DILI, 8 september 2022 (TATOLI)- World Bank and the government of Timor-Leste discuss investment to address child malnutrition and reduce stunting for children under five in Timor-Leste.
World Bank Country Representative in Timor-Leste, Bernard Harbone said World Bank is working very closely with Prime Minister’s office to implement the political commitment, focus on reducing malnutrition and eliminate stunting for Timorese children of five years old in Timor-Leste.
“We are discussing the implementation of the government action plan to address the reduction of stunting also how to monitoring the progress of implementation,’’ World Bank Country Representative in Timor-Leste, Bernard Harbone told reporters at City 8, manleuana, thursday
Harbone said to address food security and reduce malnutrition more budget and collective effort are required from the government and the partners.
“Minister of Health needed more money to ensure the achievement of reducing stunting in the country, we needed a collective effort composed of development partners and relevant line ministerial to combat stunting in Timor-Leste,”
Harbone said according to the World Bank estimation Timor-Leste required 15 million USD to address stunting every year and the amount can be implemented to consolidate the national action plan by 2030.
“US$15 million is enough amount to be allocated by the Government to the Minister of Health to address nutrition in several areas,”
Adviser to Prime Minister on Food Security and Political Focal Point for Scaling Up Nutrition Movement in Timor-Leste, Filipe Da Costa said Timor-Leste has registered in 2022 over 47% of Timorese children under five years of age experienced malnutrition while the country also recorded 54% of unhealthy food that has been consumed by the community residing in the country.
Following this issue, the Government together with the Development partners including, DFAT Australia’s Embassy in Dili, UN, UNICEF, and other UN Agencies are involved in this forum to strengthen the cooperation to implement the action plan program that has been approved, to focus everyone’s attention on nutrition, school feeding program, food basket, water, and sanitation.
“We expect this action plan is well implemented to achieve the main objective of reducing malnutrition and stunting in Timor-Leste,”
So far Timor-Leste has registered 2010 58% of malnutrition in the country, the number has been reduced to 47% in 2022, and is expected to be reduced to 25% in 2030.
Journalist: José Belarmino De Sá
Editor: Nelia B.
