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Inaugural issue.Volume 1 No.1 September 2013
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September 2013 | Volume 01 | Issue 1 AFRICAN NUTRITION Matters
Official Bulletin of the African Nutrition Society
September 2013 | Volume 01 | Issue 1
AFRICAN NUTRITION Matters
September 2013 | Volume 01 | Issue 1 2 AFRICAN NUTRITION Matters
AFRICAN NUTRITION SOCIETY
African Nutrition Matters is available online at: www.answeb.org
Editors in Chief
Dia Sanou Nonsikelelo Mathe
Layout
Ali Jafri
Editorial Team
Mawuli Hayford Avedzi Robert Fungo Ali Jafri Hanane Labraimi Muniirah Mbabazi Folake Samuel
Technical Advisory Board
Paul Amuna Habiba Hassan Wassef Francis Zotor
Correspondence should be addressed to the managing editor: Email: [email protected]
Cover photo credit: James Forsyth
CONTENT
EDITORIAL
Why African Nutrition
Matters?
Dia Sanou, Nonsikelelo Mathe
3
French column: dans ce
numéro
4
Welcome address from the
African Nutrition Society
Francis Zotor
6
Will Africa take advantage of
the wind of change for
nutrition?
Anna Lartey
8
THEMATIC ARTICLE
Capacity building challen-
ges : Training Gaps in
African Higher Education
Paul Amuna
9
TRIBUTE
Prof. Anna Lartey. President-
elect of the IUNS
12
REGIONAL NEWS
Central Africa Francophone
countries: from food diversity
to nutrition disaster
Djoulde D. Roger
13
Eastern Africa takes on the
SUN movement by storm
through multisectoral enga-
gements
Muniirah Mbabazi, Robert Fungo
15
Nutrition challenges in
North African countries
Hanane Labraimi, Ali Jafri
16
PARTNERS SECTION
The agenda of the
Federation of African
Nutrition Societies
Joyce Kinabo
18
The ECSA regional food
fortification initiative
Josephine Kibaru-Mbae
19
The experience of the
UGAN in the SUN Move-
ment
M. Mbabazi, K.P. Kikomeko
21
AGSNet: the past,
present and future
J. Ashong, H.M. Avedzi
22
The Algerian Society of
Nutrition: a run-up for food
and nutrition in Algeria!
Malika Bouchenak-Khelladi
24
OBITUARY
Prof. Nevin Scrimshaw
25
ANNOUNCEMENTS 26
September 2013 | Volume 01 | Issue 1 3 AFRICAN NUTRITION Matters
EDITORIAL
Why African Nutrition Matters?
Dear Reader,
On behalf of the editorial board, we are delighted to unveil the maiden issue of African Nutrition Matters (ANM), the official newsletter of the African Nutrition Society. It has been the desire of the African Nutrition Society (ANS) to produce a newsletter that informs its growing membership and other colleagues around the world about ANS activities as well as current and emerging nutrition is-sues in Africa and the global scene. Following intensive discussion and consultation, it was agreed that ANM should be published as an open-access Newsletter under the umbrel-la of ANS. ANM will be in the first ins-tance published once quarterly in English and salient points summari-zed in French, with the view to increa-se the number of French language articles in the longer term. ANM adopts a style and language that will allow for understanding by the gene-ral public and by those individuals, organizations and sectors that are involved in nutrition related work. Some feature articles can however carry evidence-based contributions with scientific undertones on topical nutrition issues. Although the ANM will often provide ―technical‖ informa-tion in nutrition and embraces a peer-reviewed policy, it is not a “peer re-viewed scientific journal”.
African Nutrition Matters, the official newsletter of the African Nutrition Society, aspires to provide opportuni-ties for our readers and contributors as well as all players in the Africa‖s nutrition scene to tell us their stories
and share experiences across the social development, food security, food safety, food systems, diet and disease spectrum as well as success stories and interventions to tackle these problems in the different re-gions of Africa. African Nutrition Mat-ters aims to be at the forefront of sharing the news of the successes and challenges of the various nutri-tion initiatives happening on the Afri-can continent. It is a compilation of contributions from a wide spectrum of organizations or individuals who directly participate and advocate for the fight against malnutrition on the African continent. It is a platform for contributors to share their views and provide thought-provoking articles, which serve to inform, educate and entertain, but carry a serious nutri-tion message as well.
The Newsletter is presented in sec-tions: Regional News which feature news and stories from East, West, South, North, and Central Africa; Part-ners section invites interest groups such as AGSNet, FANUS, IUNS, etc. to post articles on their projects or ac-tivities; Thematic section covers aca-demic/scientific/programmatic con-tent on a topical issue and will often include “Invited Expert Commentary”; Tributes which feature ANS members, other personalities and awards; An-nouncements and News will give up-dates on upcoming conferences, training, workshops, adverts from educational institutions and other relevant information; Reviews will report book or article reviews. Read-ers will also have an opportunity to write a Letter to the editor. We hope that this first issue serves as an out-let to introduce nutrition issues in the continent. Future issues will fo-cus on various aspects of African nu-trition agenda.
