AFRICAN NUTRITION MATTERS. December 2014 . Volume 2 No. 3 .

Focus on the Africa Nutritional Epidemiology Conference VI

Accra, Ghana

2014

AFRICAN NUTRITION SOCIETYT H E N E W S L E T T E R

AFRICAN NUTRITIONMATTERS

In this issue

3 Editorial

5 Post-conference interview with Paul Amuna, chair of ANEC VI

8 The greatest gift is knowledge

10 Cancer and Africa

12 The FAO ENACT project

14 African Nutrition Graduate Students Network forum

15 THE LEADER

16 Nutrition advocacy in East Africa

18 Young scientist column

19 Events

African Nutrition Matters . Volume 2 No. 3

Focus on the ANEC VI

African Nutrition Matters is a publication by the African

Nutrition Society

P. O. Box K18, Korle Bu, Accra, Ghana.

Phone: +233-244186867; +233-244872410

Fax: +233-2151394

Editors

Nonsikelelo Mathe, PhD

Dia Sanou, PhD

Linguistic editors

Muniirah Mbabazi, MSc

Folake Samuel, PhD

Layout by Jafri Ali

All correspondance should be addressed to the editors by

emailing the following address:

newsletter@answeb.org

Subscribe to this newsletter on:

http://goo.gl/gpchYt

Cover photo credit: Jafri Ali

African Nutrition Matters is distributed under a Creative Commons

Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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EDITORIAL Dear reader,

Happy new year!

Welcome to the 4rd issue of African Nutrition Matters

(ANM). 2014 has been particularly rich and vibrant for

Africa nutritionists and the global nutrition

community. In this special issue we publish the

highlights of 2014.

The African Nutrition Society’s (ANS) flagship event,

the 6th African Nutrition Epidemiology Conference

(ANEC VI) was held from 21-25th July 2014, in Accra,

Ghana. The conference was attended by scientists,

nutritionists, industry, academia, government and

students who gathered at the Ghana Institute of

Management and Public Administration (GIMPA) to

participate in discussions around the theme “Food and

Nutrition Security in Africa: New Challenges and

Opportunities”. The ANM symposium held at ANEC VI

provided an opportunity to officially launch the

newsletter to African readers attending the

conference. It also allowed most of the editorial team

members to meet for the first time and interact with

readers and ANS members and to revisit the team

working approach. The symposium was well attended

by members of the ANS board, students and many

interested in this first publication of the ANS. A major

highlight of this ANEC meeting was the launch of the

eNutrition Academy, the culmination of many months

work and the collective effort of several nutrition

societies. Professor Emerita Catherine Geissler

discusses the significance of the academy. This and

other highlights of 2014 are documented in this issue

of ANM.

The ANM editorial team would like to especially thank

on behalf of the ANS council the dedicated student

volunteers at the ANEC conference for their

tremendous commitment to the success of this

conference. They are truly the shining black stars of

Ghana and the continent.

In July 2014, the African Nutrition Leadership Program

(ANLP) launched its official newsletter - The Leader.

The Leader intends to “serve as a continuing

communication channel between ANLP Alumni,

sponsors and the ANLP leadership team. Furthermore

it would create a doorway for providing ongoing

education on matters closely related to nutrition

leadership.” ANLP is a leadership platform that has

impacted the lives of many nutritionists on the

continent, including most of the ANM editorial

members. We welcome this newsletter and are

thankful to its editor for contributing to this year-end

issue of ANM.

The 2nd high level intergovernmental meeting and the

second international conference on nutrition (ICN 2),

jointly organized by the Food and Agriculture

Organization (FAO) and the World Health Organization

(WHO), brought together in Roma Italy, November 19-

21st 2014, more than 2200 participants from 170

countries. ICN2 took place and resulted in two

outcome documents–the Rome Declaration on

Nutrition and the Framework for Action—that set a

new global momentum to eradicate all forms of

malnutrition were endorsed by participating

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governments at the conference (a future issue of ANM

will further report on these documents).

