WorldFish is mainly leading the fisheries and aquaculture component of Suchana program comprising aquaculture and fisheries technology interventions to improve nutrition status of women of reproductive ages and children less than two years in Sylhet and Moulvibazar districts.WorldFish is committed to “contribute to increased production and consumption of nutritious fish and vegetables in homestead or leased ponds, land and through utilizing public and private water body/wetland potentials.
The proposed Suchana1 programme aims to reduce undernutrition leading to stunting in children under 2 years of age (U2) living within 250,000 very poor households with women of reproductive age (15 – 45 years) in the Sylhet and Moulvibazar districts of Sylhet Division, Bangladesh. This group includes adolescent girls 15-19 years old.
Maternal and child malnutrition is the underlying cause of 45% of preventable child deaths and, for the survivors, results in irreversible, lifelong consequences for a child’s physical and cognitive development. The rate of undernutrition in Bangladesh is among the highest in the world but, despite a decline in the national prevalence of stunting among children under five (U5) from 51% to 41% between 2004 -2011, 2 the rate of decline is slowing3 and the scale of the problem remains immense: some six million children are estimated to be chronically undernourished. Sylhet Division, in particular, consistently performs poorly on key nutrition indicators compared with the national average. It has the highest rates of stunting amongst children in Bangladesh at 49.3%;
