PUTRAJAYA: The government is in the midst of developing the country's National Children Well-Being Roadmap (NCWR).
Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail announced this today, saying the decision to come up with the roadmap was made following the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (Unicef) report on Children Without: A study of urban poverty and deprivation study.
"We formulate the roadmap to reflect the government's awareness of the issues highlighted in the Unicef report which not only involved children living at the Hardcore Poor Housing Programme (PPRT).
"This roadmap aims to address the root cause of the issues and not merely on the symptoms. It covers basic interventions, prevention intervention and reactive intervention," said the deputy prime minister in a statement.
Dr Wan Azizah added the roadmap was still as the level of consultation process with government agencies.
The next step would involve holding consultation with the non-governmental organisations, relevant ministries and townhall with the public in the near future, she said, adding consulting with targeted groups would be equally important in formulating the roadmap.
At the same time, she said, the government would proceed with existing efforts including the National Plan of Action for Nutrition of Malaysia (NPANM) 2016-2025, which is already in its third series launched by the Health Ministry.
The deputy prime minister described the NPANM as the government's unwavering commitment to prevent and control nutrition issues among the country's population, highlighting three core objectives- boost the population nutrition status; reduce the spread of non-communicable diseases and guarantee food access.
"Our children are the country's future. This is why we view the issues at hand seriously by taking the necessary measures to address them," she said.
The government, Dr Wan Azizah said, did not view the Global Nutrition Report 2018 lightly which had highlighted various issues including stunted children, the growing number of anaemic women and obesity problem.
The issues of stunted children and obesity were also raised in the Unicef's Children Without report, she said, adding the factors which contributed to these issues aside from poverty were unhealthy lifestyle and eating pattern.