MALNUTRITION: Pakistan: Chickpea to fight child malnutrition

03 June 2011
The World Food Programme has turned to the local chickpea to treat young children suffering from malnutrition. Served as ready-to-use, the food will be distributed in government health centres in four provinces in Pakistan.

Quetta: Ready-to-use therapeutic foods (RUTFs) have become an important weapon in fighting child malnutrition, since their early development in Malawi, and subsequent endorsement by major NGOs and UN agencies.
A new variant in production in Pakistan replaces a key ingredient, peanuts, with chick peas which saves money, stimulates the local economy and fits better with local tastes, according to the World Food Programme.



Child malnutrition is a long-standing problem in Pakistan, and according to the World Bank the number of children who are underweight or stunted "is of particular concern since Pakistan has long been considered self-sufficient in diverse agriculture produce and refined foods."
A study by the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) early this year, following the devastating floods of 2010, found "critical levels" of malnutrition among flood-affected children. It also found significant evidence that malnutrition, one manifestation of acute poverty and deprivation, was linked to feudalism and the country’s class structure.
The UN World Food Programme (WFP) is distributing a chickpea-based RUTF, known as "Wawa Mum" or "Good food, Mum". The fortified paste is more acceptable to local people than those prepared with peanut butter, a food item rarely used in the country.
The paste contains a rich vitamin and mineral formulation blended with the cooked chick peas and each packet is designed to meet the daily nutrient requirements of children in the targeted age group.

Rich in nutrients
"The chickpea paste is being distributed to children suffering from moderate malnutrition. It comes ready to use, in 50-gram packets, is produced locally and is meant for children aged 6-36 months and suffering from moderate malnutrition," WFP spokesman Amjad Jamal told IRIN.
Three factories are currently processing 200 tons per month which is enough for four million packets of the paste. The WFP hopes to raise that number to 500 metric tons by June and to 1,000 tons by the end of the year, by contracting two additional factories.
The foods, he added, had been provided in four provinces through NGO partners and treatment centres such as government-run Basic Health Units (BHUs) since September 2010, when the post flood situation led to a greater focus on nutrition. Doctors and health workers at government health centres and those working with NGOs identify children in need of dietary supplementation.
"It is not uncommon to spot malnourished children in communities everywhere," Faisel Aziz, who volunteers with the charitable Edhi Foundation in Balochistan, told IRIN.
WFP reports that the chick pea formulation may soon be available in Afghanistan, Tajikistan and Ethiopia
http://southasia.oneworld.net/todaysheadlines/chickpea-to-fight-child-malnutrition-in-pakistan

MALNUTRITION: Pakistan: Chickpea replaces peanut in new supplementary food recipe

June 03, 2011

Ready-to-use foods have become an important weapon in fighting child malnutrition, since their early development in Malawi, and subsequent endorsement by major NGOs and UN agencies.
A new variant in production in Pakistan replaces a key ingredient, peanuts, with chick peas which saves money, stimulates the local economy and fits better with local tastes, according to the World Food Programme.
Child malnutrition is a long-standing problem in Pakistan, and according to the World Bank the number of children who are underweight or stunted “is of particular concern since Pakistan has long been considered self-sufficient in diverse agriculture produce and refined foods”.
A study by the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) early this year, following the devastating floods of 2010, found “critical levels” of malnutrition among flood-affected children. It also found significant evidence that malnutrition, one manifestation of acute poverty and deprivation, was linked to feudalism and the country’s class structure.
The UN World Food Programme (WFP) is distributing a chickpea-based ready-to-eat supplementary food, known as “Wawa Mum” or “Good food, Mum”. The fortified paste is more acceptable to local people than those prepared with peanut butter, a food item rarely used in the country. [Note: the original version of this article - and its headline -wrongly referred to Wawa Mum as a therapeutic food, but it is better described as a supplementary food].
The paste contains a rich vitamin and mineral formulation blended with the cooked chick peas and each packet is designed to meet the daily nutrient requirements of children in the targeted age group.
“The chickpea paste is being distributed to children suffering from moderate malnutrition. It comes ready to use, in 50-gram packets, is produced locally and is meant for children aged 6-36 months and suffering from moderate malnutrition,” WFP spokesman Amjad Jamal told IRIN.
Three factories are currently processing 200 tons per month which is enough for four million packets of the paste. The WFP hopes to raise that number to 500 metric tons by June and to 1,000 tons by the end of the year, by contracting two additional factories.
The foods, he added, had been provided in four provinces through NGO partners and treatment centres such as government-run Basic Health Units (BHUs) since September 2010, when the post flood situation led to a greater focus on nutrition. Doctors and health workers at government health centres and those working with NGOs identify children in need of dietary supplementation.
“It is not uncommon to spot malnourished children in communities everywhere,” Faisel Aziz, who volunteers with the charitable Edhi Foundation in Balochistan, told IRIN.
WFP reports that the chick pea formulation may soon be available in Afghanistan, Tajikistan and Ethiopia.
http://www.speroforum.com/site/article.asp?idCategory=33&idsub=128&id=54944&t=Pakistan%3A+++Chickpea+replaces+peanut+in+new+supplementary+food+recipe

