Daily Times

Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) has approved the establishment of Pak-Korea Nutrition Center (PKNC) at the University of Agriculture Faisalabad to combat children and women malnutrition issue in Pakistan with the grant of 7 million US dollar.

In this regards, KOICA Pakistan Office of the Embassy of the Republic of Korea to the Islamic Republic of Pakistan has signed Record of Discussion (RoD) for a new grant aid project, ‘Establishment of Pak-Korea Nutrition Center (PKNC) to Improve Child and Community Nutrition’, committing to uplift the most neglected sector of nutrition in Pakistan with Higher Education Commission (HEC), and University of Agriculture Faisalabad (UAF).

KOICA provides USD 7 million for the five year project from 2020 to 2024 and the project is expected to benefit 120,000 community people, especially women and children, by providing nutrition education. Nutrition education will help the community people to have an improved nutrition knowledge and a balanced diet. In addition to KOICA grant, the Higher Education Commission (HEC), Pakistan is also complementing USD 1.99 Million for O&M and Research support to this project.

To provide nutrition education at a community level, the project will train 50 government officials including 15 nutrition policymakers and 30 master trainers and develop nutrition education modules and teaching/learning materials. The master trainers will train 12,000 community nutrition education experts such as lady health supervisors and dietitians to disseminate nutrition education to the communities in five provinces such as Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan, Sindh and Gilgit-Baltistan.