DILI, 31 august 2021 (TATOLI) – The Government of Timor-Leste, on Monday, presented and updated the achievement that has been made on Nutrition for Growth (N4G), and Timor-Leste’s preparation for the UN Food Systems Summit (UNFSS), which will take place in September in New York to WHO.
“In 2010 all Ministers signed the Comoro Declaration to end hunger and malnutrition, and then followed by the establishment of a national multi-sectoral coordination body for Food Security and Nutrition (KONSSANTIL) in 2012 and launched Zero Hunger Action Plan in 2014,” said Costa.
He said there are still 36% of households experiencing food insecurity and 47% of children under 5 are stunted, adding the presence of COVID 19 and the devastating floods caused by Tropical Cyclone Seroja making the challenges even worse.
“Timor-Leste joined SUN Movement as 62nd member last year. This has set an important milestone that enabled us to advocate for increased investment in programs that can improve nutrition and food security,” he recalled.
He emphasized that the government has increased budget allocation for social development programs and adopted a Consolidated National Action Plan for Food and Nutrition Security (SDG2 CNAP NFS) which can help the government and partners to consolidate their resources and efforts to focus on only key priorities and to achieve SDG2 targets.
“To ensure nutrition integration in our universal health coverage (UHC), we can provide free health services in all 442 villages, plus community outreach to the remote areas through Integrated Health Systems at the Community Level (SISCA) and reach household level through Family Health. There are also Mother Support groups in every village. Through these programs we can promote exclusive breastfeeding, complementary feeding, micronutrient supplement, contraception, and hygiene promotion to all our communities,” Costa said.
In addition, he said the current Government is committed to improving food production and availability, transportation and storage, processing and marketing, and utilization.
“This year the Government joined the UN Food System Summit. We have conducted a national dialogue in July and conducted 2 of the 3 planned sub-national dialogues. I am happy to report that participants came from all levels, the civil society, the private sector, farmer groups, women groups, community leaders, seven government ministries, and development partners, and they are very enthusiastic and very engaged during these meetings. The meeting has provided a great opportunity for people to voice their concerns and offer their insights especially during the COVID-19 Crisis and during budget preparations for the next year,” He stressed.
He said to scale up nutrition in Timor-Leste, recently, the Prime Minister, Taur Matan Ruak, signed the School Meals Coalition, and launch prime minister nutrition award: “This has renewed the Government’s commitment for improving and mobilizing more resources for nutrition.”
“The Government is making every effort to ensure households have nutrition resilience during the Covid-19 Crisis and extreme climate events. We revised policies to be more nutrition-sensitive, we implement universal food basket through Sesta Basika Program, and cash subsidies to households as part our economic stimulus and recovery package and to ensure nutrition is secured during the crisis period,” added Costa.
“I would like to end here by thanking WHO Country Representative, all UN country teams, and donors who continue support Timor-Leste to achieve a nutrition and food secure community.”
Journalist: Filomeno Martins
Editor: Nelia Borges Rosario
