DILI, 20 september 2023 (TATOLI) – The President of the National Parliament, Maria Fernanda Lay, met with the UNICEF Representative in Timor-Leste, Bilal Aurang Zeb Durrani, to discuss joint efforts to combat malnutrition in the country.
During the meeting, Lay showed her commitment to collaborating with UNICEF and government bodies to reduce child mortality and malnutrition in Timor-Leste.
“The role of parliament is very important, so I requested for His Excellency’s support in this regard. Speaker Lay assured me of her support, particularly to reduce child mortality and child malnutrition in Timor-Leste,” Durrani told reporters after the meeting in the House of Parliament, today.
UNICEF has been supporting the Timorese government in the fight against malnutrition and child mortality in the country.
In order to combat child mortality and malnutrition, Deputy Prime Minister Mariano Assanami announced the government’s decision to launch a steering committee for early childhood development that will bring together different government ministries to address the issue.
Durrani said that some of the municipalities have a high rate of infant mortality and malnutrition: “Ermera and Oecuse are the top ones.”
“A lot of this has to do with social practices and behavior of the people. For example, 53 percent of children are not initiated breastfeeding when they are born, which is one of the key drivers of malnutrition in children,” he explained.
According to the Timor-Leste Food and Nutrition Survey 2020, the country has one of the highest prevalences of childhood stunting in the world. According to the report, 47% of Timorese children 0-59 months were stunted, 8.6% were wasted, and 32.4% were underweight.
Earlier this week, the government and development partners discussed forming a Malnutrition Task Force to address malnutrition and stunting in the country.
The creation of the Task Force aims to take multi-disciplinary and multi-sectoral action to combat malnutrition in the country.
Durrani also pledged to support the government, especially the Ministry of Education, to ensure a good quality of learning for children in different schools in the country: “UNICEF works closely with the Ministry of Education to ensure the quality of learning for children in Timor-Leste.”
He said that there are four key drivers that lead to the poor quality of learning in schools.
“Firstly, only 27 percent of children have access to pre-school education. Because of this, when children enter first grade, they already start failing and repeating, and they don’t have a solid foundation either. That’s why this is one of President Horta’s main priorities,” said Durrani.
According to him, the second reason contributing to the poor quality of learning for children is the lack of teacher training and a strong curriculum, as well as infrastructure such as toilets and water.
“The government’s program for the next five years prioritizes all these interventions and UNICEF, together with other partner agencies, is very happy to support the government in achieving these results,” he concluded.
Journalist: Filomeno Martins
Editor: Nelia Borges
