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Newsletters of the SCN Working Group on Capacity Development in Food and NutritionNovember 2004
SCN Capacity Development Working Group Quarterly Newsletter November, 2004
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The third edition of ANLP took place on 5 – 13 October 2004 (Potchefstroom, South Africa). The local organising committee received 40 applications from all over Africa and 15 people were accepted to apply for a fellowship through the Netherlands Fellowship Programme. The programme is designed primarily for final year PhD students and postdoctoral fellows; however, candidates with comparable working experience in human nutrition sciences studying or working in Africa should also apply. Preference will be given to candidates under the age of 40 years. The maximum number of participants is 25.
Further information,
application forms and online registration can be obtained on the internet:
Website: http://www.africanutritionleadership.org E-Mail:
info@africanutritionleadership.org
Dr. Cutberto Garza, Director UNU/Food and Nutrition Programme (FNP)
Welcome to first 2004 edition of the "almost never" quarterly Capacity Development Newsletter. The Newsletter is a response to the Working Group's request to be kept informed of activities undertaken under its "umbrella." The major developments since the Working Group's meeting in Chennai include the implementation of the Asian Task Force plan of action that was presented to the Working Group (in spite of the slowdown imposed by SARS), development of a network by African graduate students studying in- and outside of Africa, implementation of plans for updating action plans developed by the African Task Forces, the steady reinvigoration of the UNU Fellows Network in the Americas, dates have been set for the first meeting of the Middle East Capacity Development Task Force (it will meet in Cairo at the National Nutrition Institute in July, 2004), and expanding participation of regional task forces in leadership training exercises for food and nutrition professionals. These are now held in Africa and Latin America. The Asian Nutrition Task Force (CASNA) has begun exploring how it can establish similar opportunities for mid career professionals and preliminary discussions have been held with the UNU Leadership Training and Research Program in Amman, Jordan regarding partnering in a similar exercise with the Middle East group that will meet in July. The goal of having operational task forces by the end of 2004 in all major regions remains a priority and appears to be achievable.
Our major challenge remains the cooperation, coordination, harmonization, etc (pick the politically correct term de jour) among/of capacity development activities undertaken by the SCN tripartite members, i.e. the UN agencies, bilateral organizations, and non-governmental organizations. The Working Group reaffirmed its commitment in Chennai to empowering regions by supporting their development of long-term capacity development plans that integrate specific problem solving activities with long-term capacity development. 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. I "lifted" these sentences from the previous Newsletter because the principal challenge remains the same and is growing in urgency.
The Working Group welcomes your suggestions for how to use this Newsletter and other vehicles to catalyze putting our aspirations into action. One suggestion that was raised at the Berlin meeting was imposing a "tax" on ourselves for purposes of enhancing 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 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. Although such suggestions have a downside (e.g. this one makes nutrition activities "more expensive"), the upside (e.g. contributing to a sustainable work force) may compensate amply for shortcomings.
As for getting quarterly reports to our WG, it is most likely that in the future we'll be doing this twice a year..... thus we may soon have the "almost always" biannual" Newsletter. See you in New York City. We’ve also thinking about approaching the Food and Nutrition Bulletin with a request that it publish the “newsletter.”
Cutberto
The AGSN’s current membership stands at 44 graduate students from 16 countries who are studying at 21 institutions in Africa, Europe and North America. The membership drive is on-going. The AGSN encourages the Newsletter’s readership to spread the word about the AGSNet to as many African graduate nutrition students as possible. Current member profiles can be viewed at: http://www.unu.edu/capacitybuilding/foodnutrition/ags-net/Members.htm. Prospective members can submit profiles to Joseph Mensah-Homiah (jm324@cornell.edu).
Key collaborations also are a key focus of the AGSN’s current efforts. It is working with the board of the African Journal of Agriculture, Nutrition and Development to assist strengthening the journal’s student edition. Four of the AGSN’s members have contributed to the journal’s next edition. Discussions also have been initiated with the leadership of IT for the Advancement of Nutrition in Africa to explore collaborative opportunities.
