2 October 2019 (Thanamalwila, Monaragala) – The Country Representative of the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), Ms. Brenda Barton, and the Representative of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in Sri Lanka, Ms. Ritsu Nacken, jointly handed over anthropometric equipment to the Maternal Child Health Clinic in Thanamalwila, Monaragala today.

This was part of the equipment worth LKR 14 million (USD 78,000), handed over to the Family Health Bureau of the Ministry of Health, Nutrition and Indigenous Medicine. The equipment is provided to maternal and child health clinics in six districts, to improve access to health services and monitor and take early measures to improve the health of women and children prone to malnutrition in Sri Lanka. 

This is part of a larger project funded by the Government of Denmark to improve access to information and services on sexual and reproductive health, enhanced health, nutrition and food security of women and girls in Sri Lanka.

The partnership between WFP and UNFPA ensures that the project’s two components of nutrition and sexual reproductive health mutually reinforce each other. This one-year project will have a direct impact on 8,000 women and adolescents from districts of Monaragala, Matale, Mullaitivu, Mannar, Batticaloa, and Nuwara Eliya.

Malnutrition in Sri Lanka is prevalent across the life-cycle, starting with 1 in 6 (16%) new-borns being born with Low Birth Weight (LBW). Further Sri Lanka has one of the highest rates (top 10 worst in the world) of moderate acute malnutrition – which is “wasting’ or thinness – in children under 5 years of age. These rates have remained largely unchanged over the last decade.