Ecuador establishes Inter-institutional Committee for the prevention and reduction of Infant Chronic Malnutrition

The Ecuadorian Government has recently formalized the creation of the Inter-institutional Committee for the prevention and reduction of Infant Chronic Malnutrition, in order to improve the governance of public institutions involved in its fight.

This is a historic event that sets a precedent in public policy. The Committee will meet monthly to evaluate the progress of the Intersectoral Strategic Plan for the Prevention and Reduction of Childhood Undernutrition, led by the President of the Republic and the 13 government institutions (Ministry of Health, Ministry of Economic and Social Inclusion, Ministry of Water and Environment, Ministry of Education, Civil Registry, Social Registry, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Agriculture, National Institute of Statistics and Census, Technical Secretariat Ecuador Grows Without Child Malnutrition, State Bank and Ministry of Telecommunications).

ogether with the Committee, the Government also put in place a Consultative Council (Multi-Sectoral Platform), a civil society space whose objective is to contribute to the implementation and monitoring of public policy on the prevention and reduction of chronic child malnutrition. It comprises representatives of the Academia, CSN/NGOs, Social Movements, Private Sector, United Nations, Multilateral Organizations, International Cooperation and the Media.

The Committee and the Consultative Council seek to strengthen the country's governance, articulate efforts and optimize resources aligned in the prevention and reduction of chronic child malnutrition.

Strategic Plan for the Prevention and Reduction of Chronic Childhood Malnutrition

On top of the above mentioned bodies, Ecuador has in place an Intersectoral Strategic Plan for the Prevention and Reduction of Chronic Childhood Malnutrition, which includes 28 projects in six areas, with the objective to reduce chronic child malnutrition by 6% by 2025. To this end, priority is given to the delivery of a package of goods and services that consist of promoting:

• prenatal health checkups and well child health checkups,
• exclusive and complementary breastfeeding,
• social day care and counseling services,
• access to safe water and sanitation,
• identity registration, and
• attachment, play and protective environments.

Resource Mobilisation

To implement the Plan, the Ecuadorian government will allocate USD 330 million by 2022. Moreover, due to the social and economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, on June 1 the Ecuadorian government launched the 1,000 Days Bonus, whose beneficiaries are pregnant mothers and families with children under 2 years of age who are in poverty and extreme poverty. It has a fixed component and a variable component that will be paid against compliance with conditionalities, for example, that the mother has taken the child to the growth control.

Nominal Monitoring System

In order to strengthen public policy, the National Government has developed a unique and universal monitoring system that brings together information from 5 public sector institutions (Ministry of Health, Ministry of Economic and Social Inclusion, Civil Registry, Social Registry and Ministry of Education). This system will make it possible to track each pregnant mother and/or child registered in the public system services and to individually monitor the delivery of the prioritized package of goods and services (health controls, supplementation, identity registration, social services, access to safe water, access to cash transfers, among others).