LAHORE, June 19: The experts have said Universal Salt Iodisation (USI) programme in Pakistan has achieved the level of success which could not be thought of a few years back.

Addressing a meeting held at a local hotel on Tuesday, they termed it an important milestone in the history of USI programme in the country, says a press release.

The programme’s progress in all provinces was discussed in detail at the meeting besides implementation strategies to ensure consolidation of achievements and programme sustainability.

Representatives from planning commission, The Micronutrient Initiative (MI), WHO, Unicef, WFP, GAIN, Salt Processor, provincial P & D and health departments participated in the review meeting.

MI Country Director Dr Tausif Akhtar Janjua briefed the participants about the objective of the meeting.

UN-WFP Nutrition chief Ms Mona Shaikh updated the participants about Joint MI-WFP Iodine Initiative that began in 2006 in six countries.

She told the meeting that success of the first phase led to the continuation of this initiative into second phase in 2010.

She highlighted the contribution of WFP for USI in Pakistan and expressed gratitude on the completion of this initiative in March 2012 with the hope that this would be extended.

MI National Programme Manager Dr Khwaja Masuood Ahmed enlightened the meeting on the progress of USI in Pakistan after its revitalisation in 2005-06 with technical and financial assistance of MI & WFP quoting from the National Nutrition Survey 2011.

Representatives of Unicef and GAIN briefed the participants on the role of their organisations in the programme and about the Unicef-GAIN partnership in USI. Future plan for this partnership were also shared with the meeting participants. The health department representatives who participated from all provinces, besides AJK, updated on the progress on USI programme in their respective areas.

The participants were told that since 2006 more than 1,350 salt processors across Pakistan had been included in USI and edible salt iodisation ratio at production level had increased from 14 per cent in 2005 to more than 70 per cent in 2012.

Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B) is the only province with a USI legislation that prohibits the production, import and sale of un-iodised salt in the region.

There is, however, no proper regulatory framework in other provinces.

It was also informed that 60 quality control and seven reference labs had been established in different salt producing districts in the country and around 40 of these laboratories were already functional and contributing towards quality control for adequate salt iodisation in Pakistan. The participants termed post-subsidy withdrawal scenario a major challenge. They suggested strong regulatory-cum-monitoring mechanism, provincial level USI legislation and strict enforcement to maintain the achievements in the programme.

The experts unanimously endorsed that more QCLs should be established in the country so that adequate iodisation could be ensured.

They also suggested that planning commission should draft legal framework for legislation on fortification of the programme and forward it to provinces for legislations.

Representatives of donor organisations pledged their financial and technical support for the programme so that Pakistan could achieve its Millennium Development Goals (MDG) and eliminate Iodine deficiency disorders completely.