exemplar country’ for the success in reducing stunting.

But, we still need to make progress as:

Despite significant reduction in stunting in the last decade, the current stunting rate is still unacceptably high.
8 per cent of children under five years of age are wasted (low weight for height) nationwide while in Lumbini and Madesh Provinces it is above the national average at 16 percent and 10 percent respectively
The rate of exclusive breastfeeding of children aged 0-5 months has declined from 66 per cent in 2016 to 56 per cent in 2022, while breastfeeding within the first hour after birth have stagnated at 55 per cent during the same period
Only 48 per cent children aged 6-23 months are receiving diversified diets and 43 per cent of them receive a minimum acceptable diet.
43 per cent of children under five and 66 percent of children aged 6-23 months are suffering from anaemia. Similarly, 39 per cent of adolescent girls, 33 per cent of pregnant women and 34 per cent of women of reproductive age are suffering from anaemia.

Measurement of upper arm circumference — UNICEF Nepal/2017/ADhakal

The Solution

Provide improved and equitable access for all children, including adolescent girls, and women of reproductive age, to adequate nutritious diets and improved nutritional care.

The first 1,000 days from the start of a woman’s pregnancy to a child’s second birthday offer an extraordinary window of opportunity for preventing undernutrition and its consequences. The second window of opportunity to break the cycle of malnutrition is during adolescents. We need to target our actions to these critical periods, using widely accepted and evidence-based interventions, including support for breastfeeding, appropriate complementary foods for infants over six months, and micronutrient supplementation for adolescents’ women and children to address deficiencies. These investments in nutrition – particularly in the earliest years of life – can yield dramatic results for children, their families, and communities.

In the current national programme (2023-2027), the nutrition component is guided by the Multi Sectoral Nutrition Plan - III (MSNP III, 2023-2030). The MSNP III developed by the National Planning Commission with support from UNICEF and in collaboration with key ministries and stakeholders. The plan aims to end malnutrition and develop human capital for the country's overall socio-economic development through scaling up evidence-based nutrition interventions designed to address the various factors contributing to malnutrition. These include integrating nutrition interventions across health, water, sanitation, education, agriculture and social protection sectors, with a focus on enhancing nutrition governance in current federal context. It will focus on improving the availability, quality and accessibility of both nutrition-specific and nutrition-sensitive services, while promoting positive social behaviour change practices. It will institutionalize nutrition-friendly governance system ensuring sustained commitments, accountability and integration of nutrition priorities in plans and budget across the three tiers of the government.

UNICEF with financial support from the European Union, the United States Government state department, and the UK government Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, supports the Government of Nepal in the implementation of the Multi-Sector Nutrition Plan (MSNP-III). As a lead organization UNICEF is providing technical assistance to the Ministry of Health and Population to scale up comprehensive nutrition specific intervention nationwide.

While UNICEF's overarching goal is to enhance government capacity to implement MSNP with quality and coverage, the organization focuses on five critical areas of nutrition in Nepal:

Improve early childhood nutrition, through enhancing breastfeeding and complementary feeding practices for children aged under-five years, while also ensuring adequate micronutrient intake to prevent stunting and other forms of early childhood malnutrition
Address wasting in children by scaling up of early detection, prevention, and treatment initiatives within both health facilities and communities
Support maternal and adolescent nutrition initiatives by prioritizing evidence-based actions enhancing the delivery and demand for nutrition programmes aimed at children, adolescents and mothers
Support families of children and adolescents to have knowledge and be empowered to make decisions about nutrition to improve feeding, care and hygiene practice
Increase capacity of Government and partners for equitable, gender-responsive, evidence-based and risk-informed nutrition policies and programs, financing and leadership
Ensure that nutrition is integrated into emergency preparedness and response, guided by UNICEF’s Core Commitments to Children in Humanitarian Action and its commitments as the cluster lead agency for nutrition, including capacity building of the government and partners on Nutrition in Emergency.

Furthermore, UNICEF supports nutrition system strengthening through:

Human resource provision in Key ministries including the National planning Commission (NPC), the Ministry of Federal Affairs and General Administration (MOFAGA) and the Ministry of Health and Population,
Strengthening the quality and availability of Nutrition data and information, building capacity of Health Workers, Female Community Health Volunteers (FCHVs) key government officials.
Developing and ensuring availability of guidelines, manuals and standard Operating procedure to improve quality of nutrition services.
Generating evidence to inform policy and programmes.
Providing technical assistance to supports multisector coordination, advocates for increased domestic financing for nutrition.

Gender equality and social inclusion and Disaster Risk Management has been mainstreamed within the nutrition programs. UNICEF closely works with the National Planning Commission as well as the Ministry of Federal Affairs and General Administration for the overall leadership, capacity-building and coordination for the implementation of MSNP III and to support in creating enabling environments.