The Network’s inaugural conference is scheduled for 2005. It is being planned in collaboration with the International Union of Nutritional Sciences Congress in Durban, South Africa. The AGSN is searching for funds to enable members who will be presenting at the Congress and who will participate in the AGSN inaugural conference to travel to South Africa.
The AGSN website may be viewed at: http://www.unu.edu/capacitybuilding/foodnutrition/ags-net/Index.htm.
For further details please contact Joseph Mensah-Homiah (jm324@cornell.edu) or Nkosinathi V. Mbuya (nvm3@cornell.edu).
Dr. Emorn Wasantwisut
A task force’s most recent meeting was in Tokyo at UNU headquarters in January, 2004.
Prof Khor Geok Lin has compiled results of the CASNA survey that was designed to assess current capacity needs in the region. Asian institutions can be grouped by current capacity for each core area identified previously by CASNA and affirmed by the survey. Criteria to assess institutional ‘capacity levels’, e.g. peer reviewed research grants, publication records/impact factor of publication, application of research to program/policy, number of patents, number of PhDs, quality of thesis, products, societal outreach etc., have yet to be determined. In addition, the institutions under ‘Nutrition throughout Life Cycle’ likely would be grouped best by targeted ages. Approximately half of the 51 institutions that have responded to the survey are from India. CASNA task force participants agreed that a sub-satellite structure is needed once the criteria for capacity assessment are set. The proposed core groups and Task Force Members as Coordinators are:
The role of Coordinators is to propose groupings of institutions and prioritize areas of capacity strengthening in each group.
South-East Asian Nutrition Leadership Program (SEANLP) and ILSI-SEA/China/Japan and India were suggested as possible links to the CASNA program. CASNA may participate by sending candidates from the region to the SEANLP training and contacting ILSI/Global for an update on their program to explore possible collaboration with local ILSI activities as appropriate.
CASNA Meeting in Tokyo, in conjunction with Nutrition Symposium organized by the National Institute of Health and Nutrition (NIHN) in Tokyo. NIHN met with CASNA at this meeting to discuss collaborations and funding support.
Dr. Robert Mwadime, Regional Director East Africa Initiative
Throughout the past 2 years, the East African Initiative focused capacity building on two principal objectives: a) Establishing an institutionalized regional mechanism for harmonization of efforts in capacity development in nutrition and b) Building regional resources in priority nutrition areas (of HIV/AIDS, Emergency, Poverty, and Policy Analysis and Advocacy). After reviewing the region’s needs, the Taskforce agreed to focus on optimizing the use of scarce resources— human, facilities/infrastructure, and financial—for nutrition capacity building in the-region.
The Naivasha meeting established that the Regional Centre for Quality of Health Care (RCQHC) in Uganda will serve as the Eastern Africa Nutrition Capacity Building Initiative’s coordinating institution. Each member of the taskforce agreed to serve as the focal person in their respective country to ensure that other institutions are informed of the initiative’s activities. The group also agreed to work within the framework of other regional nutrition initiatives, specifically ITANA and NATURA.
Efforts the next two years will be focused on the following objectives:
Dr. Pauline Kuzwayo, Regional Director Southern African Initiative
The Southern African Nutrition Capacity Development Initiative (SANCADI) held a three day meeting at the Manhattan Hotel in Pretoria, South Africa, from 9 -11 December 2003. The meeting’s intention was to bring together a few key sub regional role players to review the plans of action formulated during 2001 and update plans for the coming years. This gathering also served as a preparatory meeting prior to a regional meeting to be held during the early months of 2004. To review progress made in the implementation of the 10-year plan of action developed in 2001, the group set the following tasks for itself: identify lessons learned including stocktaking of existing initiatives in the region; identify strengths and challenges the sub-region has faced in advancing sub-regional capacity development initiatives; identify challenges, and opportunities in the implementation of the plans of action; make modifications to the 2001 10-year action plan by selecting priorities/important topics; make two-year action plans identifying activities that can be implemented regionally with the intent of also adding “value” to individual participating institutions; review institutional roles in the implementation of the plan; prepare concrete proposals for strengthening nutrition capacity; develop a budget for the two-year action plan; and, propose ways of raising the funds for the sub-regional level activities.
