Including reviews of:Reviews
The State of the World's Children, 1995
Water and Sanitation in Emergencies
Food: Multidisciplinary Perspectives
How Third World Rural Households Adapt to Energy Stress:
The Evidence and the Issuesplus selected announcements of new publications
"The State of the World's Children, 1995"
(1995) James P Grant, UNICEF. Published by Oxford University Press. 89 pages.
This sixteenth report in the annual series sets out two alternative visions for the year 2050. The first of these shows what is likely to happen if no new international effort is made to overcome the worst of poverty and underdevelopment, and present trends of inequality continue. Total world population will be about 12 billion, and rising; social divisions and ethnic tensions have increased, democracies are giving way to demagogues and dictators, and the military consume more and more resources. The second vision shows what could happen if a determined effort is made to restructure Government expenditures and aid programmes to invest in jobs and basic social services. Total world population has peaked at about 8 billion, and is set to decline; states have drawn back from the brink of collapse, and resources have gradually been shifted from military and peace-keeping budgets to investments in economic development, social progress, and environmental protection.
This report points out that the choice between these two futures must be made not in 50 years time but today. "Development now has a deadline. Failure to meet it will bring consequences not just for the poor but for all. Implementing today's development consensus is therefore becoming not only a moral minimum for our civilization but a practical minimum for ensuring its survival."
The report was prepared as a contribution by UNICEF to the World Summit for Social Development in Copenhagen In March 1995. As such it has two components. The first is a restatement of UNICEF's consistent and persistent advocacy for putting the needs and rights of children at the centre of development strategy. Childhood is the period when minds and bodies and personalities are being formed and during which even temporary deprivation is capable of inflicting lifelong damage and distortion on human development. "The growing minds and bodies of children must... be given priority protection. There could be no greater humanitarian cause; there could be no more productive investment; and there could be no greater priority for real development."
The second component is an account of UNICEF's experience since the World Summit for Children in 1990 of how putting children at the centre of development strategy is not only a logical proposition but also a practicable one. At the 1990 Summit the international community agreed on a series of specific and measurable goals for the protection of the lives, health and normal growth and development of children. It was subsequently agreed that a set of intermediate goals should be achieved by the end of 1995. The report examines the successes and failures of translating these goals into reality, and concludes that "a majority of the goals set for 1995 are likely to be met by a majority of the developing nations."
The third chapter, "Words into deeds", argues that "the question of implementation, of giving declarations and resolutions some grip and purchase in the real world, is the most important, the most difficult, and the least discussed of all the issues in the development debate." It goes on to discuss the strategies by which the commitments entered into at the World Summit for Children are being translated into reality. The main strategies are:
* breaking down broad goals and objectives into 'do able' and measurable propositions;These strategies have been described by Dr. Richard Jolly, in a lecture in 1994 at Cambridge, as constituting "a new paradigm for development action... of widespread applicability."* securing high level political commitment, and simultaneous mobilisation of media and public support;
* mobilisation of a wide range of social resources;
* demystification of knowledge and technology to empower individuals and families;
* reduction of procedures to relatively simple and reliable formulas, allowing large-scale operations and widespread use of paraprofessionals;
* deployment of expertise and resources of the United Nations system and bilateral agencies in close support of agreed goals, including close monitoring and publicizing of progress and appropriate response.
But by themselves they will not be adequate. The report goes on to discuss how the way forward is obstructed by political and economic vested interests and by the politically unattractive 'pain now, gain later' nature of many of the necessary policies. Ultimately, the report argues, "it is democracy itself that must provide the corrective to persistent distortions and injustices", and it cites the example of Kerala, with its effective health services, low child death rates, low fertility, and near-universal primary and secondary education for girls: despite its problems and poverty, Kerala for many decades "has been one of the world's most vibrant democracies."
The final chapter of the report - Unfinished business of the 20th century (see box on page 50 for excerpts) - puts forward the case against pessimism, arguing that extraordinary achievements during the last 50 years give Grounds for hope that the historic struggle to restructure societies "in the interests of the many rather than the few" may indeed be well on the way to completion by the turn of the century. Thus, who would have thought that, "within far less than a decade, President Lech Walesa would be sanding a telegram of congratulations to President Nelson Mandela"? It is "the power of concerned and committed people, and their organizations, that can bring what needs to be done within the bounds of what can be done."
