Civil society organisations from across South Asia will gather in the city this week to take part in a two-day grant competition, the Development Marketplace (DM), beginning Tuesday, reports UNB.

They would display some of the best and most innovative ideas on how to improve nutrition in the region. The World Bank (WB) will host the competition.

The competition titled 'Family and Community Approaches to Improve Infant and Young Child Nutrition' is designed to showcase and fund such innovative approaches, focusing especially on children under two years of age and pregnant women.

The DM event will bring together 60 civil society organisations from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka who will compete for 20 grants of up to US dollar 40,000 each to implement their ideas.

"The scale of the under-nutrition problem in South Asia is alarming," said Isabel M Guerrero, WB Vice President for the South Asia region.