Multi-sectoral nutrition plan goes online
The Joint Action for Nutrition Outcome (JANO), a consortium project funded by the European Union and co-funded by the Austrian Development Cooperation and implemented by CARE Bangladesh, Plan International, and ESDO, developed an online monitoring system with the leadership of Bangladesh National Nutrition Council (BNNC) and cooperation by UNICEF and Nutrition International and technical support from mPower to track the progress of multi-sectoral nutrition activities at district and upazila level.
BNNC, headed by prime minister Sheikh Hasina, is working to supervise and monitor the nutrition programmes across the country to achieve the goals of the Bangladesh National Plan of Action for Nutrition (NPAN-2).
The government has formed District Nutrition Coordination Committees (DNCC) and Upazila Nutrition Coordination Committees (UNCC) for developing and implementing district and upazila level nutrition plans.
The handover ceremony of online M&E system for sub-national level took place on 8 February in Bangladesh National Nutrition Council (BNNC) office. CARE Bangladesh handed over the monitoring system to BNNC through the event. This solution is going to be launched on the official web portal of BNNC, says a press release.
Presiding over the event, director general of Bangladesh National Nutrition Council (BNCC) Md Khalilur Rahman said he is very hopeful that the approach is going to empower the district and upazila level committees to assess the progress of the annual nutrition plan.
Prabodh Devkota, deputy country director (programme) of CARE Bangladesh said that effective use of this online monitoring system will be a milestone in strengthening nutrition governance in Bangladesh and CARE will continue its full cooperation in the implementation of this system at the field level.
Among other BNNC officials, SM Mustafizur Rahman, line director of National Nutrition Service and acting director of Institute of Public Health Nutrition; Zubaida Nasreen, director of BNNC, Amanur Rahman, director-extreme rural poverty program of CARE Bangladesh, Ikhtiar Uddin Khandaker, director – health program of CARE Bangladesh; Akhter Imam, deputy director of BNNC, Nazneen Rahman, senior team leader of JANO project and Mohammad Hafijul Islam, acting team leader of CI4N initiative were present in the occasion.
Representatives from UNICEF, Nutrition International, GAIN, NIPORT were also present on the occasion.