In this 50th year of the United Nations it is salutary to consider how the spirit behind the opening words of the Preamble to its Charter - "We, the peoples of the United Nations..." can be recaptured: perhaps the clue lies in the "new dynamic between the UN system and 'the peoples of the United Nations' reflected in various popular movements "(Renewing the United Nations System. Erskine Childers with Brian Urquhart, Development Dialogue 1994:1). Above all the tone of this final chapter reflects the insatiable optimism, inspirational vision and unwavering commitment of UNICEF's Executive Director, James P. Grant, whose report this is. Within weeks of its publication he was dead. It is said that a favourite quotation of his was the one from "Man and Superman" with which he concluded his report (see last para in box): no man could have a finer epitaph.
"The State of the World's Children, 1995" can be obtained from the Oxford University Press, Walton Street, Oxford, OX2 6DP, United Kingdom. Oxford University Press also has outlets in New York, Toronto, Delhi, Bombay, Calcutta, Madras, Karachi, Peealing Jaya, Singapore, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Nairobi, Dares-Salaam, Cape Town. Melbourne, Auckland, and associated companies in Beirut, Berlin, Ibadan, and Nicosia. The book is priced at £4.95 (UK) and $8.50 (USA).
J. Peter Greaves
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Unfinished Business of the 20th Century (Extracts from the final chapter of UNICEF's "State of the World's Children 1995") Summary: The effort to achieve social development goals is part of a historic struggle to restructure societies in the interests of the many rather than the few. Only in this century has that ideal begun to make significant practical headway. The successes that have been achieved so far have been brought about by a conscious effort - led less by governments than by people - to make morality march with advancing capacity. The involvement of even larger numbers of people in this struggle is the best hope for fundamental change, for implementing today's development consensus, and for bringing what must be done within the bounds of what can be done. The needs and the rights of children should become the common cause and common cry of action groups and people's movements the world over. Protecting and investing in the physical, mental, and emotional development of all children is the foundation of a better future, the end and the means of development, the very foundation for economic development, social cohesion, and political stability. And unless this investment is made, all of humanity's most fundamental long-term problems will remain fundamental long-term problems. Whatever the particular cause, be it democracy or human rights, development or equity, gender equality or environmental protection, the growth, development, and education of children is central to long-term success. The principal technologies for meeting children's needs at relatively low cost are already available. The social capacity is largely in place. And the financial cost is frankly negligible in relation to what humanity has at stake in this race. It has been estimated by UNDP, UNFPA, and UNICEF, for example, that the total cost of providing basic social services in the developing countries, including health, education, family planning, clean water, and all of the other basic social goals agreed on at the World Summit for Children, would be in the region of an additional $30 billion to $40 billion a year, two thirds of which could come from the developing countries themselves. The world spends more than this on playing golf. The United States share of this bill would be less than is spent, nationally, on advertising tobacco. The private sector has been known to mobilize $30 billion for a single major construction project - a dam, a tunnel, an airport. Governments find such sums as a matter of course: the United States spends $25 billion a year on its prison service alone, Germany finds more than $30 billion each year to meet the social costs of reunification; Japan is about to invest approximately ten times as much in an optical fibre network for the next century. Meeting children's needs depends not just on social services but on their parents having jobs and incomes. The cost of a major effort to bring about land reforms, invest in small producers, and create large numbers of jobs would be very much more than $30 billion a year. Double it: it is still less than the world spends on wine. Triple it: it is still far less than the world spends on cigarettes. In the post-cold war era, the world annual expenditure on military capacity, on missiles, tanks, aircraft, fighter planes, remains at a level that is four times the combined annual incomes of the poorest quarter of the developing world's people - the one billion absolute poor, those who are without the basics of life, those without education and jobs, those without clean water or basic health care, those whose children die and become disabled in such numbers, those who are forced to ruin their own environments and futures for the sake of staying alive today. A people-led change in the climate of ideas, in what is considered acceptable or unacceptable in the relationships between people and nations, is the best hope that the great changes to come will be changes for the better. But if the race against time is to be won, then where there have been thousands of organizations there must be tens of thousands, where there have been tens of thousands of people, there must be many millions. And by becoming involved in this struggle, in whatever way and on whatever front, it may be that an answer will also be found to the problems which today beset so many of those, in all nations of the world, who are the principal beneficiaries of the progress that has been achieved in this century. For it may be that the being involved in a cause larger than oneself is a deep human need from which we have been diverted by the particular direction that progress has taken in recent times. If so, it is a need of which George Bernard Shaw has left us a powerful reminder: "This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one. I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community and as long as I live it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can. Life is no brief candle to me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got hold of for the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations." (Source: J.P. Grant (1995). Unfinished Business of the 20th
Century Chapter 5 in: The State of the World's Children 1995, UNICEF, New
York.) |
(1994) Good Practice Review #1. Relief and Rehabilitation Network, Overseas Development Institute, London.