The group felt there was no need to modify the 10-year plan of action, as its objectives were still valid and it continues to provide optimal strategic direction. The meeting focused on the development of a more detailed a two-year plan of action. The following were outlined as priority areas:
Ricardo Uauy, Regional Director, UNU/Latin American and Caribbean Region
An update of the project Challenges for Childhood Health and Nutrition Research in Latin America, a Global Forum for Health Research collaborative project with INTA/University of Chile and the INSP/Mexico is available at LATINUT Website, http://latinut.net/, by clicking on “Foro Regional”. The website is presented both in Spanish and in English and includes nutrition and health regional priority problems Working Group’s documents: a) Acute Malnutrition, b) Low Birth Weight c) Stunting and micronutrient deficiencies d) Iron and folic acid deficiency, and e) Nutrition related chronic diseases. Comments on this project are welcome and can be sent to: foroglobal@inta.cl.
Dr. Héctor Araya former UNU fellow trained at INCAP Guatemala 1977-78, organized, with the collaboration of the UNU-FNP regional office at INTA, the Former UNU Fellows from Latin America Meeting at the XIII Congress of the Latin American Nutrition Society, 12 November, 2003. Acapulco, Mexico. Attendees included Latin-American FNP fellows from the 70’s and 80’s and the young professional who participated in the three Leadership Training Workshops (Antigua/Guatemala 1997, Buenos Aires/Argentina 2000, and Cuernavaca/Mexico 2003).
The meeting, coordinated by Ricardo Uauy (UNU Regional Coordinator for Food and Nutrition Program) and chaired by Hector Araya included Nevin Scrimshaw (Former UNU Food and Nutrition Program Director and presently UNU Food and Nutrition Program for Human and Social Development Adviser), Helio Vannucchi (2003 elected SLAN President) and Juan Rivera (Director of Nutrition and Health Research Center of the National Institute of Public Health in Mexico) at the podium.
H. Araya, R. Uauy and N. Schrimshaw addressed the group about the past and present FNP. All highlighted the importance of increasing UNU activities in the Latin-American region. As part of that effort, three leadership workshops have been held in the last decade, together with other applied research and training activities to strengthen local and regional capacity linked to joint Ellison Foundation INF/UNU/IUNS programs at the regional level. The meeting’s objective was to facilitate the interaction among former UNU fellows and trained leaders in order to promote their involvement and support of FNP regional activities.
A web page was created at http://latinut.net in order to provide former UNU Fellows and Trained Leaders professional information to facilitate regional contact. This web page is in Spanish and provides a description and pictures from the Acapulco meeting as an introduction to access the data base. Professional profiles and email information of former fellows is provided. Completion of this site is in progress, therefore if any of this Newsletter’s readers are former UNU Fellows and have not yet being contacted and/or have any questions, please write to one of the following e-mail addresses: haraya@machi.med.uchile.cl or mtoyarzun@inta.cl.
The third of a series of seminars of the African Nutrition Leadership Programme (ANLP) will be held in South Africa from 5-13 October 2004 under the Directorship of Johann Jerling (North West University, South Africa) and Kombi Mbhenyane (University of Venda, South Africa).
The aim of this programme is to assist the development of future leaders in the field of human nutrition in Africa. Emphasis will be given on understanding the qualities and skills of leaders, team building, communication and nutrition information in a broader context, and to understanding the role of nutrition science in the world around us. Similar seminars have been held in Europe (since 1994 under the title of the European Nutrition Leadership Programme).
The programme is designed primarily for final year PhD students and postdoctoral fellows, however candidates with comparable working experience in human nutrition sciences, studying or working in Africa should also apply. Preference will be given to candidates under the age of 40 years. The maximum number of participants is 25.
Deadline for applications: 1 May 2004 and the results of the selection panel will be made known on 15 May 2004.