ANM is managed by an editorial team comprised of an editorial committee, and a technical advisory board. Our editorial team includes several Afri-can scientists with a passion for nu-trition and for the continent. They are located in all five regions of the conti-nent and abroad. We acknowledge the voluntary devotion of the time of the editorial committee members to this challenging task. We also thank the technical advisory board for their support and guidance to the editorial team.
Our ambition is to increase the num-ber of issues per year, a challenging effort from contributors that will make sense only if readers find the newsletter interesting, useful and enriching. We therefore welcome your feedback and suggestions to help us improve the quality of the Newsletter. You will be in position to give us feedback and subscribe to receive the newsletter automatically on the website.
Any questions or suggestions should be direct to: [email protected]
Thank you for reading!
Dia Sanou Co-editor in chief
Nonsikelelo Mathe Co-editor in chief
September 2013 | Volume 01 | Issue 1 4 AFRICAN NUTRITION Matters
French column: dans ce numéro
African Nutrition Matters (ANM): le bulletin officiel de la Société Africaine de Nutrition
C‖est avec plaisir que la Société Africaine de Nutrition (ANS) vous présente le pre-mier numéro de African Nutrition Mat-ters (ANM). Ce bulletin est né de la vo-lonté de l‖ANS de se doter d‖un organe d‖information à l‖intention de ses mem-bres et de tous ceux qui sont intéressés par les questions de nutrition en Afrique. Il sera publié en ligne avec accès libre et gratuit, sous les auspices de la Société Africaine de Nutrition. ANM sera dispon-ible dans un premier temps, en Anglais tous les trois mois, avec les points clés résumés en Français ; le but à long terme étant de publier des articles com-plet en Français. Le bulletin adopte un style et un langage compréhensible par le grand public et par tous ceux qui sont impliqués ou qui ont un intérêt pour la nutrition en Afrique. Certains articles seront toutefois des contributions scien-tifiques sur des thématiques précises. Toutefois, African Nutrition Matters ne saurait être considéré comme une revue scientifique avec comité de lecture, même si les articles proposés sont évalués par au moins deux personnes.
Le bulletin est organisé en sections dont entre autres une section sur les Nou-velles Régionales, une section réservée aux Partenaires de l‖ANS, une Section Thématique ainsi que des annonces et des nouvelles.
Par ailleurs, chaque édition mettra en vedette, dans la section Tribute, une personnalité qui aura apporté une con-tribution importante à l‖avancement de l‖agenda de la nutrition en Afrique et/ou aux activités de l‖ANS. Les lecteurs auront aussi l‖opportunité de réagir ou de s‖adresser à l‖équipe éditoriale à travers une lettre à l‖éditeur. L‖équipe éditoriale est composée d‖un comité
éditorial et d‖un ensemble de conseillers techniques.
Ce numéro inaugural présente une intro-duction à la problématique nutrition-nelle en Afrique. Dans l‖éditorial, les Co-éditeurs en chef du bulletin, expliquent le contexte de la création du bulletin, sa vision, sa raison d‖être, la raison derrière le choix du nom “African Nutrition Mat-ters” ainsi que la ligne éditoriale. Ainsi, selon Drs. Sanou & Mathe, le nom African Nutrition Matters revêt un certain dual-isme:
1) African Nutrition Matters qui traduit les problèmes de nutrition des popula-tions Africaines que le bulletin se pro-pose de rapporter et de partager avec un public au-delà des milieux académique et professionnel ; 2) Africa Nutrition [does] Matter qui traduit le fait que la nutrition en Afrique pose problème dans la recherche de solutions à cause de la complexité des nombreux défis et des obstacles majeurs sur le continent, résultant en de faibles progrès.
Le bulletin African Nutrition Matters donne l‖opportunité aux membres de l‖ANS, à ses lecteurs ainsi qu‖aux divers acteurs de la lutte contre la malnutrition en Afrique, de raconter leurs histoires et partager leurs experiences dans les dif-férents secteurs comme le développe-ment social, la sécurité alimentaire, la salubrité des aliments, les systèmes agricoles et alimentaires, l‖alimentation et la maladie.
Message de bienvenue
Profitant de son message de bienvenue à la fois au bulletin et à ses lecteurs et contributeurs, le Président de la Société Africaine de Nutrition (ANS), Dr Francis Zotor après avoir présenté la vision de ANS pour l‖ANM, a brièvement rappelé les missions et les objectifs de l‖ANS ainsi que ses projets futures. Il a, par la suite, invité la communauté des acteurs de la nutrition en Afrique a non seulement célébrer la naissance de ce nouvel or-gane d‖information et à le soutenir, mais
également à rejoindre la Société Afri-caine de Nutrition pour qu‖ensemble, nous conjuguions nos efforts pour réus-sir le défi de l‖éradication de la malnutri-tion sur le continent.
