MDG Report 2012 - United Nations in Bangladesh

livelihood components such as health, access to credit, and social capital, demonstratethat a more generous and multi-faceted package of assistance has positive impacts onfood security.The priority interventions for nutrition are age specific complementary feeding andmicronutrient supplements for children, early initiation and exclusive breast feedingup to six months of age, community management of severely acute malnutrition inchildren through therapeutic and supplementary feeding, supplementary feeding formalnourished and marginalized pregnant and lactating women through strengtheningand scaling up maternal iron and foliate supplementation, access to safe water andimproved sanitation in urban slums and rural areas, local homestead food productionand nutrition education to promote diet diversity and use of fortified food in nutritionand health interventions.Food processing and the subsequent transport and marketing of agricultural products,is a good example of agricultural and nonfarm sector forward linkages. Investments inrural agricultural infrastructure, sales, maintenance or servicing of farm machineryprovide good examples of agricultural and nonfarm sector backward linkages.A steady and sustainable reduction of poverty in Bangladesh will require a pro-poorpolicy regime and to operationalize such a regime an efficient administration isneeded. The practice of good governance should reflect participation, especially of thevulnerable and marginalized, to ensure their engagement in local public institutions.Poverty targets face serious downside risks that require careful monitoring and policyactions to increase investment in infrastructure, strengthening agriculturaldiversification, reducing food inflation and improving the level and quality of socialsafety net spending.The social sector programmes need more attention. The priority given to health,education and social protection is appropriate but the budgetary allocations to theseprogrammes need to be enhanced and sustained.Institutional reforms to strengthen the urban management, local governments andpublic administration need to be bolstered. The implementation of these strategies andpolicies require urgent attention.The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare should involve relevant ministries andother stakeholders for a meaningful multi-sectoral approach to improve food security,safety nets for the marginalized, hygiene and sanitation and creation of livelihoods.In the context of eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, it is important to recognize that justas poverty is multidimensional, hunger also has many faces relating to inadequate energyintake, undernutrition, increased vulnerability to diseases and disability that often leads topremature death. The key determinant of hunger is of course poverty. Poor households do nothave the capacity to ensure the required food and lack the resources to meet nutrition andhealth care needs. Even if the extreme poor households may succeed in securing some food,the quality of their diet is unlikely to meet dietary energy requirements and lack essentialmicronutrients. Extreme poverty and hunger are thus entwined in a vicious cycle sinceundernourished people would be less productive, would have lower lifetime earnings, andwould be more prone to chronic illness and disability. For the children in the extreme poorhouseholds, malnutrition can have severe and permanent consequences for their physical andintellectual development and they will never make up for the nutritional shortfalls at the36