As part of the ACC/SCN's continuing effort to publish reviews of current knowledge on outstanding nutrition issues and its application to improving the nutritional status of people, we are particularly pleased to publish "Women's Role in Food Chain Activities and the Implications for Nutrition". This report was prepared by leading researchers in the topic, from Norway and Tanzania, and funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Development Cooperation (NORAD).
The work on this document started in 1986, following recommendations of the SCN's Advisory Group on Nutrition, and decisions of the Subcommittee. This happened at the same time that the Organising Committee of the ACC decided that, across the UN system, issues concerning women should be regularly included as priorities on the agendas of such bodies as the ACC/SCN. The study of the Norwegian and Tanzanian researchers responds to this decision.
"Women and Nutrition", as a topic for systematic review by the SCN, was the subject of a Symposium at its 15th Session, in February 1989. The present study on "Women's Role in Food Chain Activities and the Implications for Nutrition" provided important material both for the preparation of the Symposium and as background information for the discussions. In response to continuing demand, we are now publishing and distributing it in the present format. (The proceedings of the Symposium are also in preparation.)
We hope that the wide-ranging information herein will further the crucially important cause of women, specifically in relation to nutrition, in several ways. First, women's central role in providing for adequate nutrition - of families, communities, and indeed nations - in being described here in detail should help to give increased prominence to the need for supporting women's activities. To this end, a framework for identifying specific needs is given, and many important issues are delineated. Second, the information provides a valuable source of reference for planners and researchers concerned with women's wellbeing and their contribution to nutrition. Third, particularly with its extensive bibliography, the document provides a basis for assessing progress in this area in the future.
The ACC/SCN is most grateful for the enormous and careful efforts by Gerd Holmboe-Ottesen, Ophelia Mascarenhas and Margareta Wandel, and to NORAD for making the work possible.
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A Horwitz |
J Mason |
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Chairman, ACC/SCN |
Technical Secretary, ACC/SCN |