Un vent de changement
Dans l‖article intitulé «The wind of change for nutrition is here: Will Africa take advantage of this?» ,Prof. Anna Lartey, Présidente entrante de l‖Union international des sciences de la nutri-tion (IUNS), se demande si l‖Afrique pourra profiter amplement du vent mondial de changement en faveur de la nutrition. L‖auteure donne des stratégies pouvant contribuer à l‖avancement des objectifs nutritionnels sur le continent. Entre autres, elle évoquel‖opportuni-téque cela représente pour les gou-vernants de mobiliser les ressources pour les programmes de nutrition, de créer des environnements institution-nels favorables à la nutrition et dedévelopper des partenariats pour ac-croître, prioriser et mettre en œuvre leurs propres politiques et programmes. Tous ces processus doivent être pilotés par les africains, qui ne doivent s‖es-timer vainqueur de la malnutrition que lorsque la malnutrition sera totalement éliminé. Prof. Lartey, qui vient par ail-leurs d‖être recrutée comme Chef de la Division Nutrition de l‖Organisation pour l‖Agriculture et l‖Alimentation, promet de placer au cœur de son action à la tête de l‖IUNS, le renforcement des capacités, la pierre angulaire pour le passage à l‖é-chelle (Scaling Up) des interventions efficaces. Elle conclut en disant que si nous manquons l‖occasion de diminuer significativement les taux élevés de mal-nutrition sur le continent au moment où la nutrition est au sommet des priorités de développement, ça serait une grande perte que les générations futures auront du mal à rattraper.
L‖un des défis majeurs pour la nutrition en Afrique est le renforcement des ca-pacités. C‖est l‖objet de la contribution thématique de Dr Paul Amuna. L‖auteur situe la problématique nutritionnelle
September 2013 | Volume 01 | Issue 1 5 AFRICAN NUTRITION Matters
africaine dans une perspective interna-tionale avant de rappeler les initiatives mondiales pour l‖éradiquer. Se fondant sur la publication récente de la seconde série de la prestigieuse revue The Lancet sur la malnutrition maternelle et infan-tile en faveur de la nutrition, il dresse un portrait sombre de la malnutrition sur le continent qui abrite à lui seul, 22 des 34 (65%) pays ayant le plus grand fardeau de la malnutrition. Selon l‖auteur, pen-dant que de nombreux enfants continu-ent à être les martyrs des différentes formes de malnutrition, les maladies chroniques relatives à l‖alimentation, les changements d‖habitude de vie et les facteurs de risque sous jacents de l‖obésité sont en nette progression. Dans leurs efforts, les acteurs font face à de nombreux défis collectivement appelés les défis de la mise en œuvre et parmi lesquels on peut citer un faible engage-ment politique, une insuffisance de mo-yens financiers, des capacités tech-niques et institutionnelles inadéquats, des faibles capacités de résilience des populations, des conflits sociopolitiques récurrents et des catastrophes naturelles.
La communauté scientifique, les gou-vernements, l‖industrie, les agences des Nations Unies et d‖autres organisations internationales ainsi que la société civile collaborent actuellement pour relever ces défis. Mais les questions les plus pressantes qui se posent parfois à nous sont : Qui va conduire le proces-sus? Où se trouve la main d‖œuvre qui fera le travail? Qui seront les champi-ons? L‖auteur de conclure que la clé de-meure l‖investissement dans la forma-tion des nutritionnistes qualifiés, ayant une perspective multisectorielle du problème et qui ont aussi des compe-tences managériales et de leadership. Pour cela, notre compréhension du ren-forcement des capacités doit aller au delà de la formation des professionnels et intégrer les concepts de capacitéss-tratégiques. Cette notion de capacités stratégiques réfère au renforcement de l‖environnement institutionnel de la nu-trition dans son ensemble, les mécanis-
mes de coordination et de mise en œu-vre, le leadership, le management stratégique, les systèmes d‖information et l‖apprentissage collaboratif. L‖obten-tion de résultats durables en nutrition n‖est possible qu‖en réunissant les deux conditions: former davantage de profes-sionnels en nutrition et renforcer les capacities stratégiques des pays Afri-cains.
L‖Union internationale des sciences de la nutrition ayant eu l‖opportunité de s‖ex-primer à travers la Prof. Anna Lartey, la section Partenaires a donné l‖occasion aux autres partenaires traditionnels de l‖ANS en l‖occurrence la Fédération Afri-caine des Sociétés de Nutrition (FANUS) etle Réseau des Etudiants Gradués en Nutrition (AGSNet). Deux organisations professionnelles nationales ont eu l‖oc-casion de se faire découvrir par les lec-teurs ; il s‖agit d‖UGAN(Uganda Action for Nutrition) et la Société Algérienne de Nutrition (SAN).
Pour l‖ensemble de ses œuvres en faveur de l‖avancement de la nutrition en Afri-que, son leadership continental et inter-national et son rôle modèle et inspira-teur pour la nouvelle génération, ANM a rend un vibrant hommage à Dr. Anna Lartey, Professeure agrégée à l‖Univer-sité de Legon au Ghana dans ce numéro inaugural. Ancienne présidente de l‖ANS, Prof. Lartey est la Présidente entrante de l‖Union Internationale des Sciences de la Nutrition (IUNS), la plus importante or-ganization professionnelle savante au niveau mondiale. Elle vient d‖être égale-ment recrutée à la tête de la Division Nutrition de l‖Organisation des Nations Unies pour l‖Agriculture et l‖Alimentation (FAO), ou elle prendra fonction le 1er octobre 2013. Elle est constamment invi-tée à donner des conférences, elle a reçu plusieurs distinctions et publié plu-sieurs articles scientifiques. Elle porte haut le flambeau de la nutrition et fait honneur à l‖Afrique.
