Minimising food loss with delicious, healthy snacks
Undernutrition continues to be a major challenge in Pakistan. Despite some improvement over the past few years, the most recent Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey1 still found stunting in 38% of children under five years of age, with 17% severely stunted. Among children aged six to 12 months, only 13% receive the minimum acceptable diet. Micronutrient deficiency is a widespread problem for children and pregnant women. The survey also shows a strong correlation between undernutrition and a low income.
To help improve this situation, we are collaborating with our partners in the GAIN Nordic Partnership and food manufacturers in Pakistan to establish local value chains for the production and commercialisation of nutritious and affordable foods.
Two projects are currently underway.
- Running from 2024 to 2029, Whey2Value focuses on transforming the whey side streams of cheese dairies into a healthy drink.
- The nutritious fruit bar project aims to utilise surplus dates and, through that, reduce post-harvest loss – a continuation of our previous work with papayas in Ethiopia. We will be working on this project from 2024 to 2025.
The SUN Business Network supports us in scaling up the affordable nutrition business models we develop.
UN sustainable development goals
These projects specify a contribution to SDG 2.1/2.3 and 12.3.
1. Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey 2017-2018 https://dhsprogram.com/pubs/pdf/FR354/FR354.pdf