MALNUTRITION: WFP Calls For Global Leadership As Rising Prices Hit Hard

10 May 2011

As rising prices cast millions of families overnight into the ranks of the hungry, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) today called for global leadership to invest in nutrition.

“For families who spend 80 percent of their income on food, all it takes is one price shock to cast them overnight into the ranks of the hungry,” said WFP’s Deputy Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer Amir Abdulla. “These people are often faced with desperate choices—to feed one person or the other, to forego needed health care, to take girls out of school.”
Abdulla told a special session of the UN Conference on the Least Developed Countries that malnutrition was an economic issue that affected the overall potential of nations. This year, food prices, weather emergencies and political instability were intersecting in a perfect storm hitting the world’s most vulnerable people.
He said WFP was seeing a changing face of hunger and malnutrition, with more hungry and poor in urban areas – even in middle-income countries.
In 2010, WFP reached more than 100 million people in more than 70 countries, including 38 of the Least Developed Countries or LDCs. Practically every second child under the age of five (43 percent) in these, poorest, countries, was stunted or small for their age.
But advances have been made in fighting child malnutrition in countries such as Nepal, Ethiopia, Mali and Mauritania. Brazil has set an example with its innovative Zero Hunger policy, slashing rates for undernutrition from 37 percent in 1974 to 7 percent in 2007.
Greater understanding of the importance of good nutrition for physical and mental development has led to an increased focus on the first 1,000 days, from pregnancy to two years of age.
WFP has increased the use of innovative, fortified products such as “Wawa Mum,” a ready-to-use chickpea paste made in Pakistan. In the last two years, WFP increased the number of children under two it reached with specialised nutritious food by nearly 50-fold.
http://www.wfp.org/news/news-release/wfp-calls-global-leadership-invest-nutrition-rising-prices-hit-hard

MALNUTRITION:UN chick pea vitamin paste battling malnutrition in Pakistan

 Shane Starling, 22-Feb-2011

A vitamin and nutrient-rich chick pea paste developed by United Nations scientists is helping in the fight against infant malnutrition in Pakistan.
 
"Good food mum!"
Wawa Mum chick pea paste is helping improve infant nutrition in Pakistan
The problem increased dramatically last year as flood waters ravaged large parts of the country, prompting researchers at the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) to try and develop local solutions.
They came up with ‘Wawa Mum’ (literally ‘good food mum’) – a 50g mineral and vitamin-fortified paste meeting a host of daily nutrient requirements and derived from locally-sourced chick peas.
“Wawa Mum has a number of advantages during emergency situations like the floods in Pakistan,” said Dominique Frankefort, deputy director of WFP’s operations in Pakistan. “It’s light, you can eat it immediately and it’s made right here in Pakistan from an ingredient that people know and like.”
Wawa Mum is being manufactured in three factories processing 200 tonnes per month which is enough for four million sachets of the paste.
“We hope to raise that number to 500 metric tons by June and to 1000 tonnes by the end of the year. In order to do that, we’ll be contracting two more factories between now and December.”