Par ailleurs, L‖ANS partage la peine qu‖é-prouve la famille Scrimshaw et la com-munauté internationale de la nutrition
suite au décès du Prof. Nevin Stewart Scrimshaw, fondateur de la Fondation Internationale pour la Nutrition, rappelé à Dieu le 8 février 2013. La communauté internationale a perdu un ardent ac-teurde lanutrition, et la fondation qu‖il a créé et qui s‖appelle désormais “Nevin Scrimshaw International Nutrition Foun-dation” a mis en place un prix en son nom Nevin Scrimshaw Foundation Ad-
vancement Fund qui apportera un soutien aux actions de renforcement des capacités en recherche dans les pays en développement.
Bonne lecture !
Dia Sanou Co-editor in chief
Hanane Labraimi Editorial team
Ali Jafri Editorial team
September 2013 | Volume 01 | Issue 1 6 AFRICAN NUTRITION Matters
Welcome message from the African Nutrition
Society
I have the pleasure of welcoming you
to The African Nutrition Society‖s first newsletter. This is a monumen-
tal journey you will be taking with us
as you have the pleasure of reading
this newsletter and subsequent ones that will be posted on-line on
quarterly basis. A lot of good work is
being done across the African conti-
nent but sadly for so long; this excel-lent piece of work goes unreported
either at sub-regional level or conti-
nent-wide. The African Nutrition So-
ciety thinks it is about time readers across Africa benefit from an on-line
knowledge resource for nutrition-
related issues on Africa aimed at
equipping readers with research and information on the continent‖s wide
ranging nutritional issues.
African Nutrition Society and its
ethos
For those of you who are for the very first time getting to know about the
African Nutrition Society (ANS), it is
the leading professional body dedi-
cated to promoting the nutrition agenda on the continent of Africa
(www.answeb.org). The ANS oversees
the biennial African Nutrition Epide-miology Conferences (ANEC), which
started in 2002 in South Africa. Sub-
sequently, ANEC has run biennial
conferences across Africa at sub-regional locations. Following the
successes of the first three confer-
ences in 2002 (South Africa), 2006
(Ghana) and 2008 (Egypt) the key founding members found it neces-
sary to form an umbrella organisa-
tion to oversee ANEC as well as ex-
pand into other areas of relevance that would promote the nutrition
agenda across the continent of Af-
rica. This led to the establishment of
ANS in 2008 as a registered scientific professional movement; a learned
society formed by nutritional scien-
tists, food scientists and other
health professionals working in, and with an interest in the nutrition
agenda for Africa.
As the professional scientific forum
and voice for Africa‖s nutrition and
health, the vision of ANS is to create
a unified continental nutrition pro-fession of individual members, pro-
vide a continental professional sci-
entific forum, promote training, re-
search and capacity building in nu-trition and contribute to workforce
development to meet Africa‖s nutri-
tion and health policy agenda. Our
mission is to promote collegiality and bring together individuals
across Africa and other parts of the
world to work together towards
building and promoting the nutrition profession and practice in Africa.
Our ultimate goal is to provide a
home for nutritional scientists and
other allied professionals, and to
contribute to programmes and pro-
jects aimed at improving nutrition in Africa and reducing the burden of
disease.
ANS is bound by a constitution and
has its headquarters in Accra,
Ghana. It is governed by a board of
Trustees that has been drawn from the geographical regions of the Afri-
can continent. The Society currently
has four sub-regional representa-
tives (Northern, Western, Eastern and Southern Africa) who are the
contact points and through whom
the Society‖s activities can be chan-
nelled.
Future activities of the ANS
Future Activities the ANS shall be fo-cusing on in the near future include:
Plans to hold training workshops in
the year preceding its biennial ANEC
event at the sub-region where it plans to hold its conference.
The creation of a Nutrition e-
Learning Hub in partnership with the
Nutrition Society of Great Britain and Ireland, the American Society for
Nutrition, the Federation of African
Nutrition Societies and leading
membership organisations of nutri-tion academics that will bring to-
gether academic leaders in nutri-
tional science to provide open ac-
cess, capacity building courses in nutrition to an African and world-
wide audience.
The development of a professional
practice framework leading to pro-fessional registration and accredita-
tion, and with a longer term view to
harmonisation of nutrition training
September 2013 | Volume 01 | Issue 1 7 AFRICAN NUTRITION Matters
across African Higher Education in-
stitutions.
Development of public-private part-
nerships and linkages (and strength-
ening existing ones) with the scien-
tific and academic communities, industry, non-governmental organi-
sations and international agencies
for the benefit of ANS members and
the wider public interest.
The UN Declaration on Chronic Dis-
ease in September 2012 (signed up
to by Member States) further gives
prominence to a subject with nutri-tion as a core component in their
natural history, prevention and their
treatment. The UN‖s recognition that
its own targets for countries reach-ing the Millennium Development
Goals (MDGs) that it set itself by 2015
are unachievable particularly in
most high burden countries in sub-Saharan Africa provide further impe-
tus for action, but by whom?
