Symposium of Project for Provision of Support for Today & Tomorrow`s Nutrition ? Health in North Korea
Date :
May 10, 2016
Views :
985
KOFIH and Domestic Science Lab of Seoul National University co-hosted a joint symposium based on the topic of `Project for Provision of Support for Today & Tomorrow`s Nutrition/Health in North Korea`. In the symposium, persons from academia, private organizations supporting North Korea, and UNICEF members representing North Korea(Mr. Michel Le Pechoux and Mr. Ezatullah Majeed) were present. The participants mutual exchanged information on the project to provide support for nutrition/health in North Korea.
On this day, Hwang, Na Mi, the leader of Health Policy Team of the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs, pointed out current issues of the project to provide support for healthcare in North Korea through her presentation based on a topic of `Current Status and Assignments of Project for Provision of Support for Healthcare in North Korea`. Insufficiency in setting priorities of the project based on current status of North Korea, a point that distributions are made to limited areas only, and lack of monitoring on such distributions were seen as main issues. Team leader Hwang pointed out assignments of establishing a long-term plan by setting international-level goals, organizing institutions and organizations to construct mutual-cooperative channel, and establishing expanded legal basis as a cooperative project for interchange.
Sim, Jae Eun, a senior researcher of Domestic Science Institute of Seoul National University quoted "To make assessments on the project to support North Korean, the project goals should be considered in order to develop an index which provides supporting effects and sufficient information". In addition, she also quoted "It is required to secure a stable communication channel between international organizations and North Korea by using communication channels between organizations supporting North Korea(KNCCK/KNCPK)".
UNICEF members representing the North Korea provided information based on status of nutrition and healthcare for North Korean people in particular. Mr. Michel Le Pechoux pointed out `plan`, `cooperation between organizations`, and `constant monitoring` as the matters to be considered importantly in promoting projects for North Korea. He also mentioned that the projects for North Korea can be improved through efforts between involving organizations to share their information.
Mr. Ezatullah Majeed announced nutritional status of the North Korean females and children. The imbalance of nutrition amongst pregnant women was critical and approximately 32% of the pregnant women were experiencing nutritional imbalance. Regarding the approachability of water supply, cases going under six hours of water supply were the majority(59.10%), and people capable of approaching water supply for over 12~24 hours were only 24%. He pointed out `difficulty in data collection`, `consistency of program`, `mutual-assistance system between organizations`, and `approachability upon residents` as the major issues of projects to support North Korea. He also mentioned that unnecessary projects being repeated should be removed through a cooperation between active organizations.
Lastly, 6 private organizations of JTS Korea, OK Friend, KSM HQ, Child Fund, Good Neighbors, and Lighthouse Korea performing projects to support North Korea performed brief explanations on the current status of their businesses.