Stunting even in abundance

The National Weekender

The Food and Agriculture Organisation in PNG points out poor quality diets to be the key contributor to malnutrition and stunting in PNG, which is caused by limited access to protein foods

By ERIC PIET
THERE is that tale of an African man who, on a visit to Papua New Guinea, set out along the Highlands Highway, complained to the Creator at the end of his journey for being biased in blessing PNG with an abundance of natural food, water and fertile land.
On that journey, our fellow black brother could not help being amazed by the sight of the variety of mouth-watering fresh fruits and vegetables sold at the roadside markets, the clean gushing rocky mountain water, coupled with the outlay of the beautiful cool natural scenery, as in his land, fresh produce and clean water are prized commodities due to their scarcity.
From the highlands to the coast natural food is plentiful here. According to the world’s leading Research Institute of Organic Agriculture, FiBL, PNG has organic food that are amongst the best in the world; and this land has huge potential to become the ‘food bowl’ of the world given its high soil fertility.
In the recent 77th United Nations General Assembly Summit in New York, PNG Prime Minister James Marape gave a rousing speech to the world leaders that his country has enough land, sea and people to be a food supplier to the world to satisfy the planet’s hunger, malnutrition, and food insecurity crisis.
But despite our rhetoric in trying to stand out to the world with food and nutrition solution, PNG’s own indicators of being a food-abundant nation in the world portrays a completely contradictory scenario on a global front. Our paradise nation sits fourth at the top in the world for child stunting with a rating of 49.50 per cent due to chronic malnutrition, according to the World Health Organisation, which places Timor – Leste (51.70 per cent), Eritrea (52.50 per cent), and Burundi (54 per cent) above PNG.
What is stunting?
Stunting is a condition, due to poor nutrition, where a child is not growing enough in their earlier years of life. And not only does malnutrition pose a threat to the survival and development of children, but it also poses a major threat to sustainable economic growth.
Evidence shows that if a child is malnourished during the first 1,000-day period from conception to their second birthday, they will suffer cognitive and physical impairments that are permanent and irreversible. These impairments limit a child’s education and employment prospects. Reduced individual earnings translate into reduced economic productivity at the national level. This is how malnutrition can trap children in an intergenerational cycle of poverty.
Causes of stunting in PNG
The Food and Agriculture Organisation in PNG points out poor quality diets to be the key contributor to malnutrition and stunting in PNG, which is caused by limited access to protein foods. Expounding on this, the World Bank Group in its 2005 Knowledge Brief report on the health, nutrition and population gives three concrete causal knowledge setbacks on this compounded issue. They include exclusive breastfeeding and complementary food, interventions by healthcare workers, and nutrition education.
The main window of opportunity to prevent stunting is the intrauterine and postnatal periods, from conception until 24 months. Evidence suggests that in PNG, women lack the knowledge of quality feeding practices even among better-off households. Also, the high fertility rate and close birth gaps make it difficult to give infants sufficient exclusive breastfeeding in the first six months.
The report further says that there is an imperative need to build human resource capacity in PNG to combat malnutrition challenges, where health workers can and should play a critical role in educating the public on how to improve nutrition outcomes.
Finally, the lack of access to information on proper nutrition is an important factor contributing to the high levels of malnutrition in PNG. Paying attention to the kinds of foods being given to the child is critical.
Junk food like cheesepops and fizzy drinks or just one type of food (for example, a piece of kaukau as a main meal) are not healthy and people must not think they are enough for kids. The significant shortage of nutritionists and dieticians remains PNG’s key challenge to conducting large-scale nutrition education programmes.
What is being done?
As part of the intervention to address severe malnutrition and stunting in this country, the World Bank Group and the Government of PNG have embarked on a five-year ‘Safety Net Project’ (2022 – 2027) branded the ‘Child Nutrition and Social Protection Project’ (CNSPP), with an overall objective to improve utilisation of priority nutrition interventions and purchasing power for first 1,000-day households in selected districts in the country.
As key government actors, the Department of Justice and Attorney General (DJAG), National Department of Health (NDoH) and Department for Community Development and Religion (DfCDR) have been charged with the pilot rollout of the US$90 million World Bank Group and Australian Government funded project in the four districts of Gazelle (East New Britain), Kundiawa-Gembogl (Chimbu), North Fly (Western) and Madang (Madang). These, as per the World Bank Group, are districts with a huge malnutrition burden in the country.
The project comes under three components. Component one, with US$19 million total allocation falls under the implementation scope of NDoH. The focus area is on executing community-based approach to reduce and end stunting, where it is streamlined to community level multi-sectoral actions for nutrition and early childhood development and strengthening of healthcare systems.
The main component of the CNSPP is the child nutrition grant, which the DfCDR oversees the disbursement of US$ 66 million to the first 1,000-day households. The third component entails the project management and coordination, that includes planning, monitoring and evaluation, and reporting, and DJAG will be playing that role.
Gazelle District visit
Recently, from Sept 26 – 29, the CNSPP team made a familiarisation mission to Gazelle District of East New Britain. The visit also marked the commencement of the project rollout. This saw, on Day 1 (Sept 27) at the Kokopo Beach Bungalow, the project sensitisation of provincial counterparts including the provincial health authority and Gazelle District health staff, and church health organisations there, the provincial and district community development officers, Church networks, and the provincial justice officers.
On Day 2, Sept 28, a tour was taken around Gazelle District, especially tour of health and water facilities at Navunaram Ward in the Central Gazelle Rural LLG, and an Organic Model Farm at Kairak, owned by the University of Natural Resources and Environment, located in the Inland Baining LLG.
Sustainability
The quinquennial (five-year) CNSPP project will wrap up in 2027, and as it is highly envisaged, stunting and malnutrition issues in Gazelle, Kundiawa-Gembogl, North Fly and Madang districts will see marked improvements following a similar project rollout in some countries in the world by the World Bank Group.
And its sustainability and coverage to the rest of the districts in PNG? The DfCDR, a social development mandated department, has captured all that including other social safety net aspects such as the ederly and the disability populace of the nation in its National Social Protection Policy that is now before the National Executive Council (NEC) for endorsement, for state intervention.

  • Eric Piet is a freelance writer