Civil society, professional groups as
well as business and industry have all been engaged in attempts to find
common ground for addressing the
global nutrition burdens as evi-
denced by the increasing interest shown by the latter in having a SUN
Steering group (Network) dedicated
to Business and Industry and finan-
cial and other commitments already ―pledged‖ by a number of organisa-
tions in support of the global efforts
on nutrition under MDG 8. The Afri-
can Nutrition Society in my view has a central role to play in providing
both leadership and the cadre of
professionals to help find solutions
to the myriad of nutritional prob-lems on the continent. These are
thus both challenging and exciting
times what we should embrace and step up to.
ANS vision for the African Nutrition
Matters
African Nutrition Matters (ANM) will
be the official newsletter of (and for)
the membership of the ANS. This newsletter will inform primarily our
members, educate and broaden
their scope of action with nutrition
related topics and/or issues. It will also provide information to a wider
readership about the Society, its
members and their activities across
Africa‖s different regions and coun-tries. Furthermore, ANM will be a
platform for highlighting key nutri-
tional matters either going on in Af-
rica or affecting Africa and Africans.
With current developments both in
terms of meeting MDG challenges
and SUN as well as addressing
chronic NCDs in Africa, existing WHO tools with a major focus on nutri-
tional components can only be ad-
dressed through multidisciplinary
approaches where all members of the health team are recognised, ap-
preciated and allowed to make their
contribution to achieving common
clinical and public health goals. The Africa Nutrition Society seeks to pro-
vide a ―linking bridge‖ to help bring
all relevant stakeholders to the table
to harness our collective efforts and strengths for improved nutrition in
Africa.
This newsletter comes into being at
a challenging yet exciting time in global health and should be an excel-
lent mouthpiece and forum both for
scientific technical articles and a
platform for sharing ideas with our
partner learned societies from Europe, Asia, North and South Amer-
ica as well as international develop-
ment partners, civil society and in-
dustry. To this end, the ANM pledges to keep the world abreast with sci-
ence and technology news, innova-
tions and ideas in the exciting, ever-
changing world of nutrition on the African continent.
ANM is also a forum for young nutri-
tion scientists and students to share
their experiences and contribute to debates and to building ―Africa‖s Nu-
trition Story‖.
I hope you will find this newsletter
not only an enjoyable piece to read but will also find the articles very
informative and reflective of nutri-
tion events across the continent of
Africa. I therefore invite you to join me in celebrating the birth of this
great newsletter and indeed one of
several volumes that has come to
stay. Please join me in extending appreciation to the ANM editorial
team and the advisors without
whose efforts and drive this newslet-
ter would still have been in the fig-ment of the imagination of ANS lead-
ership.
Francis Zotor President of the African Nutrition Society
September 2013 | Volume 01 | Issue 1 8 AFRICAN NUTRITION Matters
The wind of change for nutrition is here: Will
Africa take advantage of this?
Anna Lartey
The momentum around nutrition in
the last two years has been unprece-
dented. Nutrition is now part of the
strategy of many development or-ganizations. At no time has the world
been so united in the fight against
malnutrition, especially undernutri-
tion. It all started with the Millen-nium Development Goals in 2000. By
2007 it was obvious that high under-
nutrition burdened countries will
not achieve many of the goals in the estimated time frame of 2015. The
Lancet nutrition series of 2008 drew
attention to the fact that proven in-
terventions exist. Yet it has taken the global nutrition community too
long to act. The cost of undernutri-
tionin human development terms
for sub-Saharan Africa is enormous. This has been articulated in the re-
cent Africa Human Development In-
dex Report (UNDP 2012).
The wind of change for nutrition is
here. How can sub-Sahara Africa take advantage of this opportunity to
address undernutrition? African gov-
ernments must take advantage of
this positive environment to draw resources for their nutrition pro-
grams. Governments‖ own commit-
ment must be seen in the allocation
of resources to nutrition. Countries must develop, prioritize and own
their nutrition policies and pro-
grams.
We need those strong voices
(champions) to keep nutrition on the radar as long as possible. We should
not consider the work done until
malnutrition is totally eliminated
from our midst. As Africans we should lead the fight against malnu-
trition on the continent. We feel the
pinch hardest.
The complexity of the nutrition prob-
lem requires the building of partner-ships across disciplines and stake-
holders. This is what the Scaling Up
Nutrition (SUN) Movement promotes
through the formation of multi-stakeholder platforms at country
level to ensure that nutrition is inte-
grated into all sector programs.We
cannot scale up nutrition programs without building capacity at all levels
from community through district,
regional and national.
There are success stories around the
world we can learn from. How did Brazil and many of the South Ameri-
can countries do it? Let‖s learn from
them and adapt their strategies to
the situation in Africa.
