A five-member team from Bhutan, led by health secretary Dr Ugyen Dophu, is attending a regional conference on stunting and wasting, a major threat for child survival and development of South Asian Nations, in Kathmandu.

The conference, which began yesterday, will  identify actions to accelerate progress in the care of severely wasted children, which affects 8 million children in South Asia. The conference, organised jointly by the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) brought together government representatives, UN partners and civil society organizations from South Asia with regional and global experts on nutrition to exchange regional analyses, expertise and experience on addressing wasting in the context of overall nutrition programming.