Key Insights
- Pakistan faces a dual crisis of climate change and malnutrition, each exacerbating the other.
- Climate shocks like floods and droughts are undermining food security and contributing to some of the world’s highest levels of child stunting (over 40%) and wasting (around 18%).
- Climate and nutrition policies in Pakistan currently operate in silos. A baseline review found that most national and provincial strategies acknowledge the climate-nutrition link in principle but lack concrete, integrated actions (usually rated low to moderate on an integration scale).
- Stark regional hotspots (notably Sindh and Balochistan) face the greatest climate-nutrition vulnerabilities. These provinces suffer extreme climate hazards alongside widespread undernutrition, demanding urgent, targeted interventions.
- “Win-win” solutions exist. Integrating nutrition into climate adaptation - and vice versa - can yield co-benef its. For example, introducing climate-resilient, nutrient-rich crops (like zincenriched wheat) has improved both climate resilience and public health.
- Immediate action and high-level commitment are needed. Policymakers, donors, and civil society must collaborate to mainstream nutrition in climate agendas and ensure climate resilience measures reach those most at risk. The time to act is now, before climate impacts further set back progress on ending malnutrition.