Prior to the ICN2, the first ever Scaling Up Nutrition

(SUN) global gathering was held at the FAO to explore

ways to enhancing the SUN “Movement’s ability to

support the achievement of results by SUN countries

by i) reflecting on progress for scaling up nutrition in

countries, ii) considering progress and achievements in

strengthening country capacity to deliver, and

accelerate support in areas of identified need and iii)

contributing to the outcomes of ICN2 through shared

country experiences and approaches to scaling up

nutrition.

A common feature of these events is a global shift of

the nutrition discourse towards the important role of

foods systems and from health lead nutrition policy to

a more collaborative multi-stakeholder and multi-

sectoral approach to nutrition with a strong

coordination mechanism for more sustainable results.

ANM editorial team is supportive of this global shift in

approach and vision for nutrition. Another novel

important concept that emerges from both ANEC VI

and SUN global gathering is the “systemic or strategic

capacity”. It suggests the important role of system

approach to capacity building as technically skilled

human resource alone is no longer enough to

overcome the system level bottlenecks and barriers to

eradicating nutrition in a more sustainable ways.

We support and welcome these developments in the

field of nutrition.

Wish of the year 2015.

Nonsikelelo Mathe and Dia Sanou

ANM PHOTO CONTESTA picture is worth a thousand words

Send us a photo taken by you with a short

description/story (100 words) to:

newsletter@answeb.org.

The best photos will be featured in our next

issues.

ANM CONTRIBUTIONSIf you have a subject that you would like to

see featured in the next issues of African

Nutrition Matters, you are welcome to send

us your suggestions: newsletter@answeb.org

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POST-CONFERENCE INTERVIEW

WITH PAUL AMUNA, CHAIR OF THE

ANEC VI

NONSIKELELO MATHE

University of Alberta

Canada

Are you happy with how the conference turned

out?

Yes, indeed as Chairman of the International Scientific

Committee, I am very satisfied with the outcome. It

was good to see so many students and young

scientists interacting with global experts in nutrition

and learning from them. There were brilliant scientific

presentations and posters from a range of

backgrounds and topics including from undergraduate

students. Particularly gratifying was the contribution of

the young scientists to the conference activities. Bear

in mind that globally we are currently at a cross-roads

in terms of how we deliver the Essential Nutrition

Actions (ENA) necessary to scale up nutrition and

improve the health of the most vulnerable in our

societies, especially post-2015. My hope lies in the

next generation of nutrition scientists and I feel

strongly about the need for them to be trained

properly so that they can contribute meaningfully to

health care delivery and also develop their leadership

skills to support Africa’s drive for better nutrition and

health. There is nothing better in this world than

home-grown practitioners and experts. That is what

every nation in Africa needs and I saw that future here

at the ANEC IV conference in Accra.

What is your overall view on how the theme of the

meeting was reflected and responded to by

participants of the conference?

Well, the theme chosen was: “Food and Nutrition

Security in Africa – challenges and opportunities”. First

of all the scientific committee was pleased to see a

range of abstracts submitted which spoke to the

theme in various ways. The conference programme

was very balanced with a good blend of nutrition

science and developmental biology, clinical and public

health aspects of nutrition research and practice as

well as programmatic activities which provide the

evidence base for what works. The line up of keynote

speakers was also excellent as ANEC was able to

attract the best names in the field of nutrition from

Africa and more globally who spoke to the theme and

offered not only good food for thought, but motivated

and challenged us all in terms of how we could

contribute to meeting the nutrition and food security

challenges in Africa.

The pre-conference public engagement event on the

“GM Food Debate” which brought scientists, civil

society advocates and the general public together was

both animated and engaging. It demonstrated the

strength of feeling that exists on the issue of

genetically modified foods and also sadly exposed the

level of misunderstanding, mistrust and a lack of

knowledge and information on the subject among the

general public. The lively debate allowed some of the

burning questions to be confronted head-on; and it

was clear that we have a lot of work to do to educate

the public on food in general and especially the

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application of technologies including genetic

engineering in general and genetic modification in its

broadest sense to addressing some of our food and

nutrition security needs in Africa.

