Saba Javaid holds little Faseeha, as she is screened for malnutrition as part of a multi-pronged effort to fight malnutrition in Pakistan. Photo: WFP/Sahil Zia
Faseeha was just six months old when Saba Javaid carried her to the local Benazir Nashonuma centre in Central Pakistan’s Multan District, worried because her daughter seemed smaller and weaker than other babies her age. The waiting room was filled with mothers, some rocking crying infants to sleep.
When the health worker wrapped a special tape used to screen for malnutrition around Faseeha’s tiny arm, it appeared red – the telltale indicator of severe acute malnutrition.
“They told me my child was very weak,” Javaid recalls, “and that her nutrition was not adequate.”
Across Pakistan, nearly 4 in 10 children under 5 are stunted, or too short for their age, due to chronic undernutrition – a form of malnutrition caused by inadequate intake of nutritious food, calories and essential nutrients. Many families like Javaid’s struggle to afford regular meals.
Even when food is available, it often lacks the essential nutrients needed. The consequences may not always be immediately visible, but they are profound: children who fall ill more often lack energy and fail to grow and develop as they should.
How the WFP-supported Nashonuma programme is tackling child malnutrition
But the Government of Pakistan is now turning those worrying statistics around through a multi-pronged effort to combat malnutrition, co-created by the World Food Programme (WFP) and later joined by two other United Nations agencies.
Launched in 2020 under one of South Asia’s largest social safety nets, the Benazir Nashonuma Programme was recently evaluated as one of the world’s most successful stunting-prevention models. This model integrates provision of nutritious food, maternal health services and behaviour-change communication, alongside cash assistance.
To date, it has reached more than 4.6 million mothers and children across Pakistan.
“The latest evidence tells us to build on the current local solutions that work,” says Coco Ushiyama, WFP Country Director in Pakistan, “to invest responsibly, and to continue to accelerate turning an ambitious vision to end malnutrition into a reality.”
Why first 1,000 days are critical to child nutrition in Pakistan
The Benazir Nashonuma Programme has reached more than 4.6 million mothers and children across Pakistan in its fight against stunting, or being too short for one’s age. Photo: WFP/Pakistan
The programme’s services are delivered through a network of more than 570 Nashonuma centres, primarily located at existing healthcare facilities and hospitals. Together, they ensure that mothers like Javaid are systematically identified through the BISP’s national registry system and then supported, creating sustainable pathways to reduce stunting.
The focus is on the first 1,000 days of life – from pregnancy until a child’s second birthday – the period that shapes children’s future health, learning and development.
For families like Javaid’s, the support can be life changing. Her husband works as a daily wage labourer, his fluctuating earnings making it difficult to consistently afford nutritious food.
Determined to improve her daughter’s health, Javaid visited her local Nashonuma centre to receive food sachets to treat malnutrition. Those were later followed by WFP-supported Wawamum, a specialized nutritious food formulated to address critical nutrient gaps during early childhood.
During the visits, she also received counselling sessions on breastfeeding, complementary feeding, hygiene and nutrition. She began asking questions, discussing feeding practices and applying what she learned at home.
Conversations around nutrition across Pakistan are often shaped by tradition and sometimes erroneous advice inherited through generations. Photo: WFP/Pakistan
In households across Pakistan, conversations around nutrition are often shaped by tradition and advice women inherit from generations before them. Javaid had believed goat’s milk was best for newborns. Nobody had explained to her the importance of exclusive breastfeeding or how colostrum – the thick yellow milk produced by mothers immediately after childbirth – helps protect babies from disease and malnutrition.
After changing her breastfeeding and nutrition practices, Javaid began to notice gradual changes in Faseeha.
“Every month, we see mothers becoming more confident.” – centre worker, Aroona Batool.
Her daughter became more active. She started gaining weight. She laughed more, played more, and no longer appeared constantly tired.
At the Nashonuma centre, staff members often witness this transformation.
“Every month, we see mothers becoming more confident,” says one centre worker, Aroona Batool. “They begin asking questions, making better food choices and encouraging other women in their communities to come too.”
Significant improvements in child stunting and maternal health
Javaid and her now healthy daughter Faseeha, who has graduated from the Nashonuma programme. Photo: WFP/Sahil Zia
A new independent impact evaluation has found significant improvements in maternal and child health outcomes. Women enrolled in the programme showed better prenatal care, healthier pregnancy weight gain and fewer adverse birth outcomes.
The evaluation also found that stunting rates among beneficiary children were 22 percent lower at 6 months of age and 18 percent lower at 1 year of age – some of the strongest results ever observed globally for a nutrition programme.
“What started as a stunting prevention pilot more than six years ago is today not only one of the largest, but also most successful social protection programmes delivering nutrition results at scale,” says WFP Country Director Ushiyama. “WFP is humbled to partner with the Government of Pakistan, particularly BISP, throughout this journey.”
“The latest evidence tells us to build on the current local solutions that work.” – Coco Ushiyama, WFP Country Director in Pakistan
Today, Javaid sits in the same facilitation centre waiting for another update on her daughter’s progress. Around her, mothers continue arriving with children in their arms, carrying the same worries she once carried herself.
She leans forward anxiously as the staff member reviews Faseeha’s chart one last time.
“So, Faseeha is graduating from the programme?” she asks carefully.
The staff member smiles and nods. Severe malnutrition is treatable in a matter of months. The additional nutritional support Faseeha then received ensured she continued to develop normally — readying her for preschool years.
Javaid cannot hold back her relief.
“That means she is healthy,” she says.
The Gates Foundation supported the evaluation of the Nashonuma Programme.
Learn more about WFP’s work in Pakistan