For the International Union of Nutri-
tional Sciences (IUNS), a “world with-out malnutrition” remains a vision
we will continue to work towards
achieving. Building capacity of the
next generation of nutrition scien-tists remains our focus. As the in-
coming President of IUNS, I look for-
ward to working with our Adhering
and Affiliated Bodies to support ca-pacity building efforts. As a coalition
of professional nutrition associa-
tions, we must make ourselves rele-
vant by providing the support needed to countries to scale up nu-
trition interventions. Currently of
the 41 countries that have joined the
SUN, 24 of these are in sub-Saharan Africa. Adhering Bodies in each of
these countries can contribute in
supporting the scaling up nutrition
agenda.
Nutrition is now at the top of the
global agenda. This is the opportu-nity to grab it, run with it and deliver
results. If we miss this unique oppor-
tunity to bring down malnutrition, it
will be a big loss indeed.
Anna Lartey President-elect of the IUNS
September 2013 | Volume 01 | Issue 1 9 AFRICAN NUTRITION Matters
THEMATIC ARTICLE
Capacity building challenges : Training Gaps in African Higher Education Paul Amuna The greatest challenges of nutrition and food security facing Africa are nothing new and although some coun-tries have been able to better manage these chal-lenges, the majority of countries particularly in sub-Saharan Africa are far failing to meet targets set for reducing poverty, improving food security and health within the context of the United Nations‖ targets for Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015. For many in Africa, the UN MDGs muted as a ―benchmark for assessing both the attainment and national progress in nutrition as a marker of develop-ment, remain ambitious and elusive whilst in other parts of the world particularly Latin America and Asia, significant country-level and regional progress has been made in achieving the goals. At the same time, there are the “high burden countries”, most of which are in sub-Saharan Africa, who remain deeply rooted in poor performance and the focus of the UN now is to undertake concerted efforts with ―PLAN B ―, the “post 2015 MDG Agenda”. This one presumes is a fail-safe process to plug the gap for those countries ―falling through the cracks‖. Addressing these major challenges of food and nutri-tion security as well as the emerging chronic nutrition-related non-communicable diseases requires joint thinking, integrated and multi-disciplinary approaches across sectors including health, agriculture, economics and civil society advocacy. These approaches also have implications for workforce development in all these sectors and areas to provide the human resources to deal with the issues in the short, medium and longer terms. Furthermore, a political will is fundamental to the development of credible national food and nutri-tion policies necessary to guide implementation of any plans and strategies aimed at adequately addressing health and nutrition needs at country and regional lev-els.
From a historical perspective, the nutritional and health challenges facing Africa were a common feature in Europe as recently as the beginning of the 20th Cen-tury and in the United Kingdom. Such concerns led to serious advocacy and actions by scientists and nutri-tionists such as Boyd Orr, Cuthbertson and John Water-low.. Within Africa, Drs Mamdour Gabr, Wassef, Sai and Ofosu-Armaahled and championed the cause for nutri-tion over decades. These pioneers in Nutrition Advo-cacy and professional action for nutrition were among the first to explore more globally the problems and im-pact of severe undernutrition. They also went further to form a global scientific alliance, the international un-ion of nutritional sciences to both promote intellectual thought and research as well as provide the scientific underpinning and technical support for interventions in nutrition. Dr Cecily Williams, Cuthbertson, John Wa-terlow and Nevin Scrimshaw who were mentors and the inspiration for many of today‖s leading nutritional sci-entists including some African nutrition leaders. Today, there remain global concerns about the multiple burden of disease in developing WHO regions, particu-larly in Africa, Asia and Latin America where the 36 countries with the highest burden of undernutrition and poor nutrition governance are located (The Lancet 2008; WHO, 2010; WHO.SCN/UNU/ 2009), and where the disparity between the ―haves and have-nots‖ and pov-erty, chronic hunger and food insecurity remain an everyday experience of hundreds of millions. Addressing Current Global and Africa Nutritional Chal-lenges With the strong backing of United Nations leadership, the initiative for Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) is now at the top of the political and developmental agenda. The SUN Civil Society Network was formally inaugurated on June 11th, 2013 in Washington DC and several key mem-bers of the ANS were (and are still) at the heart of its activities. For example, the ANS is currently spearhead-ing a continent-wide SUN Academic Platform that will among others, undertake in-country research into in-novative nutrition solutions, analyze the evidence base for nutrition actions, identify data gaps and develop a research agenda to help fill in the gaps. As was so eloquently and passionately argued and led by Dr David Nabbaro (UN Secretary-General Ban Ki
September 2013 | Volume 01 | Issue 1 10 AFRICAN NUTRITION Matters
