A four-day sub-regional workshop addressing the problem of stunting among children under the age of five in Albania, Armenia and Georgia started today in Yerevan.

Co-hosted by the Government of Armenia and UNICEF, the workshop brings together stakeholders in the area of child nutrition from the three countries to review national strategies and programmes, highlight existing systemic gaps and re-energize the national commitment to child rights and welfare.

"Health and nutrition are priority issues to ensure children's well-being, and in that sense early years are very critical because the risk of childhood diseases and mortality is quite high during the first years of life," Deputy Minister of Health of Armenia Sergey Khachatryan said in his opening remarks.

A new UNICEF Report Improving Child Nutrition: The achievable imperative for global progress released last month offers evidence that globally 165 million children under the age of five are suffering from stunting or are too short for their age.

The Report also confirms that a key to success against stunting is focusing attention on pregnancy and the first two years of a child's life. Stunting in a child is not only about being too short for his or her age. It can also mean suffering from stunted development of the brain, cognitive and learning capacity in childhood, as well as work productivity in adulthood.

Stunting in children under 5 years of age is a marker of lost opportunity for a child's brain to develop to its full potential: this is a critical period of brain development, when the consequences of poor nutrition, reflected in low height for age, have irreversible impact and cannot be corrected later in life.

"If a woman is malnourished during pregnancy, or if her child is malnourished during the first two years of life, the child's physical and mental growth and development may be slowed. That child will never learn, nor earn later in life, as much as she or he could have if properly nourished in early life," UNICEF Representative in Armenia Henriette Ahrens said.

According to the recent data from the three countries, 19 per cent of children under the age of five in Armenia, 16 per cent in Albania and 11 per cent in Georgia suffer from stunted growth.

WHO international growth standards indicate that young children (under the age of five) worldwide have the same capacity to reach their height potential when pregnant women receive appropriate attention for health and nutrition during pregnancy, and the children benefit from optimal feeding practices and receive appropriate care. At the same time, country-level statistics clearly shows that the most disadvantaged children have much higher rates of stunting, indicating that stunting in early childhood is a key marker of inequity and not of genetic predisposition.

Stunting and other forms of undernutrition can be reduced through a series of simple and proven steps during pregnancy and the first two years of a child's life, globally referred to as "the first 1000 days of life". Proper nutritional interventions during these 1000 days are critical in improving fetal and child nutrition, growth, and brain development. They provide an opportunity which does not exist later in life: the reason why this period is also called "a window of opportunity".

"We need to act during this critical time to ensure full growth and development of children. Effective interventions applied worldwide include improving pregnant women's nutrition and care as well as prevention of childhood illnesses and appropriate feeding practices during the first two years of life. Exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months continued afterwards along with appropriate complementary feeding with nutrient-rich foods and vitamin/mineral supplements is the key to success, " Nune Mangasaryan, Senior Advisor on Nutrition from UNICEF Headquarters in New York, emphasized.

Very often the poor nutrition is a result of lack of knowledge on appropriate nutrition and care. It is equally important to work on improvement of parenting skills since parents bear primary responsibility for their children's well-being. Integrated support to families especially those living in vulnerable communities should, therefore, be the backbone of governmental programmes, in addition to legislative and administrative interventions. In many cases, simple information on maternal nutrition and child feeding and care can play a crucial role in ensuring appropriate fetal and child growth and development.

The sub-regional workshop will provide a ground for development of long-term national action plans to reduce stunting among children under the age of five in Albania, Armenia, and Georgia as well as will agree on practical steps to be undertaken in the immediate future.