The Indian government has a flagship programme called Poshan Abhiyaanthat is aimed at improving the nutritional outcomes for children, adolescents, pregnant women and lactating mothers, by leveraging technology through a targeted approach and convergence. In order to support this mission, an initiative titled “IMPAct4Nutrition” has been convened and launched by Tata Trusts, UNICEF, Sight and Life, CSRBOX, CII, WeCan and NASSCOM Foundation.
This initiative provides a platform for the private sector to become actively engaged and build a social movement with their employees and their families, customers as well as anyone else who is a part of the business ecosystem, to support the Poshan Abhiyaan.Dr. Rajan Sankar, Senior Advisor, Nutrition at Tata Trusts has highlighted the importance of food fortification under nutrition. In addressing the issue of exclusion in access to nutrition interventions and services, he emphasised upon the need to improve service delivery.
Companies like Arvind Mills, Bosch, CareNX Innovations and Moody’s Analytics pledged their support to the platform before the initiative was formally launched on March 13, 2019. Through this initiative, private sector companies will function in three strategic areas i.e. assets/core business for nutrition, cash/CSR for nutrition and employee engagement for nutrition (ACE).
The underlying rationale for this initiative is that the government and its initiatives have been striving to strengthen the supply-side issue of the malnutrition problem in India. However, the government requires the support and cooperation of the private sector and civil society to address the demand-side of the issue. According to Kumar, within this context, the private sector must come up with packages and solutions for nutrition food.
The malnutrition burden in India is a 100% preventable. Alok Kumar, NITI Aayog Advisor said that, “one-third of the children in India are growing up stunted and tackling malnutrition is a key challenge for India. The main reason is lack of awareness around nutrition issues. This requires introducing behavioural changes in a campaign mode to reach every household. The government cannot do it alone. Theprivate sector needs to join forces with the government as part of the Jan Andolan or peoples’ movement to tackle malnutrition.”
Arjan De Wagt, Chief Nutrition at UNICEF India, has described IMPAct4Nutrition as a platform for widespread socio-economic change, hinged upon improving the levels of nutrition awareness and literacy (health, hygiene and food literacy) in society, thereby increasing the productivity and boosting the nutritional status of people. He also outlined the benefits of investing in nutrition vis-à-vis increase in economic growth, prevention of child mortality etc.
The platform will function as the business link to the broader movement centered around Poshan Abhiyaan and will provide relevant education material and program information. According to a release issued by UNICEF, “through this initiative, companies will engage their employees, customers and families, to create holistic nourishment through better nutrition, health and hygiene.”This is yet another illustration of public-private collaboration to address a socio-economic issue hindering the path towards a healthy India.
India Outbound
March 25, 2019
source https://indiaoutbound.org/impact4nutrition-public-private-sector-collaboration-for-poshan-abhiyaan/
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