Publication: Field Exchange 63

As part of the special edition of Field Exchange on Child Wasting in South Asia, we were delighted to speak to Britta Schumacher, senior regional nutrition advisor with WFP Regional Bureau for Asian Pacific. This regional office provides support to 14 countries in Asia, of which seven are in South Asia. In this podcast, Britta shares insights of WFP's role and regional approaches to wasting management as well as nutrition more broadly in the region.

As part of the special edition of Field Exchange on wasting in South Asia, we feature an article that examines how wasting prevention and treatment is central to stunting reduction in Pakistan. We're delighted to have had the opportunity to interview Dr. Baseer Khan Achakzai, Nutrition Director of the nutrition wing of the Ministry of National Health Services, Regulations, and Coordination for the Government of Pakistan to discuss the details of the article further.

In this podcast, Marie McGrath speaks to Dr. Andrew Mertens, a postdoctoral scholar at the UC Berkeley Center for Targeted Learning and a lecturer at the UC Berkeley School of Public Health. Andrew is the lead author of some fascinating research, examining patterns of growth failure that we have summarized in the Field Exchange edition, part of the knowledge integration initiatives of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which includes a database of millions of participants and studies in child birth growth and development. Summaries of the particular papers mentioned in this podcast can be found here and here.

This podcast reflects on an article within the special edition of Field Exchange on wasting in South Asia that describes the challenges and developments around wasting management in Afghanistan. To delve into some of the details of integrated management of acute malnutrition or IMAM in Afghanistan, we were honoured to interview Dr. Jamil Bawary, the IMAM Officer for the Public Nutrition Department of the Ministry of Public Health in Afghanistan.

This podcast reflects on one of the articles published within the special edition of Field Exchange on wasting in South Asia that describes Nepal's experiences in scaling of integrated management of acute malnutrition or IMAM programming. What began as pilot programs way back in 2008 is now implemented in over half the countries districts. We were delighted to have the opportunity to interview Mr. Kedar Raj Parajuli, chief of the Nutrition Section of the Ministry of Health and Population in Nepal, to share further insights into the experiences on their pathway to scale up.

In this podcast, Dr. Victor Aguayo, UNICEF’s Chief of Nutrition shares his reflections on the rich experiences gathered within Field Exchange 63 which has been a joint publication between ENN and UNICEF Regional Office of South Asia. Victor shares his insights into why wasting in South Asia has not received the attention it needs, what are the key opportunities, challenges and learning from the region and why other regions should be interested in what is happening in South Asia.

In this short podcast, Purnima Menon explores why the burden of wasting is so high in South Asia and the current priority areas of action for the treatment and prevention of wasting in the region. Purnima Menon is a senior research fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute, and is based in New Delhi, India.

This podcast accompanies Field Exchange 63 Special issue on Child wasting in South Asia.

In this short podcast, Dr. Zulfiqar Bhutta, Co-Director of the SickKids Centre for Global Child Health and Founding Director of the Centre of Excellence in Women and Child Health, at the Aga Khan University, explores why the burden of wasting is so high in South Asia and the current priority areas of action for the treatment and prevention of wasting in the region.

This podcast accompanies Field Exchange 63 Special issue on Child wasting in South Asia.

In this short podcast, Professor Robert Black, Professor and Chairman, Department of International Health, John Hopkins University, explores why the burden of wasting is so high in South Asia and the current priority areas of action for the treatment and prevention of wasting in the region.

This podcast accompanies Field Exchange 63 Special issue on Child wasting in South Asia.