Dr David Nabbaro’s, (the UN Secretary-General’s

Special Representative on Global Scaling Up Nutrition)

eloquent presentation via video-link on nutrition

capacity building, the SUN Movement and the

challenge to our delegates to be more engaged in, and

contribute to scaling up nutrition to mitigate the

scourge of malnutrition in high burden countries set

the scene and the tone for the conference week. To

cite a few examples, It was pleasing to see experts

such as Professor Anna Lartey, Head of the Nutrition

Division at the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization

(FAO, Rome) speak specifically to the theme and blend

in the importance of nutrition-sensitive agriculture as

a way to address our nutrition needs. Others such as

Professor Alan Jackson spoke eloquently about

nutrition capacity building and the importance of good

training, workforce capacity building and the

regulation of the nutrition profession. The range of

topics covered included maternal and child nutrition

and health, malnutrition and its management and the

growing burden of chronic nutrition-related non-

communicable diseases. In this regard, it was pleasing

to see the conference cover topics like nutrition and

cancer which until now has been given very little

attention in Africa and I think Professor Martin

Wiseman from the World Cancer Research Fund gave a

brilliant talk on the subject which was insightful,

informative and most thought-provoking.

Other major topics included food safety and food

policy, nutrition-sensitive agriculture and the various

workshops on topics ranging from new tools for

dietary intake assessment in cancer and NCD

screening, and the FAO’s workshops on professional

training in nutrition education (ENACT) and Food

Composition Databases (INFOODS). The packed

audiences at the various symposia, seminars, poster

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sessions and other activities demonstrate the level of

participants’ involvement in the conference activities

and how much they benefited from the week in Accra,

including over-subscription of the post-conference

training workshops. It was also great to see a lot of

networking among students, researchers and experts

which bodes well for the future. The British Nutrition

Society’s ANEC Education and Training workshop which

this year focused on training in scientific writing for

publication was another major highlight which like all

the others, was over-subscribed.

Other highlights to mention were the workshop on

nutrition capacity building and the launch of the

eNutrition Academy (eNA), an online platform to

support nutrition training across African institutions.

The former engaged both the students and young

scientists and experts and professionals, to gauge their

perspectives. It was good to see that the general

consensus was towards a unified nutrition curriculum

for training and a call for professional registration and

accreditation of training courses in nutrition. The

launch of the eNA was the culmination of months of

work between the African Nutrition Society (ANS) and

the Federation of African Nutrition Societies (FANUS)

on the one hand, and the American Society for

Nutrition (ASN) and the Nutrition Society (NS) of Great

Britain and Ireland on the other, and in collaboration

with the International Union of Nutritional Sciences

(IUNS), the global body of nutritional scientists. This

initiative further demonstrates the uniqueness of the

ANS and ANEC in the sense that these meetings are

not just another ‘talk shop’ but a platform for actions

aimed at providing avenues and solutions to the needs

of nutrition professionals and institutions in Africa to

build a much stronger and more effective and

competent workforce to support the health sector.

My assessment of the conference and its outcomes

will be incomplete without mention of two key awards

– the ANS Award for distinguished services to nutrition

in Africa, awarded to Professor Anna Lartey and the

Nevin Scrimshaw Award for a lifetime achievement in

international nutrition whose recipient was Professor

Alan Jackson. These were two most deserving scientists

and practitioners who continue to inspire all

generations of nutritionists and we hope they will

continue to do so for many more years to come.

Can you draw links between the conference theme

and the final declaration?

Yes indeed. The conference theme focused not only on

the challenges, but also opportunities for addressing

Africa’s food security and nutrition challenges. In the

conference Declaration, there was a recognition of the

tasks ahead, where we are at the moment and

responsibilities for all, including first global bodies and

national governments; the need for partnerships

between academic institutions and professional bodies

and not least, we, the food and nutrition scientists,

researchers, advocates and civil society to provide

leadership and a unified front in ensuring good quality

training and competencies for professional practice to

support the health workforce and contribute

meaningfully to tackling malnutrition in all its forms.

Any final thoughts and take home messages?

This conference has demonstrated the commitment of

the ANS to provide the right platform and promote

partnerships not only among Africans, but with the

rest of the international community with a common

agenda and focus on confronting and addressing

Africa’s food and nutrition challenges. Our challenge is

to embrace and work tirelessly towards a unified, well

trained and competent African continental nutrition

workforce to support health improvements and

ultimately make malnutrition history.

