WHEN a child is reported stunted, it is tempting to ask which ministry is responsible. Is it the ministry of health, nutrition, social protection, or others? In reality, all of them are responsible institutionally — and none when it comes to implementation on the ground.

Forty per cent of Pakistan’s children under five years are stunted while 17.7pc suffer from wasting, as of 2018. The scale of this crisis cannot be understated. Driven by more than just diet, the onset of stunting in a child is driven cumulatively by maternal nutrition, household poverty, food security, sanitation, healthcare, and education.

Over the past several years and despite frequent administrative changes, Pakistan has actively recognised this reality, progressively building a multi-sectoral policy architecture to tackle stunting at both federal and provincial levels. However, progress has remained limited. The challenge the country faces today is not a shortage of programming: it is a recurrent gap between high-level multisectoral policy and local-level multisectoral delivery.

While health and nutrition were devolved to provinces following the 18th Amendment, parallel ministries and a persistent federal-provincial overlap........

© Dawn