In the implementation of the joint program Financing SDG and targeting chronic child malnutrition, the World Food Program (WFP) is one of the UN agencies that take part of the second component of the project. This component aims to help the national and local governments apply the INFF on a pilot initiative: the policy of reducing the chronic child malnutrition.
The implementation is being carried out initially in the cantons of Alausí (in the province of Chimborazo) and Taisha (in Morona Santiago), whose territories have high incidence rates of malnutrition and have been prioritized by the Ecuadorian government. One of the objectives of the project seeks to strengthen the cantonal roundtables, as they are working spaces that seek to "promote and strengthen the political will and commitment of the different actors, with the objective of articulating actions that guarantee comprehensive and timely attention" (FAO, 2021).
Diagnosis of the roundtables functioning, territorial forums
Within these spaces, the aim is to articulate, at the local level, the different State portfolios and the Decentralized Autonomous Governments. For this, the executing entities, mainly the Ministry of Economic and Social Inclusion (MIES) and the Ministry of Public Health (MSP) coordinate monthly meetings of the roundtables at the territorial level and propose actions according to standardized procedures and instruments for all territories, based on the Methodology for the formation of Cantonal Intersectoral Roundtables for the prevention and reduction of the prevalence of Chronic Childhood Malnutrition, developed with the support of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
In July 2021, the World Food Program worked on the determination of actions that allow the strengthening of these cantonal tables and local coordination for the reduction of Chronic Child Malnutrition, also, during these local approaches, the joint program "Financing the SDGs and targeting chronic child malnutrition" was presented. The municipal government of Alausi presented its institutional management model and explored the possibilities of strengthening the cantonal roundtable. In Taisha, the evaluation of different areas such as safe water and sanitation, child development, healthy eating, among others, was carried out and recommendations were made based on the evaluation.
These first approaches turned out in the preparation of a diagnostic document of the intersectoral roundtable that includes the challenges identified for the delivery of the prioritized package of goods and services, which includes prenatal checkups for pregnant mothers, timely immunization of infants and healthy child checkups, as well as recommendations for action under the program framework for each of the cantons, marking a milestone in the development of the joint program and establishing partnerships for their actions.