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THE GREATEST GIFT IS KNOWLEDGE

The eNutrition Academy: a charity with a very

different mission

Prof. Emer. CATHERINE GEISSLER

Chair of the eNutrition Academy / President of the

Nutrition Society, UK and Ireland

Sometimes the greatest gift to help people improve

their lives is knowledge. Many charities do excellent

work in developing nations, distributing donations by

way of money, food, clothes and through local

infrastructure projects.

The eNutrition Academy (eNA) is also a charity.

However, the way in which it aims to help people is

very different. The eNA’s mission is to give people

knowledge, to help train nutritionists in developing

nations, enabling them to advise their governments

and populations on the best options for them.

The eNutrition Academy has been created to help

teach nutrition science to a new generation of

nutritionists around the world free of charge;

especially in parts of the world where people are most

at risk of malnutrition such as Africa, South Asia and

South America. The eNA is backed by five founding

partners: the African Nutrition Society (ANS), American

Society for Nutrition (ASN), Federation of African

Nutrition Societies, International Union of Nutritional

Sciences (IUNS) and the Nutrition Society of the United

Kingdom and Ireland.

The eNA was formally launched at the sixth African

Nutrition Epidemiology Conference (ANEC VI) in Ghana

in July 2014. There was a great deal of interest in the

new organisation with real support from delegates.

The global e-learning platform is being delivered by

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Cambridge University Press and contributions to

course materials are expected from academics around

the world. The eNutrition Academy will initially offer

its online courses in Africa where there is an urgent

need for capacity building. Understanding and

applying nutrition science can have a significant,

positive impact on public health and the huge global

problems we face around malnutrition and obesity.

Qualified nutritionists and dietitians have a major role

to play in policy making, healthcare, education,

agriculture and food manufacturing. The eNA will work

in partnership with local universities and colleges to

complement and enhance their offering to students. It

will also be of great benefit to those already in work

seeking continuous professional development.

The first eNA course – Assessment of Dietary Intake

for Individuals – is currently being tested. More

courses will follow in due course. The eNA would like

to hear from universities teaching nutrition and

dietetics courses across Africa to forge early

partnerships and gauge interest. Those getting

involved in the eNA at this early stage will have a real

opportunity to influence the sort of course content

that is made available and shape how the online

platform is used and evaluated.

The eNA is focusing on the African continent in the

first instance. Courses will be tailored for the African

market, designed to suit local needs and

infrastructure, so that nutrition science capacity-

building is regionally led and local scientific knowledge

helps us meet African requirements.

To find out more about the eNA, and get details of how

to contact us please visit the website:

www.enutritionacademy.org

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CANCER AND AFRICA

MARTIN WISEMAN

World Cancer Research Fund International

Right now cancer is less of a problem in Africa than in

higher income parts of the world, like Europe, North

America and Oceania, where rates of cancer are at

least double that in Africa. Although the occurrence of

different cancers varies across the continent, Africa is

a low risk area compared to other parts of the globe

for cancers of the lung, bowel, breast and prostate. So

why, you might ask, have I been invited to talk about

cancer at the African Nutrition Epidemiology

Congress?

I mean, it’s not just that the rates of these globally

common cancers are rather low in Africa, but that

those cancers that do occur more commonly in Africa

are related to infections – those of the cervix (human

papilloma virus – HPV), stomach (H. pylori),

oesophagus (HPV again) and Kaposi’s sarcoma

(HIV/AIDS). By contrast, the most common cancers in

high-income countries – breast, colon, prostate, lung –

are not known to have infective origins, and are more

closely linked to lifestyle behaviours such as smoking

or being overweight and obese.

Cancer rates are set to increase globally by 50% by

2030

Well, the answer is that the World Health Organization

(WHO) estimates that the number of new cancers

occurring globally every year will go up from the

current figure of about 14 million, to 22 million by

2030 – an increase of 50%. And they estimate that the

vast majority of this increase is going to happen in

lower income countries.

