Stunting often goes unrecognized in children who live in communities where short stature is so common that it seems normal. Thus, regular preventive programs such as Growth Monitoring and Promotion are necessary. Measuring length (up to 24 months) or height (from 24 months onwards) should become standard practice when assessing a child either through post natal visits or outreach visits conducted by health workers. Health workers should be trained in delivering messages on how to improve nutrition outcomes. Such trainings should also be broadened to teachers, social workers and extension officers (locally known as didimen and didimeries). Supplies of ready-touse therapeutic foods should be available in health facilities where malnutrition cases are more prevalent. These could be included in the medical kits distributed to health centers. In addition, access to the health services that help prevent and treat malaria and diarrhea is critical.

However, it will be difficult to conduct a large-scale nutrition invention and monitoring campaign at the facility level because the country has a shortage of nutritionists to steer the endeavor. The capacity gap analysis, <mark>as part of the nutrition policy review, n</mark> otes this capacity gap at all levels of the PNG health system (National Department of Health 2013). <mark>Key health care workers are not aware of up-to-date information related to infant feeding. There is an imperative need to build the human resource capacity in the country and further move the agenda to combat malnutrition challenges in PNG. This initiative requires strategy, financing and leadership’s commitment.</mark> _Knowledge, Behaviors and Nutrition Education_ Children living in homes where the head of the household has a higher level of education are less likely to be malnourished after controlling for wealth information. A study found that lack of access to information on proper nutrition was an important factor contributing to the high levels of malnutrition in PNG (Omot 2012). <mark>This is particularly the case in remote rural communities with prevalent illiteracy and lack of access to education. S</mark> tand-alone nutrition education programs have been carried out in the Pacific region (Englberger, Lorens et al. 2011), and their effectiveness depends on the intensity and quality of implementation. This includes appropriate communication strategies (for example, combination of mass media and interpersonal) and targeting the right audience. Good formative research is needed to identify key obstacles, identify who influences mothers’ decisions in adopting healthy behavior (i.e. grandmother, husband, community leaders) and ensure that nutrition education reaches these groups.

A wider body of evidence suggests that nutrition education programs can be more effective when combined with other interventions such as to increase food or income availability or to provide nutritional supplements (Christiaensen and Alderman 2004; Omot 2012; The World Bank Group 2012). Agriculture interventions that aim to improve income and productivity tend to be successful in improving the nutrition status of children when they include a nutrition education component (Arimond, Hawkes et al. 2011).

_Further Agenda_ 12