\\\'Under-nutrition costs B\\\'desh $1.0b per year\\\'

SYLHET, July 16. Speakers at a regional workshop in Sylhet recently said poverty maps provide critical input for the planning of programmes aimed at poverty and hunger reduction. The under-nutrition maps will similarly help in nutrition focused targeting. Therefore sharing the maps with local stakeholders is very important, they adedd.
The objective of the event is to familiarise poverty maps and under nutrition maps and its practical uses for effective allocations of limited resources at local level, the workshop was told.
Divisional Commissioner of Sylhet Md. Jamal Uddin Ahmed spoke as chief guest while MA Mannan Hawlader, additional secretary of the statistics and informatics division was the special guest and Director General (Additional Secretary) of the Bureau of Statistics Mohammad Abdul Wazed chaired the daylong programme.
Deputy Commissioners, Deputy Directors agriculture, and other senior district level officers and NGO officials from the Sunamganj, Habiganj, Moulvibazar and Sylhet districts joined it, held at a resort in the city's suburban Khadimnagar.
Diponkar Roy of BBS and Kayenat Kabir of WFP presented two papers.
The speakers said over the two decades, Bangladesh has made an impressive economic and social gains and it has significantly reduced the incidence of poverty, increased education levels, reached self sufficiency in food production and lowered fertility rates and child mortality. However, challenges still remain to keep under nutrition levels below the WHO public health critical thresh holds.
Under nutrition costs Bangladesh more than 7,0000 million (US$ 1 billion) in lost productivity every year, and even more in health care costs.
With an increased focus on child nutrition, it is critical to understand the geographical variations and spatial patterns of under nutrition i9n Bangladesh.
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