Health and Nutrition
UNICEF Pacific works with governments and partners to strengthen equitable and resilient primary health care and nutrition systems and promote multi-sectoral actions, addressing the health risks and triple burden of malnutrition across the Pacific.
The challenge
Access to quality primary health care is uneven, with significant gaps in rural and outer island areas. Children and women face barriers to continuous health care, including limited emergency care, inadequate referral systems, low coverage of follow-up visits and community outreach for preventive services such as immunisation and nutrition screening and counseling. Health impact of climate change, including disruption of health services due to recurrent climate-related disasters and increase in climate-sensitive disease outbreaks such as dengue, typhoid, and diarrhea, further strains local capacity.
Children and women in the Pacific continue to face preventable health and nutrition challenges, shaped by geographic isolation, climate-related risks, and limited system capacity.
At the same time, the Pacific is experiencing a triple burden of malnutrition:
- Undernutrition, including stunting and wasting, undermines child survival and development.
- Overweight and obesity, which are major contributors to the Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs).
- Micronutrient deficiencies, such as anemia and vitamin A deficiency, impair immunity and learning.
Despite growing recognition of the need for a holistic whole-of-government and whole-of-society approach, many countries still lack decisive and coordinated actions.
The solution
UNICEF collaborates with governments and partners to ensure more children, including adolescents, and women, benefit from equitable access to and use of quality high-impact health and nutrition services and practices, including in emergencies.
Our approach spans three interlinked areas:
Health and Nutrition Policy and Planning
We support government efforts to strengthen capacities for evidence-based planning, financing, and policy development in primary health care and nutrition. This includes incorporation of preventive primary health care, gender sensitive equity-based agendas and climate and other emergency risks into health and nutrition policies.
Primary Health Care Service Delivery and Quality
We work closely with government partners to improve the quality and equitable access of primary health care services, especially for remote households, including in emergency settings. This includes strengthening health worker capacity, supply chain systems, revitalisation of routine immunisation services, and the continuum of care for maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health.
Multi-sectoral Response to Malnutrition
UNICEF supports coordinated actions across health, food, education, social protection, and WASH sectors to reduce all forms of malnutrition. This includes promoting breastfeeding, improving diets and food environments through strengthening school nutrition programmes and food system policies, promoting positive parenting, and responding to nutrition emergencies with agility.