This is a concise and practical handbook on strategies and technology for providing safe water and sanitation in emergency situations, typically where substantial numbers of displaced people are concentrated in a limited geographic area. It examines the rationale for giving high priority to safe water and sanitation in such circumstances and goes on to explore the different operating environments in which such interventions are required. It addresses needs assessment, service planning, coordination of inputs and the importance of contingency provision. To enlighten the inexperienced reader, a range of emergency scenarios are described and the requirements for successful intervention are examined in each case; these include the provision of services in arid and drought-affected areas, in hilly and mountainous terrain and in response to sudden-onset emergencies, such as drought, floods, cyclones and earthquakes. A series of case-study boxes provide examples of special situations which presented unique problems and required unconventional solutions; these vividly portray the complexity of past emergencies and demonstrate the continuous need for innovative thinking and operational flexibility. Also included are a series of technical annexes which provide practical operational guidelines and basic technical specifications for water supply and sanitation. This handbook is conveniently printed in A5 format and should be recommended in flight reading for all members of out bound response teams.
To order a copy of the book please contact: The Relief and Rehabilitation Network, Overseas Development Institute, Regent's College, Inner Circle, Regent's Park, London NW1 4NS. UK. Phone: (44 171) 487 7413 Fax: (44 171) 487 7590.
John Kevany"Food: Multidisciplinary Perspectives"
(1994) Edited by Barbara Harriss-White and Sir Raymond Hoffenberg Published by Basil Blackwell. 243 pages.
This book represents a compilation of the 1992 Wolfson College, Oxford lectures that aimed to "forge connections between the applied sciences of medicine, nutrition and food science... and economics, politics and anthropology" as Barbara Harriss-White's excellent introductory summary explains. While the spectrum of food-related issues covered is wide -spanning dietary evolution. food requirements, culture, symbolism, gender, production, poverty, malnutrition, famine, international relations and rights - the analysis is never superficial and often insightful and provocative.
Particular highlights, from a social nutrition perspective at least, include Michael Lipton's chapter on food production and poverty, Ann Whitehead's on gender and the family and Onora O'Neill on hunger, needs and rights.
In the chapter "Not enough Food: Malnutrition and Famine", Phillip Payne re-visits the 1980s "small but healthy?" debate between malnutrition "maximalists" who tend to opt for higher figures for malnutrition and the "minimalists". When this chapter was written several years ago, there existed a body of evidence that suggested there was little functional impairment associated with mild or moderate levels of stunting or underweight among young children, but that the problem was severe stunting - hence the minimalist view. However, strong evidence (albeit unreferenced in this chapter) has since emerged that points to functional disadvantage conferred by moderate and even mild anthropometric deficits - not least, the finding by Pelletier1 that in most studies he reviewed 46-80% of all nutrition- related deaths were in the mild-to- moderate category. Payne rightly suggests that sustained nutritional gains require not only food but free, feminized and decentralized health services and primary and basic education, despite the contradiction with the chapter's title. The various revolutions in nutritional science are ably charted by Philip James, although towards the end we are told that "the principal nutritional problems of the Third World are perceived to be deficiencies of iodine, iron and vitamin A"! Perceived by whom - nutritional scientists or poor third world communities'? We should be told.