Lower income countries are adopting Western dietary

patterns

There are two main reasons for this – firstly, a general

increase in the numbers of older people across the

globe. Of course this increase in life expectancy is

generally to be welcomed, and is not something we’d

want to reverse, but the fact is that cancers mainly

occur in older people. Secondly, the lower income

countries of the world – including many in Africa – are

undergoing a real change in the way people live their

lives. They are becoming more urban and less rural;

less physically active in everyday life; they are adopting

Western – fast becoming international – dietary

patterns, and are subject to global marketing and

other social and political pressures.

The result of this so-called nutrition transition is that

over the next few decades, people in Africa are likely

to develop rates and cancer patterns similar to those

we see in the higher income countries. But this is

largely avoidable. At World Cancer Research Fund

International, we estimate that in high income

countries about a third of the commonest cancers, and

about a quarter of all cancers, could be avoided by

being more physically active, eating a healthy diet and

maintaining a healthy weight. Together with smoking,

according to the World Health Organization, that

means about half of all cancers are avoidable.

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And while the UK and other developed countries have

allowed this to happen, it could be prevented in

countries going through the social changes that we

have already experienced. The typical high-income

pattern of sedentary behaviour and poor diet is an

unintended consequence of economic development –

but not a necessary one. These lifestyle behaviours

have been considered to be off limits for politicians,

resulting in an environment that has changed

remarkably over the last few decades; where the

default position for most people is not to eat healthily

and be active, but just the opposite.

Across the world, countries are only just beginning to

wake up to the enormous cost of treating diseases

related to poor nutrition, such as cancer and heart

disease; not to mention the added cost of lost

productivity due to ill health and early death. Put

simply, such diseases cost a fortune – a fortune that

low income countries just don’t have. So prevention

has to be the sensible answer, and that means

garnering the political will to create healthy food

environments for populations across the world.

Although for the UK, the boat has sailed, for countries

in Africa there is a chance – a limited window, but a

chance – to not let that happen.

Examples of effective food policies from around

the world

Our policy team works to encourage national

governments to take comprehensive policy action to

promote healthier diets. African countries can learn

from effective policies that have been implemented

elsewhere and tailor them to their specific context.

So based on the evidence, and with political will,

countries in Africa can avoid the public health

mistakes we made in higher income countries and

build societies where people live longer, but remain

healthy into old age. I urge Africa not to make the

same mistakes as us.

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The FAO ENACT project

Education for effective nutrition in

action - professional training in

nutrition education

JANE SHERMAN, RAMANI WIJESINHA-BETTONI,

YVETTE FAUTSCH, ANTHONY JENNINGS, MELISSA

VARGAS, ELLEN MUEHLHOFF*

Food and Agriculture Organization

*Correspondence to: Ellen Muehlhoff, Senior Officer Nutrition

Education and Consumer Awareness Group, Nutrition Division, Food

and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Rome.

Ellen.Muehlhoff@fao.org

Background to ENACT

Promoting healthy and sustainable diets for everyone

is a major aim of the Food and Agriculture

Organization of the United Nations (FAO). People need

access to adequate food and must be empowered to

make healthy food choices. Nutrition education is key

to ensuring the knowledge and skills to practise

healthy eating.

In 2010-2011 FAO conducted an assessment of

professional training in nutrition education in seven

countries in Africa, which highlighted the need for

capacity development in this field. In January 2012 FAO

started the ENACT project to develop, pre-test and

disseminate a basic undergraduate course in nutrition

education, to be delivered both face-to-face and

online. During 2012-14, seven African partner

universities (Botswana, Ghana, Ethiopia, Kenya,

Nigeria, Tanzania and Uganda) contributed to

developing the course by piloting it and discussing it at

workshops in Ghana, Uganda and Ethiopia. You can

find out more at:

http://www.fao.org/ag/humannutrition/nutritioneduca

tion/69725/en/

ENACT at ANEC

Two events were held at ANEC 2014 to publicize ENACT

and its proposed extension to francophone Africa,

ENAF (The ENACT project in Francophone Africa)1.

1/ A pre-conference workshop to introduce ENACT,

targeting university and NGO staff;

2/A symposium conducted with piloting partners to

share piloting country experiences.