Moon‖s Special Representative on the SUN Agenda) at the recent launch of the second Lancet series on 6th June 2013 in London, “there is still much to do” despite tangible gains that have been captured in the Lancet Series. But the question is: who will drive the proc-esses? Who will do the work? Who are the ―foot sol-diers‖? Where is the workforce and who are the “champions” and the ―unsung heroes‖? Whilst we ponder these global and continental chal-lenges of addressing the impact and importance of un-dernutrition, on the flip side chronic non-communicable diseases (NCDs) associated with diet and lifestyles are on the increase, adding to the burden of disease and health care costs in these same poor countries in developing countries. The irony lies in the fact that poverty, chronic hunger, maternal undernutri-tion and early childhood nutritional challenges in these countries have both a direct and indirect bearing on risk of NCDs later in life. Thus these same survivors or ―veterans of the early malnutrition wars‖ which started in the poorly nourished mother‖s womb through nutri-tion programming, carry a higher burden of NCDs whose expression depends on the environment and their ―life fortunes‖. Of particular significance in the current discourse on nutrition is the need for urgent action to reverse the current trends across the spectrum of malnutrition through ―scaling up‖ approaches of what we know works. That we know “what works” cannot be gainsaid and ample evidence is provided by a number of studies and reviews including one by the SCN and the Asian De-velopment Bank (Allen & Gillespie, 2001) as far back as 2001; and more recently the Lancet Series on maternal, infant and young child nutrition (The Lancet, 2008; 2013). Over the last six decades (and more), a top-down, out-in‖ external / donor-led and ―vertical‖ approach has characterised interventions aimed at addressing devel-opmental needs including in nutrition. Institutions, scientists and professionals from the “West” industrial-ised countries with access to grant / program funding have often “partnered” their counterparts in “Southern” poor countries in Africa, Asia and elsewhere to under-take interventions aimed at “addressing” nutritional problems. Laudable though this is, it continues to give
the impression of ―infants still drinking milk‖ instead of growing up, preparing and eating their own solid food when it comes to Africa. This approach is simply unten-able and unsustainable in 21st Century Africa. Strengthening Capacity to Address Nutritional Chal-lenges It is well known that one of the greatest stumbling blocks for improved nutrition is lack of workforce ca-pacity. It is ironic, that globally, anyone can call them-selves a “nutritionist”. Trained nutritional scientists get upset and refer to others as “quacks”, “charlatans” and what have you. Whereas in countries across Europe, America, parts of Asia, Latin America and Southern Af-rica attempts are being made to streamline the nutri-tion “profession” and provide benchmarks for profes-sional recognition and registration (in some cases with a protected title), no one can really blame those who though not “trained as nutritionists” are nonetheless working IN NUTRITION in parts of the world where the need is greatest. These ―foot soldiers‖ remain the main hope for vulnerable groups in many poor, ―unreachable‖ communities. As the latest Lancet Series has shown (The Lancet, 2013) there is ample evidence from Ethio-pia and parts of India of the effectiveness of these barely trained ―illiterate and semiliterate‖ mostly fe-male “Village or Community Health Workers” providing nutrition education and nutritional support with some tangible benefits to the communities they serve. Strengthening capacity to address the issues high-lighted here requires addressing institutional struc-tures as well as human capacity and a trained work-force. Such a workforce which constitutes the human capacity needed should not be limited only to trained nutritional scientists, although for the purposes of this article, the focus is mainly to highlight the need for well trained nutrition professionals to lead in the fight against nutrition-related disease. That we need a pro-fessionally competent workforce to lead in Africa‖s “nutrition agenda” is without question. There are a number of training institutions including Universities which continue to ―churn out‖ graduates with some background in nutrition spanning home economics to dietetics and food science and technology; and some schools of agriculture which also produce graduates of nutrition. The obvious question is – what is the nature and depth of training and what are the competencies
September 2013 | Volume 01 | Issue 1 11 AFRICAN NUTRITION Matters
that these graduates possess to be given the nutrition label, and to operate as such? Is there scope to exam-ine and review their training and opportunities to im-prove training to better align them with the growing workforce needs for scaling up nutrition interventions? There is no doubt in my mind that there is a place at the table for all the various groups (both literate and illiterate) currently working in nutrition in Africa. The question is how we harmonise, categorise and place their roles to reflect their training, competencies and recognition within the “nutrition fraternity”. This is a subject for much debate but which in my own view, should be past the debate stage, and rather be seeking simple, sensible, realistic and effective answers: How can we create and utilise all the talent we have to sup-port short, medium and long term efforts to scale up nutrition and improve health and wellbeing across the continent? For the trained nutrition professionals, where do they fit in in terms of the health workforce? If they are cur-rently not fully recognised as a profession allied to medicine, is it not about time that nutritionists made themselves more visible and were so recognised and brought to the table of health care delivery under the relevant health ministry umbrella? Whilst I raise these thought-provoking questions, how far have we as nutri-tionists come in structuring our own training pro-grammes to reflect national health and nutrition needs, and to make our graduates truly and practically useful players in the wider health agenda? How can trained African nutritionists of all categories contribute meaningfully to the drive to Scale up Nutri-tion interventions and reduce the burden of nutrition-related problems across the life spectrum in Africa unless their training is fit-for-purpose? Without a trained, competent and recognised workforce, I very much doubt that we can meet the challenges of ad-dressing current nutritional problems let alone “scale them Up” over the medium to long term. So the mes-sage for the “Scaling Up Nutrition movement” and for national governments in Africa is this: You cannot, and must not ignore the nutrition workforce in all your cal-culations from policy to implementation of those poli-cies including funding support for training and capacity building. You certainly cannot ignore this cadre of
workers as an important part of the mainstream health delivery system and they must be given due recogni-tion.