1 Pelletier. D.L. (1994). The Relationship Between Child Anthropometry and Mortality in Developing Countries: Implications for Policy. Programs and Future Research. The Journal of Nutrition (of the American Institute of Nutrition). 124 (10S), 2047-2081.The book concludes with a strong chapter by Onora O'Neill which - while destroying illusions that the development of an ethical theory of obligation, essential for deriving obligations to those nutritionally deprived, will be easy - argues that movement in this direction nevertheless can and should now be made.
To order a copy of the book please contact: Blackwell Scientific Publications Ltd., 25 John Street, London WC1N 2ES, UK. Phone: 0171 404 4101. Fax: 0171 831 6745.
Stuart Gillespie"How Third World Rural Households Adapt to Energy Stress: The Evidence and the Issues"
UNICEF, India
(1994) by Payne, P., M. Lipton, R. Longhurst, J. North, and S. Treagust, Food Policy Review 2, IFPRI, Washington, D.C. 134 pages.
This monograph considers two basic questions by literature review. First, what biological and behavioural mechanisms do individuals, households and larger population groups use in adapting to the challenge of different sources, intensities and durations of energy stress? Second, when individuals are not able to adapt successfully, what costs are incurred and who suffers most of these? Chapters are devoted to the timing, source and type of energy stress, biological and behavioural responses to the stress environment and who is stressed and who adapts. A final chapter of conclusions includes proposals for research.
The review showed that the combinations and timing of stresses and responses vary widely, differing according to types of livelihood, family structures and stage of development, ecological setting and cultural traditions. The rich diversity of patterns of responses makes the subject of adaptation important for policy. The strategies that families normally adopt to live with undernutrition have to be understood in order to find effective ways of helping them with the adoption. Also, the review suggests, that without understanding such strategies, it is very difficult for policy makers to, allocate scarce nutritional and health resources in the public domain efficiently, as this requires an estimation of the places, times and situations in which emergency stress causes damage to health or livelihood.
To order a copy of this book please contact: IFPRI, l'200 17th Street N.W., Washington, D.C., 20036. USA. Phone (202) 862 5600 Fax: (202) 467 4439
Richard LonghurstNew Titles
In this section we include selected publishers' announcements and information on new publications: these are not independent reviews, but are included to draw attention to new relevant material.
"Improving Feeding Practices During Childhood Illness and Convalescence"
(1994) by Ellen Piwoz. SARA Project, Academy for Educational Development, Washington, D.C. 32 pages.
The purposes of this paper are: 1. to review the available literature on feeding practices during childhood illness and convalescence in Africa; 2. to summarize information on the design, results, and costs of programs to improve child feeding practices in eight African countries; and 3. to provide recommendations for future educational efforts to improve child feeding during childhood illness and convalescence on the continent. It is intended to be used as a resource document by funding agencies and by program managers and policy-makers in Africa.
Illness adversely affects children's nutritional well-being through increased nutrient requirements and losses, and child-driven reductions in dietary intake (anorexia). In Africa, the effect of illness on nutrition is exacerbated by children's poor nutritional status, due to large deficits in their nutrient intakes during convalescence and post-recovery, financial, time and food availability constraints, and mothers' reluctance to encourage their children actively to eat.
Mothers' reluctance to take an active role in child feeding stems from a traditional view that learning how to eat the family's staple food is part of a child's socialization process. It is generally believed that the purpose of eating is to till the stomach, and that a child knows best when he is hungry and when he is full. Providing too much guidance is thought to spoil a child and cause him to be greedy for foods that are not available to everyone. When children are ill, however, African mothers are usually willing to prepare special foods and more actively encourage their children to eat.
The programs reviewed in this paper all included intensive community-based, formative research prior to the design of interventions to improve feeding practices during and following child illness. The formative research included ethnographic studies, nutritional assessments, and household trials of new behaviors and food recipes. The resulting interventions focused on providing mothers with specific guidelines on feeding frequency, food quantities, and recipe preparations. This information was intended to build mothers' self-confidence and it was used to encourage mothers to take an active role in child-feeding interactions.