These contributions were very timely since there was a

strong conference focus on nutrition capacity building

and the expansion of e-learning. Many institutes

expressed interest in incorporating ENACT into their

curricula.

Pre-conference orientation workshop: The

workshop was facilitated by two experienced ENACT

tutors—Dr Gloria Otoo from the University of Ghana

and Prof. Judith Kimiywe from Kenyatta University,

Kenya. The 24 participants attending the session

reported enjoying the approach. Interest was

expressed in having a longer orientation/training

session, developing diploma and postgraduate

versions of ENACT, and extending it to other health

professionals (medical students, nurses).

ENACT pre-conference workshop: participants hard at work

Symposium: The session, which was attended by

approximately 70 people, was opened by Dr Anna

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Lartey, Director of FAO Nutrition Division. Interest was

high and the discussion was lively. Piloting partners

from Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria and Tanzania,

ENACT team members and Dr Paul Amuna delivered

brief presentations, and piloting students from the

University of Ghana also shared their experiences.

Full house at the ENACT symposium

What’s next?

The face-to-face version of the ENACT module is being

finalized, and work on the online version is ongoing.

Piloting partners are now being selected for the

project in Francophone Africa (ENAF). Once finalized,

the ENACT material will be available free to interested

institutions.

In conclusion…

It seems that the time is right for ENACT in Africa! As a

Kenyan participant said: "What I'm hearing now is

what I've been waiting for....counselling skills, skills to

help convince people are lacking. KNDI (the Kenya

Nutritionists and Dieticians Institute) will push for this

course, and even re-train those already on the field!"

And a voice from Niger: "I myself am a teacher of

nutrition education; I confess that I need this course!

What I teach is a theoretical course. I tell my students

not to teach nutrition, but I can't tell them how they

should do it.”

1 The ENACT (GCP/INT/133/GER) and ENAF

(GCP/INT/163/GER) projects are funded by the

Government of Germany.

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African Nutrition Graduate

Students Network forum

JOSEPH ASHONG

Cornell University, US

BRENDA ZAHARI

AGSNet

AGSNet organized a short open forum as part of the

recently held ANEC VI in Accra. In attendance were 32

new, current and alumni members of the network. Top

on the agenda was the way forward for the network.

New members were warmly welcomed to the network

and were given a brief history, structure and

function/purpose of the network by the Coordinator

ably supported by the alumni members present at the

forum. The floor was then opened for questions and

comments. Topics discussed were; the role of

members who have completed school, network

holding symposia, status of the network’s website,

leadership, and the relationship between the network

and African Nutrition Society (ANS). Also discussed was

the possibility of moving the headquarters of the

network from Cornell University in the United States of

America to an institution in Africa – the pros and cons

were discussed. The Coordinator was tasked to further

look into the relocation of the network’s headquarters

– consult with the founding fathers of the network for

their inputs and advice the network accordingly. On

the way forward, a number of suggestions were made;

the need to re-launch and re-brand the network going

into 2015 and the need for a review of the constitution

of the network to be abreast with time. The

Coordinator and Brenda Zarhari were tasked to

coordinate the re-launching. They are to form

committees to implement the re-launching of the

network. Nonsi shared benefits of being a member of

the network and activities carried out by the North

American Chapter. The forum was adjourned however,

discussions continue electronically via the network’s

main channel of communication – emailing! For more

information on membership and to be part of the

discussions, send your name and email address to

Joseph (joashong@gmail.com) or to Brenda

(abubrenda@yahoo.com).

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THE LEADER

Newsletter of the African Nutrition

Leadership programme

CHRISTINE TALJAARD

Editor of “THE LEADER”,

African Nutrition Leadership Programme

North-West University, South Africa

The African Nutrition Leadership Programme (ANLP)

has been developing nutrition leaders in Africa for

more than ten years and this year, published the first

issue of their official newsletter ‘THE LEADER’ (July,

2014). There are now more than 300 ANLP-alumni,

firmly establishing a network that, so far, reaches into

33 African countries and several countries outside of

Africa. In December 2012, the core ANLP leadership

team met to strategically plan ways to scale up the

programme and to bring renewed energy to this

growing network. It was decided that a newsletter

would help to keep people in touch, give a voice for

sharing experience and nutrition issues in Africa and

promote the programme to achieve greater scale and

thus THE LEADER was born.

