Facebook can change attitudes towards malnutrition: Nishtar

ISLAMABAD: Special Assistant to Prime Minister (SAPM) on Poverty Alleviation Dr Sania Nishtar on Saturday said that digital marketing tools on social media were essential to fight malnutrition in the 21st century.

Addressing at the launching ceremony of digital campaign “Hackathon on Malnutrition”, she said Facebook was a powerful tool to deliver the message across the board on Stunting, obesity and chronic diseases which are closely interlinked.

“To fight malnutrition today, we need 21st century tools such as digital marketing techniques on social media that can reach wide audiences.” 

“We are not paying a single penny to Facebook for such digital campaigns” said Dr Sania Nishtar adding “it is a beginning of a long journey”.

She said Facebook can be a tool in changing people’s attitudes towards malnutrition through digital marketing techniques on social media that can reach wide audiences.

“We recognise millions of children in Pakistan suffer health complications due to malnutrition, that’s why we have made malnutrition a top priority area of the Ehsaas poverty alleviation program.” she said.

The Poverty Alleviation and Social Safety Division in partnership with Facebook and Invest2Innovate, launched first-of-its-kind Design “Hackathon on alnutrition” at the National Incubation Center in Islamabad.

Over the course of two-days, the Design Hackathon will connect experts in malnutrition with digital marketers who, with additional support from Facebook, will help build innovative digital campaigns for social media around the challenges of malnutrition.

During the Hackathon, ten teams will work to develop possible campaign solutions and designs that can be developed further and implemented as the Ehsaas program’s official content on Facebook.

Throughout the Hackathon, the participants will benefit from industry-expert mentors providing guidance in a range of necessary skills, including in pitching, budgeting and impact assessment.

On the final day, three teams will be selected to present their ideas to a high-level panel of leadership from the Ministry of Poverty Alleviation and Social Safety Division, along with representatives from the World Bank.

The winning team will receive advertisement credits and additional support from Facebook to launch their malnutrition focused digital marketing campaign on the leading social media platform.

The Design Hackathon will serve as a critical platform for leading digital marketers to engage directly with Ehsaas officials in order to assist the program in developing additional innovative solutions to address today’s malnutrition challenge.

This is the first in a series of Ehsaas – Facebook collaborative initiatives. The hackathon and its partner Invest2Innovate not only aim to support entrepreneurs, but also to encourage growth of internal innovation, facilitate access to capital, mitigate risk for investors and supporting players, and strengthen the policy environment for businesses in Pakistan.