Though the number of children suffering from undernutrition has been dropping in Bangladesh since 1996, challenges still remain to keep levels below World Health Organization's (WHO) "critical thresholds", experts told a seminar in the capital yesterday.

Ensuring accountability, developing multisectoral coordination among stakeholders including ministries, non-government organisations, the media and civil society and strong leadership are needed to face the challenges and sustain the achievements, they added.

The seminar, "Second International Conference on Nutrition-Follow Up", was organised by www.healthprior21.com, a healthcare portal funded by Children's Investment Fund Foundation and Save the Children, at The Daily Star Centre. 

A presentation of the health and family welfare ministry showed that between 1996 and 2014, the percentage of underweight children aged below five dropped from 52 to 33 while the Million Development Goal (MDG) target was 31 and WHO threshold 30.

The presentation, based on Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey reports from 1997 to 2014, added that despite the commendable progress in achieving MDG 1 targets, 36 percent of children aged below five suffered from stunting while the WHO threshold was 30 percent.

Additional Secretary to the ministry Roxana Quader said the government has taken different initiatives to bring malnutrition to a permissible level.

The portal's chairman, Dr Rubaiul Murshed, and Food and Agriculture Organization Representative in Bangladesh Naoki Minamiguchi also spoke at the event moderated by the portal's chief adviser Sultana Khanom.