Sri Lankan industry, SME and consumer awareness frameworks threw their full weight behind the global zero hunger initiative of a key UN agency as part of the World Food Day celebrations of 16 October. In a pioneering linkage of this nature, stepping beyond its usual functions, a leading Sri Lankan Ministry signalled that it is ready to enlist an array of its own agencies in support of this global mission.
“As the line Ministry for all types of industries, SMEs and consumer protection, our Ministry is at the frontlines of this challenge” said the Minister of Industry and Commerce Rishad Bathiudeen on 18 October. Minister Bathiudeen was addressing Sri Lanka World Food Programme (WFP) Representative and Country Director Ms Brenda Barton who made a courtesy call on him on 18 October. WFP Country Director Ms Barton was requesting Minister Bathiudeen’s support for eradication of malnutrition and promotion of nutritious foods and balanced diets to improve the health and lifestyles of Sri Lankans. Also at the discussion were on 16 October, President Maithripala Sirisena addressed the World Food Day event organised by the World Food Programme and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations at BMICH and said that close to 15 percent of young children and 40% of school age children suffer from undernutrition, while 45% of women of reproductive age are overweight/obese. In June 2018, the World Bank said that Sri Lanka has been successful in improving the agricultural production to achieve food security but malnutrition still remains a major issue.
WFP Representative Ms Barton stressed: “Given such challenges, WFP is planning to support Sri Lanka in a number of ways including two key avenues: First, by enhancing the nutritional value of foods through means such as rice fortification, and secondly, by supporting the country’s food security especially for small holder farmers through programmes that build their resilience to climate shocks. The Ministry of Industry and Commerce can play a fundamental partner role through mobilizing industries to strengthen nutritious foods, for example, the Consumer Affairs Authority (CAA) under the Ministry could be leveraged to promote better consumer choices and NEDA and its SME base could be leveraged to deliver and distribute fortified foods.
Minister Bathiudeen welcomed Country Director Ms Barton’s call to join forces. “An estimated 52% of Sri Lanka’s GDP is driven by SMEs, a sector this Ministry directly supports and oversees. A considerable number of SMEs are in the food and beverage sector. Also Industry and manufacturing such as apparel, boat building, rubber products that play a key role in Sri Lanka’s exports and our Manufacturing Index are supported by us” said Minister Bathiueen and added: “Many projects by the Ministry – such as ISO and HACCP certification support, forthcoming food certification laboratory by IDB etc-focus on strengthening food production chains. Many advisory committees of the Ministry along with our close interactions with various Chambers, extend our reach even further. Therefore as the line Ministry for various types and scales of industries, SMEs and consumer protection, our Ministry is at the frontline of this challenge. We wish to back you fully in this intervention. In this, I am also open for joint projects with WFP to eradicate malnutrition and boost our food supply quality and nutrition initiatives. This type of committed partnership could help upgrade our domestic SME production capacities to global standards, while serving Sri Lanka’s vision of linking small businesses and SME output to competitive export markets.”
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