United Nations System
Standing Committee on Nutrition

Dr Abraham Horwitz served as the Chair of the SCN between 1986 and 1995. He died on 10 July 2002, at the age of 89 years. In an interview published in SCN News in late 1995, just after his retirement, Dr Horwitz sent a message to those working in nutrition:

Keep the faith that you are committed to a most noble cause, the well-being of people whom you do not know but whose needs you feel intensely. Redouble your efforts in whatever you do in nutrition while being bold and imaginative.

The Abraham Horwitz Lecture, established by Sir Richard Jolly (SCN Chair from 1996-2000) in 1996, was introduced to the SCN's agenda in March 1997 at its 24th Annual Session, in recognition of Dr Abraham Horwitz' outstanding contribution to nutrition, and his exemplary leadership as Chairman. The aim of this Lecture series is to continue Dr Horwitz' heartfelt, highly valued and extremely generous tradition of mentoring young talent and their ideas for nutrition programmes. Each year a young guest lecturer who possesses the knowledge and commitment to prepare an exceptional paper is invited to make a presentation to the SCN Session. The lecturer is selected through an essay competition launched each year the early fall. Short essays are invited on the theme of the annual Symposium.

In 1997, the first Dr Abraham Horwitz Memorial Lecturer, Siddiq R. Osmani published in the SCN Nutrition Policy Paper No 16, showed that the "South Asian puzzle" of why the level of child undernutrition and especially stunting in the region far exceeds rates in other regions, is linked to the corresponding higher levels of low birth weight which he in turn attributed to the especially poor condition of maternal nutrition in the region. Stunting, or height growth faltering, largely occurs in the period from conception to about two years. The causes of stunting, although not well understood, are rooted in inadequate foetal growth, and therefore includes maternal nutrition. Whereas progress has been made in the reduction of underweight in Vietnam for example, this seems to be more associated with increasing child weight than of increasing height. Efforts to tackle the problem have tended to concentrate on improving infant feeding practices. Is there child undernutrition evidence that improving maternal nutrition will also contribute to accelerating stunting reduction?

Previous Abraham Horwitz lectures:

Lecture 12 - In a special tribute to the SCN 30th year anniversary, Alan Berg, previously from the World Bank and one of the founding fathers of the SCN, gave the 12th Horwitz lecture during the 35th SCN Session "Reflections from the Front Lines: Swimming Upstream with Optimism: A survey of the international nutrition community". At the 35th SCN Session, Mr Berg also earned the SCN Award of Merit for his outstanding life long contribution and service to nutrition.

Lecture 11 - Ms Charlotte Dufour, Household Food Security and Nutrition Advisor in FAO Afghanistan, gave the 11th Dr Abraham Horwitz Lecture during the SCN's 34th Session "Building National Nutrition Coordination from the Field Up: Lessons learnt from the Afghan Reconstruction".

Lecture 10 - Ms Camila Corvalan, University of Chile/Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, gave the 10th Dr Abraham Horwitz Lecture during the SCN's 33rd Session "Latin America - Avoiding the nutrition transition 'trap'."

Lecture 9 - Ms Kaia Engesveen from the University of Oslo, Norway gave the 9th Dr Abraham Horwitz Lecture during the SCN's 32nd Session in Brazil, 14-18 March 2005, on "Strategies for Realizing Human Rights to Food, Health and Care for Infants and Young Children in Support of the Millennium Development Goals - Role and capacity analysis of responsible actors in relation to breastfeeding in the Maldives."

Lecture 8 - Susan J Keino gave the 8th Dr Abraham Horwitz Lecture during SCN's 31st Session at the United Nations, New York, 22-26 March 2004, on "Nutrition And the Millennium Development Goals A Kenyan Perspective on the Eradication of Extreme Poverty and Hunger."

Lecture 7 - Dr Purnima Menon, Cornell University, gave the 7th Dr Abraham Horwitz Lecture during the SCN 30th Session in Chennai, India, on Tuesday 4 March 2003, on "Bringing Nutrition into the Political and Technical Mainstream: The Role of Effective Communication."

Lecture 6 - School Feeding in Crisis and Conflict, Soha Moussa

Lecture 5 - Infant Feeding Options for Mothers with HIV: Using Women's Insights to Guide Policies, Lucy Thairu

Lecture 4 - What makes the difference? Applying the positive deviance approach to improve pregnancy outcomes, Deepa Bhat

Lecture 3 - Human Rights, Health and Nutrition, Brigit Toebes

Lecture 2 - Breastfeeding: from Biology to Policy, Isatou Jallow Semega-Janneh

Lecture 1 - Poverty and Nutrition in South Asia, S. R. Osmani