Several people committed themselves to contribute to

this newfound initiative. There is little no worth in

publishing just another twenty page newsletter that

would end-up in archives and trashcans before the

first pages have been read. The intent of THE LEADER

was that it would serve as a communication channel

between the ANLP leadership team, ANLP-Alumni and

sponsors. Furthermore it would encourage and equip

those working in the field of nutrition by providing

ongoing education on nutrition leadership related

topics.

It was strongly felt that THE LEADER should be owned

by the ANLP-alumni. THE LEADER has permanent

contributors as well as invited writers with every issue.

The current team includes Christine Taljaard (Editor),

Lisa Ware (Language Editor), Jane Badham, Leon

Coetzee and Johann Jerling (Article writers). Jane, Leon

and Johann are more than just familiar faces or

experts in their respective fields to ANLP-alumni. They

have mentored, guided, advised, and encouraged

these young leaders and bring a warmhearted-

welcome-look to each issue.

Immediately after the 10 day training programme,

ANLP trainees are encouraged to return to their roles

and to bring about the positive changes they have

embraced during the course. THE LEADER serves as a

lifeline that continues to feed this energy and to keep

reminding alumni that in order to be an effective agent

for change, the change must start and continue from

within. By promoting this personal growth and

providing readers with insight into nutrition current

affairs, THE LEADER supports alumni to lead from

where they stand. Over the years, ANLP-alumni from

different years have gathered together at congresses

to share laughter, experiences and memories of their

time at, what some may think of as, the ANLP ‘boot

camp’. Because of this shared common experience,

you will find people supporting each other,

encouraging those who are tired, applauding those

who have succeeded. People reminding each other of

shared virtues. May this be precisely what THE LEADER

does, to unite a diverse group of people from various

working sectors across an extended network who will

continue, through their leadership, to advance and

promote nutrition policy and practice across our

continent.

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NUTRITION ADVOCACY IN EAST

AFRICA

MUNIIRAH MBABAZI

Nottingham University, UK

FUNGO ROBERT

African Nutrition Society

Nutrition as a foundation for human health and

development has gained global recognition and as

such the nutrition agenda is on a higher global

pedestal than never before. Governments across the

world and especially in the developing world have

general consensus on the importance of nutrition in

development. These kinds of developments have been

possible due to nutrition advocacy. As seen in

Copenhagen Consensus outcomes of 2012

philanthropists, economists and nutrition scientists

showed that an investment in nutrition is economically

sound and was thus labelled the ‘best’ investment to

save lives of mothers and children as well as improve

children’s education outcomes. Once achieved, these

are a cornerstone of improved economic productivity

that many developing countries seek to achieve.

However, working under constrained budgets nutrition

still does not receive its due attention in many

government programs in several east African

countries. This has been in part due to lack of timely

and clear information and capacity to push for better

investment in Nutrition. Where the information is

present, expertise is limited to provide sound analysis

and technical arguments to policy makers and

planners; hence the ineffectiveness of the facts as they

are presented in a way that does not appeal to

decision-makers or offers them clear alternatives with

both political and technical benefits.

Worth noting is the remarked growth in capacity

development for nutrition in many African countries

and as such expertise is slowly growing and there is a

beacon of hope for better and more nutrition actions

through nutrition advocacy and communication on the

continent. The advent of the SUN movement has seen

a rise in several organised nutrition advocacy civil

society organisations/groups in Eastern Africa. In

Uganda, UCCO-SUN, PANITA in Tanzania, Rwanda SUN

Civil Alliance in Rwanda and SUN Civil Society Alliance

of Kenya (SUN CSA) in Kenya. These groups base their

work on the SUN principles that recognise the multi

sectoral nature of the causes of malnutrition and

therefore require several approaches from seemingly

interlinked but detached sectors to drum up action for

nutrition improvements in their respective countries.

