Cooperation between Ecuador, Uruguay and the European Union addresses the prevention and reduction of Chronic Child Malnutrition as a State policy – ​​Ministry of Public Health

2023-07-05 00:20:56

Quito, July 4, 2023

This Tuesday, July 4, 2023, the project “Strengthening the technical capacities of the teams in charge of comprehensive care for pregnant women and early childhood within the framework of the National Strategy Ecuador Grows Without Child Malnutrition” was presented. Gabriela Aguinaga, Vice Minister of Governance attended on behalf of the national health authority.

The meeting was organized by the Ministry of Public Health of Ecuador, the Ministry of Social Development of Uruguay, within the Uruguay Grows With You program, and the European Union as a triangular cooperation proposal.

The project seeks to identify characteristics and interventions of the comprehensive maternal and child care system in Ecuador; improve the care and information management system; In addition, join efforts in the promotion of breastfeeding, complementary, sustainable and healthy feeding.

Aguinaga indicated that “by strengthening the capacities of first-level care personnel, we build comprehensive strategies within the framework of Child Chronic Malnutrition (DCI), a State policy that has been included in the Ten-Year Health Plan 2022-2031.” He added that it is key to lay the foundations for a real transformation for the benefit of mothers, pregnant women and children under 2 years of age.

DCI has a prevalence in Ecuador of 27.2% in children under 5 years of age according to the Health and Nutrition Survey (ENSANUT 2018), a condition that affects full child development. Children who suffer from malnutrition are more likely to become short adults, have lower educational attainment and less economic income during their adulthood.

Ricardo Baluga Bello, Uruguay’s ambassador to Ecuador, thanked the Uruguayan delegation, the European Union, and Finland as a cooperator to achieve this articulation. We are in a stage of concretion, we will continue working and cooperating bilaterally with Ecuador.

For his part, Daniel Daniilidis, Head of Politics and Press as part of the European Union delegation, during his speech pointed out that triangular cooperation is important, “it has allowed us to adapt to new conditions, combine the experience of Uruguay and the European Union to address this problem in Ecuador with a proposal for initiatives on issues of prevention and reduction of Child Chronic Malnutrition”.