Jordanian princess calls for improved food security, health and education for women and children in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: Princess Sarah Zeid of Jordan has called on Pakistani authorities to ramp up nutrition aid for women and children in the wake of deadly floods ravaging the country.

Around 37 percent of Pakistan’s 220 million inhabitants face food insecurity, according to World Food Program data. Eighteen percent of Pakistani children under the age of five suffer from acute malnutrition, around 40 percent in the same age group are stunted and 29 percent are underweight.

Concerns are rising that the situation will further deteriorate because of the flooding that has hit Pakistan recently — 30 million people in the South Asian nation have been left homeless amid the heaviest monsoon rains in decades, which have wreaked havoc across the country since June 14. Disaster-management authorities have since recorded at least 982 extreme weather-related deaths. The southwestern Balochistan province and Sindh, in the south, have been the worst hit areas.

“The terrible floods that are currently happening in Pakistan will affect women and girls the most. Children will get diseases from water, so any good program should be nimble enough and flexible enough to provide a buffer to these shocks,” the princess, who is the WFP’s special adviser on mother and child nutrition, told Arab News in an exclusive interview in Islamabad on Friday.

“We have to make sure that no one is left behind and everybody is given the support and access to education and nourishment which they deserve to have. Ultimately, that is the best thing for the nation.”

The princess arrived in Pakistan on Aug. 21 for a week-long working visit — her second to the country — to assess efforts to improve nutrition for women and children over the last three years.

“It is to celebrate the fact that not only has the government embraced its role as a leader for nutritional-health development for Pakistani mothers, but has gone above and beyond,” she said, adding that initiatives under the Benazir Income Support Program, which helps the government implement its social welfare plan, were “extraordinary.”

“I would ask the Pakistani government to keep going. I am here to encourage the government of Pakistan to continue its investment in the wellbeing and nutrition of mothers and children.”

During the trip, the princess has met with government officials to advocate increased focus on maternal and child health and visited several WFP-supported nutrition projects in Sindh and Islamabad.

“The (Pakistani) women I have met are extraordinary on every level. From the government officials, (I have seen) the technical knowledge, dedication, and passion they have for the wellbeing of their people. And the female health workers are magnificent — the role they play in their communities is really extraordinary,” she said.

She stressed the need to create an “enabling environment” for girls in educational institutions to reduce the number of girls who drop out of schools in Pakistan. The country is home to an estimated 22.8 million out-of-school children, the second highest in the world, according to UNICEF. The majority of them — about 12.2 million — are girls, who face cultural and social barriers preventing them from seeking formal education, especially in rural areas.

“The girls have all sorts of reasons why they are not able to continue their schooling,” Princess Sarah said. “We have to create an enabling environment (so that) girls stay in school.”

She also advocated raising awareness of family planning in Pakistan, the world’s fifth most populous country.

“A woman should be able to decide how many children she is going to have, and when she will have them, and that takes education, information,” she said, adding that women should not face societal pressure to give birth.

“You need to have access to family-planning services (for women and for men), as husbands need to prioritize the health of their wives so that they can have a healthy family.”