United Nations System
Standing Committee on Nutrition

 

Working Group on Capacity Development in Food and Nutrition

LaBouisse Hall, UNICEF, 3 UN Plaza, New York, Wednesday 24 March 2004 0945-1115

Co-Chairs: Professor Cutberto Garza, UNU; Professor David Sanders, University of the Western Cape; Dr Hans Schoeneberger, GTZ

Part I: Actions taken in 2003

Because of space constraints follow-up actions are limited to one or two examples of regional activities.

Implementation of Asian Task Force Plan of Action presented at the 30th Session of the SCN

The Asian Task Force conducted a survey to assess the capacities of Asian institutions in five key areas. The areas and coordinators for each are listed below:.

  1. Maternal and Child Nutrition - C.R Yajnik (Japan)
  2. School Children and Adolescent Nutrition - N.C Khan (Vietnam)
  3. Adults and Elderly Nutrition - Widjaja Lukito (Indonesia)
  4. Food and (Sustainable) Nutrition Security - Khor Geok Lin (Malaysia)
  5. Food Safety - V.Prakash (India)

Plans are being made to establish partnership training and trainee institutions in each of these core areas to enhance individual, institutional, and organizational capacities.

Prof Khor Geok Lin (Malaysia) has taken leadership responsibilities for planning a leadership training program for mid career professionals with primary and related nutrition responsibilities throughout the region.

Implementation of African Plan of Action

Regional meetings were held in 2003 to update the plans presented at the 28th SCN Session in Nairobi. Major activities have focused on building capacity in the area of HIV and Nutrition. Drs Robert Mwadime (East Africa) and Pauline Kuzwayo (Southern Africa) have taken primary responsibility for collaborative activities within both regions. Kinday Ndure Samba led an effort to enhance advocacy skills in West and Central Africa. Each also serves as the focal point for updating of regional action plans. A review of regional action plans by each of the African task forces is planned for 2004 to identify and act on common priorities.

An African Network of Graduate Students has been organized and launched under the initial auspices of UNU (C Garza). The group reviewed goals and organizational plans at the 31st SCN session.

Implementation of Latin American Plan of Action

The region has focused on the implementation of a region-wide project sponsored by the Global Forum for Health Research: Challenges for Childhood Health and Nutrition Research in Latin America. This effort is led by Prof R Uauy (INTA, Chile) and Prof Juan Rivera (INSP, Mexico).

The group also organized a Leadership Training Workshop for young Latin American Professionals working in the area of Food and Nutrition (J Rivera, Mexico)

Completion of Formation of Regional Task Forces for Enhancing Capacity in the Area of Food and Nutrition

Plans have been finalized to hold the initial meeting for a Middle Eastern counterpart of the other regional task forces. This is being done in close collaboration with IUNS (O Galal, Secretary General) and Dr A Gohar (National Nutrition Institute, Cairo). The initial meeting is planned for July, 2004.

Dr Fre Pepping (Wageningen University) has initiated organizational plans for naming and organizing an analogous group for Eastern Europe. Thus plans for having groups operational in Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East should be completed by the end of 2004 as planned at the 30th SCN session.

Part II: Recommendations for Action for the Coming Year

Because of a shortage of time, formal recommendations for moving forward were not reviewed by the group beyond those suggested in the very rich discussions that followed presentations by the African Graduate Student Network (AGS-NET) and the Asian Capacity Development Task Force (CASNA, Prof E Wasantwisut, Thailand). Among the key recommendations made during the discussion were the following:

  • The promise of AGS-NET in enhancing present and future networks in Africa was seen as too valuable not to support vigorously. The group’s presentation underscored the importance that capacity development will play in the achieving and sustaining the MDGs. Thus,
    • the WG recommended that efforts be directed to assure the active participation of AGS-NET members at the upcoming 2005 Durban meeting, assist them to link to under- and postgraduate students of nutrition in Africa and the Diaspora, support efforts to enhance access to primary research literature, and continue close working relationships so that the WG may assist AGS-NET with other priority areas identified by student group.
  • Progress made by the regional task forces and in establishing groups in the Middle East and Eastern Europe was applauded by the WG. If these initial efforts are to succeed, the WG must intensify its efforts to link these groups to other broader capacity development efforts. Thus,
    • the group recommended that efforts be made to link regional task forces to coalitions such as those being built by the Rockefeller Foundation in their Joint Learning Initiative for enhancing health professional resources. Particular emphasis was given to linking the African Regional Task Forces with the Rockefeller initiative Working Group on Disease Programs. The SCN WG also urged regional task forces to broaden their base beyond academia to improve networking and multisectorial approaches to building capacity and to work more closely with regional development efforts such as those soon to be undertaken by the ASEAN region to fulfill MDG objectives.
  • The working group’s major challenge remains the cooperation, coordination, harmonization, etc among capacity development activities undertaken by the SCN tripartite members, i.e. the UN agencies, bilateral organizations, and non-governmental organizations. The discussion reaffirmed the group’s commitment to empowering regions by supporting their efforts to enhance long-term capacity development plans that are integrated closely with specific problem solving activities. Among this commitment’s principal goals are increasing and strengthening the regional professional base for tackling today's and tomorrow's food and nutrition challenges. Realization of these aspirations requires matching actions with rhetoric. This principal challenge remains unchanged and is growing in urgency. Thus,
    • the Working Group discussion urged exploration of concrete actions for improved collaboration among the tripartite SCN members. One example is re-exploration of the approach raised at the Berlin meeting for an SCN based fund to support capacity building efforts. The suggested mechanism was the imposition of a "levy" on ourselves for enabling training, e.g. allocate the equivalent of 2% of funds UN and bilateral agencies and NGO's spend in sending "expatriates" to developing countries and/or the equivalent of 2% of the salaries paid by such agencies to professionals from developing countries when any of us hire such professionals to work outside their country of origin. The WG recognizes that such suggestions have a downside (e.g. this one makes nutrition activities "more expensive"), however, the upside (e.g. contributing to a sustainable work force) may compensate amply for shortcomings.

Part III: Organization of the Task Force for the Coming Year.

Little time was devoted to this matter. The present co-chairs are prepared to continue in their respective capacities and to seek input regarding changes in the group’s organization through its biannual Newsletter.

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