DILI, 10 march 2023 (TATOLI) – The Government of Timor-Leste, today, officially launched a special taskforce unit called the Mission Unit for Combat Stunting (MUCS) to address stunting in the country.
MUCS was jointly launched by the Minister of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, Fidelis Manuel Leite Magalhaes, Deputy Minister of Health, Bonifácio Maucoli dos Reis, the acting UN Resident Coordinator, Cecilia Garzon, and MUCS Executive Director, Filipe da Costa.
The role of the Mission Unit for Combating Stunting is to prepare the National Plan for Combating Stunting, implement the measures foreseen in it, contribute to informing the population about the causes and consequences of stunting, mobilize the population in general to adopt preventive behaviors against stunting, support stunting treatment and mitigation activities, and ensure the coordination of administrative bodies and services to combat stunting and child malnutrition.
This unit, in coordination with the other relevant bodies and administrative services, will be responsible for drafting an Action Plan for Combating Stunting in Timor-Leste, as well as for implementing the measures foreseen therein.
Given the multidisciplinary and multisectoral nature of the actions that will have to be undertaken, it will depend on the Prime Minister. The Mission Unit for Combating Stunting will be dissolved on December 31st, 2024.
The Special Task Force was initiated by Prime Minister Ruak with the aim to combat and address stunting in the country.
Magalhães called for the continued promotion of exclusive breastfeeding, consuming nutritious foods, and increasing immunization.
At the same place, Minister Maucoli said that the Ministry of Health will collaborate with MUCS to continue working to end stunting in Timor-Leste: “The consumption of nutritious and healthy food is necessary to end stunting in the country.”
According to WHO, stunting is the impaired growth and development that children experience from poor nutrition, repeated infection, and inadequate psychosocial stimulation. Children are defined as stunted if their height-for-age is more than two standard deviations below the WHO Child Growth Standards median.
With almost every second child being stunted (47.1 percent of children under five years of age), Timor-Leste has the third highest prevalence of stunting and is among the only three countries in which at least half of children below 5 are stunted, according to UNICEF.
On may 5, the government of Timor-Leste together with the development partners and the United Nations Agencies in Timor-Leste, launched the National Health Sector Nutrition Strategic Plan for 2022-2026 to combat malnutrition, especially stunting in Timorese children.
In its Consolidated National Action Plan for Nutrition and Food Security (CNAP), the Government has set the goal to reduce stunting by 22% (from 47% to 25%) by 2030.
In addition, to combat malnutrition, especially stunting in Timor-Leste, the government had taken several important measures, including adopting the National Nutrition Strategy (2014-2019), National Policy for Food Security and Nutrition (2017), and the National Action Plan for Food Security and Nutrition (CNAP FNS 2022) under the aegis of KONSANTIL, as an inter-ministerial and inter-sectoral strategic body, composed of public and private entities, with representatives of development partners and civil society entities, both national and international.
With the launching of the CNAP, the government also committed to bringing down the prevalence of rickets from 8.6% in 2020 to 3.0% by 2030.
Journalist: Filomeno Martins
Editor: Nelia Borges
