The construction of nutritional guides for the first thousand days of life in Ecuador advances – Ministry of Public Health

2023-05-16 00:53:29

Quito, May 15, 2023

The Ministry of Public Health (MSP) with the technical and financial support of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), led the II National Workshop on Dietary Guidelines Based on Food Systems (GABSA) for the first thousand days of life in Ecuador.

Government institutions, academia, civil society and international organizations participated, who make up the National Technical Board that is in charge of developing these tools.

Andrea Bersosa, Undersecretary of Promotion, Intercultural Health and Equality of the MSP, pointed out that, “this workshop will make it possible to generate nutritional technical recommendations as a tool to combat chronic malnutrition that affects 1 in 4 children under 5 years of age in Ecuador. These teamwork spaces make us part of the solution.”

The GABSA National Technical Board developed nutritional technical recommendations and messages aimed at pregnant women, mothers and their families, as well as health professionals according to the themes of pregnancy, breastfeeding and complementary feeding.

Likewise, the factors that directly and indirectly affect food in this period were addressed according to the food systems approach, in which the food environments and the consumer were analyzed from the perspective of the supply chain, the possible solutions to comprehensively improve the nutrition of the first thousand days of life, that is, from pregnancy to 2 years of age.

Finally, the work groups generated a content outline of the GABSA with key information and developed the visual identity that will accompany the edu-communication materials, considering the approach of gender equality, interculturality and inclusiveness.

Gabriela Rosero, coordinator of FAO Food and Nutrition Security projects, highlighted the importance of intersectoral work that will guarantee the implementation of these tools at the national level in the fight against malnutrition in the country, with emphasis on chronic child malnutrition.

During the month of July, the National Technical Board will meet again to close the construction of the GABSA for the first thousand days of Ecuador and they will be available to the population at the end of this year.