Addressing India's Nutrition Challenges - Report of he Multistakeholder Retreat

India has accorded the highest priority to combating malnutrition, since it remains persistently and unacceptably high, in spite of a multitude of efforts of the Government. The key issue is preventing and reducing maternal and child undernutrition as early as possible, across the life cycle- especially in utero and the first two years of life, in adolescent girls and women. In order to accelerate improvements across states, the Government of India has decided to mobilise multisectoral action to address the multiple causes of undernutrition effectively. Nutrition is being accorded utmost priority at the highest levels with the Ministries of Women and Child Development (WCD) and Health and Family Welfare (HFW) jointly formulating a Strategy Note, in consultation with the Planning Commission and Prime Minister’s Office. Based on the same and deliberations of the Retreat, recommendations have been drawn up and these were placed before the PM’s National Council at its first meeting on 24 November 2010. Against the above backdrop, the Planning Commission was mandated to anchor a Multistakeholder Retreat to address the country’s nutrition challenges, using a synthesis of the joint strategy note to facilitate dialogue. As the title of the consultation suggests, the purpose of the retreat was to first hear and then factor in the concerns of all stakeholders. The unique aspect of the consultation was the inclusion of voices of different players, significantly, grassroots functionaries, by engaging them in discussion and dialogue using different tools such as group work, presentations, multi/open voting, system, futuring and visualization of participatory programming (VIPP).