However, vividly lacking is the presence of strong

individuals and institutions to generate and sustain

nutrition at the highest national level agenda with

substantial engagement and involvement of the

Scientific and professional community. Though the

SUN recommends that the nutrition agenda be housed

at the highest office in the land, like in the office of the

President’s or Prime minister’s office, financing and

technical support still remain major issues especially

in countries where there is no budget line for nutrition

actions. It is feared that the gains from nutrition

advocacy could be lost if the status quo remains as is.

On the other hand, governments continue to work

with civil society organisations and donor partners to

provide tools for nutrition advocacy. Tools like the

PROFILES developed by the USAID have been used to

generate estimates on the consequences of nutritional

deficiencies in populations; the cost-effectiveness of

proposed nutrition programmes and also

communicates results to various audiences. This tool

has been instrumental in generating nutrition

advocacy information in several countries and East

Africa alike. Further, this tool provides an

understanding of the gains that could be achieved by

reducing and preventing malnutrition and how much it

costs to provide the needed services. Estimates from

this tool have been and continue to be the cornerstone

of the process of nutrition advocacy.

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The Eastern and southern African region still has high

fractions of malnourished children with over 25 million

or 40% of the under-fives stunted and a further 18%

and 7% underweight and wasted respectively. Though

reversible, wasting and underweight children

contribute a larger fraction to the numbers of

malnourished children in the region. However,

stunting is not reversible and affects more children

than the two conditions combined. For African

children to realise their full potential it is important for

the current advocacy efforts to be sustained and

boosted in the region.

Further reading

1. Burkhalter R.B et al. 1999. Nutrition advocacy and

national development: the PROFILES programme and

its application. Bulletin of the World Health

Organization77 (5)

2. Unicef, ND. Eastern and Southern Africa. Young

Child survival and development.

http://www.unicef.org/esaro/5479_nutrition.html

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YOUNG SCIENTIST COLUMN

ISHAWU IDDRISU

MPhil. Human Nutrition and Dietetics

Kwame Nkrumah Univ of Science and Technology

Ghana

The 6th African Nutritional Epidemiology Conference

(ANEC VI) held in Accra between 21st to 25th July was a

great experience especially for me as a student

delegate. The conference offered me a great

opportunity to share my research work and potentials

with experts and professionals in nutrition across

Africa and the world at large. ANEC VI specially gave

the young and upcoming researchers like myself a

platform to build on our research experiences and

capabilities. I would like to use this opportunity to say

a big thank you to the organizers, the research

committee and the International Nutrition Foundation

for the award and for the exposure given to the next

generation of nutrition scientists.

The theme for this year's conference couldn't have

been better selected looking at the current food and

nutrition security situation in Africa and other parts of

the world. I was fascinated with the kind of scientific

and practical solutions that the speakers at the

conference offered to the food and nutrition security

challenges that the continent is facing. One of the key

message was the double burden of malnutrition and

to tackle this we need multi-sectoral collaborations.

This means that every sector has an active role to play

to be able to achieve a sustainable food and nutrition

secured continent. As said by my mentor; if we are

able to implement and practice one third ( ) of what⅓

we discussed at this conference, then Africa's poor

food and nutrition security will be a thing of the past.

The future of Africa and for that matter the world's

food and nutrition security is in the hands of young

scientists/researchers and we must get involved in

finding practicable and sustainable solutions to this

particular challenge. The challenges we face in Africa

as far as food and nutrition security is concerned are

very reversible thus the need to adopt a more

proactive, committed and participatory approaches in

the fight against food security. Africa has all that it

takes to be food and nutrition secured and it's our

duty to make this a reality.

Receiving the award for best oral communication at ANEC VI

Accra, Ghana. 2014

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Events

26 – 29 January, 2015

9th Asia Pacific Conference On Clinical Nutrition

(APCCN 2015)

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

10 – 20 March, 2015

13th African Nutrition Leadership Programme

South Africa.

14 – 18 May, 2015

12th Asian Congress of Nutrition (ACN2015)

Yokohama, Japan.

5 – 8 October, 2015

15th International Nutrition & Diagnostics

Conference

Prague, Czech Republic.

20 – 23 October, 2015

12th European Nutrition Conference FENS 2015

Berlin, Germany.

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African Nutrition Matters

Volume 2 No. 3 . December 2014

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