Ecuador and Peru share experiences in nutrition

Quito, April 9, 2012 - Ecuador and Peru share high rates of chronic malnutrition in children under five living in rural and indigenous areas. The World Bank has launched several initiatives to support government efforts in both countries to address the problem. Early last year, Peru began the project “Participatory intervention model to improve child nutrition,” implemented by the Fund for the Americas (FONDAM). A few months later, Ecuador launched the project “Growing with our guaguas (children),” implemented by the Chimborazo Provincial Government. Both projects received financing from the Japanese Social Development Fund through the World Bank.

At the workshop “Exchanging experiences in community monitoring,” held in Riobamba, Ecuador, the coordinators of the two initiatives signed a letter of understanding to continually exchange information with respect to the different components of the two projects. The idea is to develop a learning strategy to build capacities of the technical teams. Authorities, community leaders and representatives of governmental and non-governmental organizations and universities participated.

Japanese Ambassador Osamu Imai said that his country promotes a policy of exchange of experiences among many countries. “I’m pleased that Ecuador is following this example. Together with their improved nutrition, we want these children to have the opportunity to grow up healthy and to receive a quality education to contribute to reducing poverty,” he said.

On the first day of the two-day workshop, speakers presented the experiences of Ecuador, Central America and Peru. On the second day, participants visited Cebadas Parish in Guamote Canton to directly observe the operation of the integral childcare centers for good living and the health units in the framework of the Zero Malnutrition Project.

“The workshop was a wonderful opportunity to fine-tune approaches. The intercultural approach used in the Ecuadorean project provided valuable input. We should strive to use this approach in the Peruvian project. The letter of understanding we signed will allow us to share information, experiences, lessons learned and knowledge capital to resolutely address the challenge of reducing chronic malnutrition,” said María Inés Sánchez – Griñan, technical coordinator of the project in Peru.

Marco Martínez, the coordinator of the Growing with our guaguas (children) project and coordinator of Social Management of the Chimborazo Provincial Government, said that “this knowledge exchange process has been very positive,” especially for Ecuador.

Workshop participant Margarita Guevara, health coordinator of Zone 3, also expressed her support for the process. “It is important to learn that the work we are doing in Ecuador is being implemented in other countries with similar characteristics. This exchange process is constructive because we have the opportunity to learn and also to share our experiences,” she said.