PER - Nutrition and Food Security for Children

In the mid-1990s, government introduced the Integrated Nutrition Programme. It aimed to improve the health of the poor by delivering a range of nutrition-specific interventions (e.g. vitamin supplementation, deworming, and nutrition education) and complementary interventions (e.g. the provision of water, sanitation and income support to indigent households). However, malnutrition remains a significant challenge. The most recent data shows that one in four children aged 1–3 years are stunted, which is higher than in countries with comparable levels of income. Malnutrition contributes to the relatively high levels of sickness and death among children: of the children who died before age 5 in 2008, more than 60% were underweight and 30% were severely malnourished.