Results of household trials indicated that mothers were willing to change their feeding practices if they perceived positive benefits for their children and themselves. The most frequently accepted behavior changes involved small modifications of existing practices, such as enriching a traditional weaning porridge, or increasing the quantity and/or frequency of feeding other solid foods. However, when new foods or practices were adopted they often replaced rather than complemented the traditional diet (e.g. breastmilk, snack foods). Obstacles to trying new behaviors included perceived time and other resource constraints. Mothers' continuation of the new practices was usually determined by their children's reactions to them.
Once programs moved from formative research (i.e. household trials) to implementation (i.e. community-based education) their results have been less encouraging. For example, mothers in Cameroon had improved knowledge but few measurable improvements in feeding practices after less than one year of program implementation. Within two months of being trained, more than 50 percent of mothers in Nigeria knew how to prepare eko ilera, but fewer than 20 percent indicated that they would prepare and feed it on a continuous basis.
The failure of programs to live up to the promise suggested by the household trials, and to result in changes in feeding practices, is believed to be due to a combination of factors. Mothers were willing to adopt new practices during the trials because of the individualized care and attention provided by the field-workers, and because they were active participants in the process of deciding what behavior changes to adopt. During implementation, however, the intensity and personalized nature of these interactions were not sustained. Mothers who received individual counselling were more likely to have improved feeding knowledge, yet this knowledge may not have resulted in the adoption of new practices without mothers' active participation in deciding what those practices should be.
In addition to the above explanation, it is generally believed that changing behavior in a population is a long-term process that requires continuous promotion and encouragement. Whereas some members may adopt a new practice immediately after is it introduced, there are others who will accept it only after it is already well established in the community. The programs examined may not have produced measurable changes in feeding practices because promotional campaigns were of short duration and/or because evaluation designs did not examine changes in behavior over the appropriate (long-term) time intervals.
Developing effective programs to improve feeding practices during illness and convalescence requires knowledge of health providers', mothers' and other caretakers' beliefs and practices, available and acceptable foods, and the nutritional quality of the local diet. Research should also determine practical feeding changes, how mothers can be motivated to adopt them, and how they can overcome resistances from their children to pursue them. The information required to improve providers' group and interpersonal counselling skills must also be gathered.
Although the results from nutrition education programs utilizing formative research were not compared to other types of educational =programs in this paper, the experiences of the projects reviewed support the contention that formative research is feasible to implement in Africa. It is important, however, to streamline the formative research process so that greater time, energy, and resources can be focused on training and implementation of programs to improve child feeding during illness and convalescence in Africa.
"Improving Feeding Practices During Childhood Illness and Convalescence" is available (in French and English) free of charge from: The SARA Project, Academy for Educational Development. 1255 23rd Street, N.W.. Washington. D.C. 20037, USA. Phone: (202) 884 8700 Fax: (202) 884 8701.
(Source: "Improving Feeding Practices During Childhood Illness and Convalescence" Executive Summary.)"The International Organization of Hunger"
(1994) by Peter Uvin. Kegan Paul International, London & New York. 334 pages.
What are the internationally dominant principles and norms regarding the causes of hunger and the ways to eradicate it? Following this 'hunger regime', what activities do the main international actors undertake to fight world hunger? What kinds of programs do they adopt to advocate? And finally, what is the impact of these programs on the incidence of hunger in the world?
This book analyzes the international organization of hunger as well as its effects on the incidence of hunger. It is an international political economy study, situating itself in the theoretical debates of the discipline. Yet, to analyze its subject matter, it uses a variety of other disciplines, such as trade and development economics, demography, international finance and political science.
To order a copy of this book please contact the publishers: Kegan Paul International Ltd, PO Box 256, London WC1B 3SW, United Kingdom.
(Source: information extracted from inside cover of "The International Organization of Hunger")"Hunger 1995: Causes of Hunger. Fifth Annual Report on the State of World Hunger"
(1994) edited by Marc J. Cohen, Bread for the World Institute, Silver Spring, MD, USA. 141 pages.
Causes of Hunger: Hunger 1995 probes the reasons behind the most profound moral and spiritual contradiction of our age - the persistence of hunger in a world of plenty. Nearly a quarter of the world's population is chronically or periodically hungry, and more than 1 billion people live on less than the equivalent of a dollar a day.
Causes of Hunger argues that hunger can be dramatically reduced by expanding existing programs that work; that more durable solutions require linkages with parallel efforts for peace, justice, economic opportunities, and environmental protection.