Aid faster, cheaper
Frankefort said the paste offered nutrition-providing potential beyond that of traditional humanitarian aid routes.
“At the onset of emergencies, we often have problem getting as much of these products as we need,” said Frankefort. “They’re also expensive and have to be shipped, which adds to the cost and to the amount it takes to get them where they’re needed.”
“The other ready-to-eat foods (RTFs) we use are mostly peanut pastes. So it occurred to me that if we could find a similar ingredient more available in places like India and Pakistan, then we could develop our own product right where we needed it.”
Because the chick pea is local and in abundant supply, it is also 10 per cent cheaper than other RTFs developed by the WFP.
Chick pea is popular in Pakistan and other Asian countries where it is the base of dishes like chana masala and humus.
Other WFP nutrition solutions include fortified powder blends derived from cereals, soya, beans and pulses; tubs and sachets derived from vegetable fat, dry skimmed milk, malt dextrin, sugar and whey; high energy biscuits; micronutrient powders containing 16 vitamins and minerals, and fortified compressed food bars.
http://www.foodnavigator.com/Science-Nutrition/UN-chick-pea-vitamin-paste-battling-malnutrition-in-Pakistan

MALNUTRITION: Chickpeas: Homespun Response To Malnutrition Deployed In Pakistan

17 Feb 2011 An innovative new food product made entirely in Pakistan is helping to protect the youngest of that country's flood victims from malnutrition. Made from locally grown chickpeas, Wawa Mumshows that supplying technical knowhow can be the key to finding local solutions to malnutrition. Watch video
 As Pakistan recovers from the floods which forced millions of people from their homes last summer, thousands of affected children are receiving the nutrition they need thanks to rations of a nutritious chickpea paste produced at factories within their own country.
The paste, designed by WFP nutritionists and called Wawa Mum, is the latest addition to WFP's toolbox of specialised food products. It wraps a day's worth of vitamins and nutrients into a single 50-gram serving and can be eaten straight from the packet.
"Wawa Mum has a number of advantages during emergency situations like the floods in Pakistan," explained Dominique Frankefort, Deputy Director of WFP's operations in Pakistan. "It's light, you can eat it immediately and it's made right here in Pakistan from an ingredient that people know and like."

Growing demand
According to Frankefort, the idea for Wawa Mum arose out of the growing demand and tight supply of other ready-to-eat foods (RTFs) already on the market.
"At the onset of emergencies, we often have problem getting as much of these products as we need," said Frankefort. "They're also expensive and have to be shipped, which adds to the cost and to the amount it takes to get them where they're needed."
Rather than see that as a problem, Frankefort saw it as an opportunity. "The other RTFs we use are mostly peanut pastes. So it occurred to me that if we could find a similar ingredient more available in places like India and Pakistan, then we could develop our own product right where we needed it."

"That's tasty, mom!"
That ingredient Frankefort was looking for turned out to be the chickpea, an energy-rich legume which forms the basis of countless South Asian dishes from chana masala to humus. Roasted, ground and fortified with vitamins and minerals, the final product was a nutrition-packed baby food custom tailored to local palettes.
Its very name testifies to its popularity among the Pashtun children of northwestern Pakistan, who were fed Wawa Mum when violence along the Afghan border forced their families from their homes.
In Pashto Wawa means 'good food', and wawa mum is what the children would say to their mothers when they wanted some more of this tasty new food.

A bright future
Just after Wawa Mum was developed, the catastrophic flooding across Pakistan gave rise to an urgent need for ready-to-eat foods. Six months on, three factories are now pumping out over 200 metric tons of Wawa Mum per month. That translates to around 4 million highly-nutritious meals.
But Frankefort says it's still not enough. "We hope to raise that number to 500 metric tons by June and to 1,000 metric tons by the end of the year. In order to that, we'll be contracting two more factories between now and December."
That has obvious benefits for Pakistan's food processing industry, which is creating jobs at the height of an emergency when the country needs them most.
And because Wawa Mum is produced close to where it's needed, from an ingredient cheaply available on local markets, it costs WFP around 10 per cent less than other RTFs.



Source: United Nations World Food Programme (WFP)

http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900sid/LSGZ-8E7JJY?OpenDocument