Further information, application forms and online registration can be
obtained on the internet:
Website:
http://www.africanutritionleadership.org/
E-Mail:
info@africanutritionleadership.org
Cutberto Garza, Director UNU/Food and Nutrition Programme (FNP)
Welcome to another 2003 edition of the “almost” quarterly Capacity Development Newsletter. The major developments since the Working Group’s meeting in Chennai include the implementation of the Asian Task Force plan of action that was presented to the Working Group (in spite of the slowdown imposed by SARS), development of a network by African graduate students studying outside of Africa, implementation of plans for updating action plans developed by the African Task Forces, the steady reinvigoration of the UNU Fellows Network in the Americas, steady progress in initiating planning exercises for the Middle East and Eastern Europe, and improving coordination of leadership training exercises for young food and nutrition professionals in regions with Task Forces in full operation. The goal of having operational task forces by the end of 2004 in all major regions remains a priority.
Our major challenge remains the cooperation, coordination, harmonization, etc (pick the “politically correct term de jour) among/of capacity development activities undertaken by the SCN “tripartite” members, i.e. the UN agencies, bilateral organizations, and non-governmental organizations. The Working Group reaffirmed its commitment in Chennai to empowering regions by supporting their development of long-term capacity development plans that integrate specific problem solving activities with long-term capacity development. 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. The Working Group welcomes your suggestions for how to use this Newsletter and other vehicles to catalyze such “matches.”
Contact: Sara Shapiro at sds32@cornell.edu
The website for the African Graduate Nutrition Students Network (AGS-NET) is successfully up and running. The site is intended to provide a forum for the worldwide collaboration of graduate students in Nutrition, as well as professionals with an interest in nutrition in sub-Saharan Africa. Students who have expressed interest in the Network are being contacted and asked to submit a half page resume that includes contact information, educational background, and research interests. The website may be viewed at: http://www.unu.edu/capacitybuilding/foodnutrition/ags-net/Index.htm.
For further details please contact Joseph Mensah-Homiah (jm324@cornell.edu) or Nkosinathi V. Mbuya (nvm3@cornell.edu).
The inaugural edition of the AGS-NET Newsletter is scheduled to be published the first week of September. In addition to the general news to members, the Newsletter will include features of members’ research, training, and other activities. Members are encouraged to submit a one-page description of their activities during the past summer or break. All such contributions should be addressed to J. Mensah-Homiah (jm324@cornell.edu).
Dr. V. Prakash, Director, CFTRI, Mysore 570 013, India FAX:Intl.:(+91)-821-2516308;Natl.:0821-2516308 E-mail: director@cftri.com
CFTRI in Mysore has a long history of contributing to capacity development as a UNU Associated Training Institution that dates from 1976. Its major focus has been in the area Post-harvest Research and Training. The programmes at CFTRI are designed specifically to meet developing countries’ food technology needs through advanced training of personnel at junior and management levels, with a focus on Food and Nutrition Security. So far, 130 UNU Fellows from 29 different Asian and African countries have received training in the areas of Traditional Foods, Fermented Foods, Nutritious Foods, Health Foods, Oilseed Utilization, Appropriate Technologies for Rural Areas and Value-addition to Agri-products, including Fruits, Vegetables, Grains, Pulses, Animal Products, Food Microbiology and/or Food Engineering.
To identify prospective UNU Fellows, on online website www.cftri.com/unu has been created for candidate registration. Also, letters are addressed to academic institutions / universities / government departments seeking proposals addressing priority areas. All applications for fellowships are scrutinized by a selection committee. The most meritorious candidates from developing countries are encouraged to apply by contacting director@cftri.com by email. .
Ricardo Uauy, Regional Director, UNU/Latin American and Caribbean Region
An update of Challenges for Childhood Health and Nutrition Research in Latin America, a Global Forum for Health Research collaborative project between INTA at the University of Chile (with Dr. Ricardo Uauy as Principal Investigator) and the INSP form Mexico (with Dr. Juan Rivera as Co-Investigator) will be presented at the upcoming SLAIP (Latin-American Society of Pediatric Research) Congress. The update is intended to catalyze approval and implementation of an agenda for nutrition action in Latin America. Updated information on the congress is available at the following Website: http://www.inta.cl/slaip. This Congress will take place from October 9th to 13th in Marbella, Chile.