Causes of Hunger analyzes powerlessness; violence and militarism; poverty; population, consumption, and environmental degradation; racial, ethnic, gender, and age (young and elderly people) bias.
The report suggests short- and long-term responses. It also calls for ethical choices -empowerment and justice, stewardship of resources for the common good, and affirmation of diversity and community.
In addition to essays on these topics, Causes of Hunger includes timely updates on hunger-related developments around the world, statistical tables, a bibliography, and a glossary.
Causes of Hunger can be ordered from: The Bread for the World Institute, 1100 Wayne Avenue, Suite 1000, Silver Spring. MD 20910, USA. Phone: (301) 608 2400 Fax: (301) 608 2401. Price $14.95 for BFW members, and $17.95 for non-members plus $3.00 postage & handling.
(Source: "Causes of Hunger: Hunger 1995" information sheet. Bread for the World Institute, Silver Spring, USA.)"Vitamin A Deficiency: Key Resources in its Prevention and Control"
(1994) compiled by Jenny Cervinskas and Mahshid Lotfi, The Micronutrient Initiative, Ottawa, Canada.
This document aims to provide those working to eliminate vitamin A deficiency (VAD) with a listing of key resources on what the latest significant publications and resources are, and where they can be obtained. While those working directly in the planning or implementation of vitamin A interventions are the main audience for this document, it is expected that it would also be of value to researchers or indeed anyone who needs to consult only the key available resources (e.g. teachers of medical, public health and nutrition students, consultants, technical officers in development assistance agencies.) The scope of coverage of the resources is wide, touching on the variety of aspects related to programs dealing with VAD elimination and control. In deciding on the selection of resources to include, we tried to include resources that are: technically sound and up-to-date, available (i.e. still in print), recent, and low-cost. Resources listed are available only in English unless otherwise indicated.
To obtain a copy of the book, please contact: The Micronutrient Initiative, PO Box 8500. 250 Albert Street. Ottawa. Ontario. Canada. K1G 3H9.
(Source: "Vitamin A Deficiency: Key Resources in its Prevention and Control" preface. Micronutrient Initiative. Ottawa, Canada.)"Educability before Education: A Nutrition-Health Education and Sensitization Handbook for Senior Implementors of the Mid-Day Meal Programme in Gujarat - 1994"
(1994) by Tara Gopaldas and Sunder Gujral, Tara Consultancy Services, Baroda, India.
This booklet has been prepared, keeping in mind the top-level officials planning, implementing and monitoring the Mid-Day-Meals (MDM) programme at the Commissionerate and District levels of Gujarat.
Primary Education and its universalization is high on our nation's agenda. Primary Education to be successful has to pay equal attention to the three legs of its tripod which consist of infrastructure (buildings and teachers), a good primary school curriculum or curriculae, and most importantly the Educability of the Schooler. All the efforts that are being put into primary education cannot succeed unless we have Actively Learning Children.
Over a decade's research in this area by my research group in Gujarat, has clearly indicated that most of our under-privileged schoolers in Gujarat are not in this desirable state of being Actively Learning Children. Most of them especially in the rural and tribal areas come to school on an empty stomach which has been shown to directly interfere with their attention span. A large number of them are infected by an array of intestinal worms that again interfere with digestion and absorption and therefore depress their growth and development. Nutritional anemia is rampant and has been shown by us as by others to affect cognition in many ways; so also physical work capacity and ability to participate in sports and perform well on the playing grounds. Most of these children are also deficient in vitamin A which not only is the vision vitamin but is also the morbidity vitamin. Surat and Bharuch districts are known to be iodine deficient as well. Iodine deficiency again clearly interferes with school learning. Hence, it is imperative that our underprivileged schoolers wherever they are get these anthelmentic and micronutrient inputs whether or not they get the MDM/
This booklet has been organized into seven topics based on several consultations with the Commissionerate of MDM, Government of Gujarat. The topics selected are:
1. Food, Nutrition and Health;We hope it will be a practical and useful guide for not only Gujarat but for other States and Union Territories in our country as well.2. Common Nutritional Deficiencies in Schoolage Children;
3. Low Cost Measures for the Correction and Prevention of Nutritional Deficiencies in Schoolage Children;
4. Non-invasive Procedures for Monitoring the Health/Nutritional Status of Schoolage Children;
5. Role of Supplementary School Feeding in Improving the Nutritional Status of Schoolage Children;
6. Hygienic Measures in Food Handling; and
7. Community Involvement in the MDM.
Prof. Tara GopaldasTo obtain a copy of this guide please contact: Tara Consultancy Services, "Sharan", 1, Alkapuri Road, Alkapuri, Baroda - 390 005, India.
Director
Tara Consultancy Services
(Source: preface to "Educability before Education", Tara Consultancy Services, Baroda, India)"Enriching Lives: Overcoming Vitamin and Mineral Malnutrition in Developing Countries"
(1994) The World Bank, Washington, D.C.
Unlike most treatises on the subject of micronutrient malnutrition, Enriching Lives is not an exhaustive description of the size of the problem or its causes. Instead, this highly readable book passes along lessons learned from project implementation to address malnutrition.
The book has many nuggets of wisdom for policy and program design. For instance, it discusses why food fortification has been the single most effective means of addressing micronutrient deficiencies in the industrial countries, how to target supplements to the neediest, and the fact that the most important action to take is changing the behaviour of policymakers and consumers. One of the most remarkable pieces of information passed along is that micronutrient malnutrition robs many countries of 5 percent of their gross domestic product through death and disability, yet addressing this problem could cost as little as 0.3 percent of GDP.
The message is clear: the problem is huge, solutions are "on the shelf, and few countries can afford not to address micronutrient malnutrition.
To order a copy of "Enriching Lives" please contact: The World Bank, 1818 H Street. N.W., Washington. D.C., USA. Phone: (202) 473 3782 Fax: (202) 522 3234.
(Source: information taken from the cover of "Enriching Lives". The World Bank, Washington, D.C.)"Nutrition in the Nineties: Policy Issues"
(1994) edited by Margaret Biswas and Mamdouh Gabr. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
This book presents a discussion of major policy issues with regard to nutrition which have been evolving during the last decade. The major issues for the nineties were arrived at in consultation with members of the IUNS Committee on Nutrition and Development. The members include some of the leading world experts on nutrition policy and planning.
The major realization that emerges from the book is the need for education in general, and for nutrition and health education in particular, especially in developing countries in order to solve nutrition problems. More research is also required to establish what an ideal diet is in different cultures and ecological environments in all countries. It is not generally realized that agricultural development in industrialized countries such as the United States and Japan was accompanied by a parallel development in education that has not taken place in developing countries.
Although this is a policy book, it contains considerable original information as some chapters are the product of major studies. The contributors to the book are well-known in their fields with considerable experience in policy, planning and implementation. The book is of interest to policy-makers, programme administrators, scholars, and individuals interested in nutrition policy. It addresses issues relevant to industrialized as well as developing countries, and will also be useful as a reference text for university courses on nutrition.
Margaret R Biswas, Editor, Nutrition and Development (OUP, 1985), is presently Director, Biswas and Associates, Oxford, UK and Chairman, Committee on Nutrition and Development, International Union of Nutritional Sciences. She has conducted research on food, nutrition and environment policies, and has been an advisor to various governments and UN agencies. She is the author of four books and numerous research papers.
Mamdouh Gabr is Professor of Pediatrics, Cairo University, Egypt, and President of the International Pediatric Association. He is also President of WHO's Global Advisory Committee on Health Research, and was Minister of Health for Egypt. He is the recipient of High Order of Sacred Treature of Japan. He is the author of two books and over a hundred papers.
To obtain a copy of the book please contact: Oxford University Press, Walton Street, Oxford, OX2 6DP, UK. Fax: 01844 865 56646 price: £14.95 for hardback, £12.95 for paperback. In India please contact: c/o Dinesh Sinha, Oxford University Press, New Delhi. Fax: (91 11 373 2312) price: Rs 275; $9.00 (US) plus mailing.
(Source: Information Release on "Nutrition in the Nineties, Policy Issues", undated.)
Printed by The Lavenham Press Ltd., Lavenham, Suffolk, England.