The LATINUT Website: http://latinut.net/ provides complete information on the project by clicking on “Foro Regional”. Additionally, the Nutrition and Health Latin-American Research Institutions Inventory also is available at this website. It provides information about participating institutions.
A meeting for all former UNU World Hunger Program/Food and Nutrition Program (WHP/FNP) program fellows is being organized by Hector Araya. A letter of invitation will be sent to all fellows announcing: Travel Grants for UNU Capacity Development Alumni from Developing Countries, to Participate in International Academic Conferences. Specific objectives of this activity are to reactivate the UNU WHP/FNP Program in the region, update the professional development of the participants, discuss how participant experiences can be enriched, and create a network among UNU fellows. If any of this Newsletter’s readers are former UNU Fellow and have not yet received the invitation for this event and/or have any questions, please write to one of the following e-mail addresses: haraya@machi.med.uchile.cl or mtoyarzun@inta.cl.
Dr. Fre Pepping
The UNU-FNP plans to initiate a capacity development planning activity for Eastern Europe similar to what has been implemented in Africa, Asia, and Latin American. Its augural event will be the 9th European Nutrition Conference to be held in Rome in October, 2003. A task force of 8-10 professionals will be established. A meeting of the task force is projected for early 2004, subsequent to the preparation of a position paper in late 2003 to describe the Nutritional situation in Eastern Europe. .
Dr. Robert Mwadime, Dr. Pauline Kuzwayo, Dr. Kinday Samba Ndure, Dr. Kabba Joiner
Three sub-regional preparatory workshops will be held in Eastern, Southern and Western Africa to review progress of the 10-year plan presented at the SCN Annual Meeting held in Nairobi in 2000. The workshops will include participants from various institutions that have committed to the sub-regional capacity development initiative. These sub-regional meetings are preparatory to an Africa-wide workshop planned for early 2004.
Cutberto Garza, Director UNU/Food and Nutrition Programme
The SCN Working Group on Capacity Development that met at the SCN’s 2002 meeting in Berlin requested periodic updates on activities responsive to the 10-year plans for capacity development adopted by regional ad hoc groups formed under the auspices of the UNU and IUNS. This request was reaffirmed at the SCN Chennai meeting in 2003. This “almost quarterly” Newsletter is a response to these requests.
As background, the intent of these 10 year plans is to:
It is extremely important to have your input and support.
Contact: Sara Shapiro at sds32@cornell.edu
UNU/Tokyo has agreed to host the website for the African Graduate Nutrition Students Network. Consultations are still underway with UNU regarding the periodic updates as well as the design and contents of the website. Students who express interest in the Network are being contacted and asked to submit a half page resume with their contact information, educational background, and research interests.
Four initiators of the Network attended the Federation of the American Societies of Experimental Biology conference held in San Diego, California, USA in April 2003. They took advantage of this opportunity to inform and update fellow African graduate students on the proposed activities of the Network. Faculty from various U.S. Universities were briefed and given pamphlets to distribute to their students. The President of the Society for International Nutrition Research also made an announcement during the society’s business meeting notifying the members about the Network and urging them to support it.
For further details please contact Joseph Mensah-Homiah (jm324@cornell.edu) or Nkosinathi V. Mbuya (nvm3@cornell.edu).
Dr. Emorn Wasantuit
CASNA (Capacity Strengthening in Nutrition in Asia)., under the guidance of the Asian Capacity Development Task Force, surveyed Asian institutions to compile an Asian Institution Profile that placed special focus on priority areas of work (research, education, and training) and human resource capacity needs. Preliminary results obtained from responses of 25 institutions identify the following top four priority research areas:
Training needs in the areas of program monitoring and evaluation, micronutrient analysis, food safety control and assessment, nutrition communication, and clinical nutrition were signaled out. The Asian Task Force expects to complete the survey before the end of the summer. Survey results and implementation of capacity strengthening activities will be the core agenda items for the next CASNA meeting. The group’s meeting is on hold because of the SARS outbreak.
Dr. Ricardo Uauy
The Third UNU/IUNS Regional Leadership Training Workshop will be held Nov 3-9 2003 in Mexico, at Hotel Hacienda Vista Hermosa, Tequesquitengo, Morelos, México, prior to the SLAN (Sociedad Latina America de Nutricion) meeting. Dr. Socorro Parra and Dr. Roxana Valdes, both participants of the 1st Latin American Nutrition Leadership Workshop in Antigua, are responsible for its organization. Dr. Juan Rivera is working closely with them. Students and professionals in the early stages of their careers who are interested in attending should contact Dr. Valdes-Ramos at rycramos@servidor.unam.mx or go directly to SLAN’s webpage www.slan.org.mx. Only completed applications will be reviewed. Participation is limited to nationals from Latin American countries who have a Masters or Ph. D. in Nutrition.
The XIII Nutrition Latin-American Congress organized by SLAN (Latin-American Nutrition Society) will take place at the Centro Internacional de Convenciones de Acapulco, México November 9 to 13 2003. All interested are urged to visit SLAN’s website, www.slan.org.mx; this gathering is key to capacity developing efforts in the region and thus of major importance to this working group.
During this regional meeting, outputs of the project the Challenges for Childhood Health and Nutrition Research in Latin America, a Global Forum for Health Research collaborative project between INTA at the University of Chile (with Dr. Ricardo Uauy as Principal Investigator) and the INSP from México (with Dr. Juan Rivera as Co-Investigator), will be presented to analyze and approve an agenda for nutrition action in Latin America. This activity will involve the discussion of a paper prepared by working groups of experts in each one of the following Latin-American nutrition priorities: Low Birth Weight; Zn/Stunting, Under-nutrition/PEM; Iron and folic acid deficiency, and Non-Communicable Chronic Diseases. Spanish and English version of these papers will be available.
A social meeting for all former UNU WHP/FNP program fellows participating at the SLAN meeting in Mexico is being organized. The objective of this meeting is to share experiences among former fellows, to follow up on their career progress and to promote support for future UNU activities in the region.
At the present we are contacting former Latin-American UNU fellows, so if you have information on the name and e-mail of any one of this group, please send it to the following e-mail address: mtoyarzun@uec.inta.uchile.cl.
Dr. Fre Pepping
As announced in the previous newsletter, the second African Nutrition Leadership Programme will be held 30 October - 6 November 2003 in South Africa. All relevant information for the second programme, and some nice photographs from the first programme, can be found at the new ANLP website at www.africanutritionleadership.org. Please inform potential candidates about this event. Those interested in attending should register as early as possible. Applications are found on the referenced website. Also, beginning 2004, the Dutch government will provide a number of fellowships for the ANLP.
Dr. Robert Mwadime, Dr. Pauline Kuzwayo, Dr. Kinday Samba Ndure, Dr. Kabba Joiner
The African Initiative is planning regional meetings to review the initial implementation phase (barriers and achievements) of regional 10 year plans. The meetings will discuss methods for improving the quality and effectiveness of nutrition training in the different programs and lead to a “pan African” meeting in January 2004 to present updated regional plans and seek interregional collaboration.
The East Africa Nutrition Capacity Development Initiative development of a Tutor’s Tool Kit designed to assist programming related to HIV and nutrition is progressing well. All relevant materials have been collated and are now with the project’s editorial team. The goal is to have the Tool Kit in press by July 2003.
The Initiative also is assembling a data-base of nutrition training programs available in Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya, and Ethiopia. Strengths and weaknesses of existing programs are under review with the goal of identifying intra regional cooperation strategies for strengthening them and identifying key institutions willing to take primary leadership for specific areas of interest to the region.
For additional information contact: Dr. Robert Mwadime, rmwadime@rcqhc.org
United Nations System