It is clear that none of our countries in Africa can suc-cessfully address their national nutrition and health challenges and meet their developmental targets with-out a properly trained workforce, nor can they achieve these goals if the institutions of learning are weak, poorly resourced and / or unable to provide the neces-sary training fit-for-purpose. It is also worth recognis-ing and emphasising the fact that the human capacity needs for nutrition go beyond “trained nutritionists” and indeed must include training e.g. in nutrition-sensitive agriculture, economics, other health and al-lied sciences and the social sciences. Folks, we have work to do to the support SUN and beyond, and there is little time for debates. This is the time for action, by all the relevant actors.
1. The Lancet (2008). The Lancet series on Maternal and Child Undernutrition. Lancet 2008; 371:243-621
2. The Lancet (2013). 2013 Series on Maternal and Child Nutrition. Lancet382 :15-118. www.thelancet.com/series/maternal-and-child-nutrition
3. Allen LH & Gillespie SR (2001). What Works? A Review of the efficacy and effectiveness of nutrition interven-tions. UN ACC/SCN in collaboration with Asian Develop-ment Bank. ACC / SCN Nutrition Policy Paper No. 19. 123 p.
4. WHO (2010). Outcomes of the Landscape Analysis Coun-try Assessments (2010). www.who.int/nutrition/lanscape_analysis.
Paul Amuna MB ChB (MD); M.MedSci; RNutr; FRSM
September 2013 | Volume 01 | Issue 1 12 AFRICAN NUTRITION Matters
TRIBUTE
Dr. Anna Lartey
A renowned African nutritionist and educationalist was on July 22, 2013 appointed Director for the Nutrition Division, at the FAO Headquarters in Rome. Her tenure commences October 1, 2013. This comes at such an appropriate time when Africa is grappling with malnutrition and its consequences. Before her appointment to the FAO, Dr. Lartey has been an Associate Pro-
fessor and former Head of Department, Nutrition and Food Science, University of Ghana, Legon. She received the prestig-ious Fulbright scholarship to pursue her doctoral studies at University of California, Davis and graduated with a Ph.D. in
International Nutrition in 1998. She received her B.Sc. Bio-chemistry-Nutrition from the University of Ottawa, Canada, completed a dietetic internship at Kingston General Hospital, Canada and received her M.Sc. Nutritional Sciences from the University of Guelph, Canada. She is also a graduate of the Afri-can Nutrition Leadership Program. She is currently The Presi-
dent-Elect of the International Union of Nutritional Sciences (IUNS), and holds the International Development Research Center (IDRC, Canada) Research Chair in Nutrition for Health and Socio-Economic Development in Sub-Saharan Africa.
She has accomplished several scientific studies, publications and received accolades for her work in maternal and child nutrition, food and agriculture. On the international scene Dr. Lartey was Co-Principal Investigator for the WHO Multicenter Growth Reference Study, Ghana site, served on several WHO
Expert consultations on child nutrition and currently leads the Ghana delegation to the Codex Committee on Nutrition for Special Dietary uses (CCNFSDU), where Ghana chairs the elec-tronic working group to revise the Codex Guidelines on Formu-lated Supplementary Foods for Older Infants and Young Chil-dren, and a Co-Investigator on a randomized trial assessing the effects of three micronutrient supplements (Nutributter®,
Sprinkles® and Foodlet) on growth and micronutrient status of Ghanaian children. She has served on WHO Expert Consulta-tions on: Optimum duration of exclusive breastfeeding; Com-
plementary feeding; Childhood obesity; Nutrient risk assess-ment. On the local scene Dr. Lartey‖s research focus has been on food habits of Ghanaian pregnant women, complementary feeding, factors affecting the growth of Ghanaian children, as well as studies on optimizing nutrition for HIV-affected chil-dren among others. In 2012, she was awarded the Ghana Women of Excellence Awards 2012 in recognition of her contri-bution to Science Education and Nutrition Research in Ghana, and previously in 2004 shewon the "Best Researcher" award at
the University of Ghana.
As a mentor, Prof. Lartey has invested quality time and re-sources into providing advanced training for the next genera-tion of nutrition researchers who are excelling in academia, industry, and government both in Africa and the rest of the world.
Dr. Lartey extends her experience in nutrition to several local and international boards and Committees including MRC Inter-national Nutrition Group‖s Scientific Advisory Committee; Council of the African Nutrition Society; Food and Nutrition
Bulletin Editorial Board; Biodiversity International Scientific Advisory Council; Harvest Plus Program Advisory Committee and GAIN. She serves as a co-facilitator for the task force on coordination of civil society for the Scaling Up Nutrition. She was the Chairperson of the Africa Nutritional Epidemiology Conference from 2006 to 2009.Dr.Anna Lartey with the support of her collaborators has established a Nutrition Research and Training Center at Asesewa in the Eastern region of Ghana to apply their research findings to improve the nutritional status
of vulnerable children in rural communities. From here, a sum-
mer dietetic/nutrition exchange program is also held and has attracted students from prestigious universities in Canada and the United States.
Dr. Lartey has not only succeeded in her career. She has also worked hard to keep a healthy and happy family. She is very happily married to a very supportive man and they have two awesome children. She is also very active in her local Church and community where she contributes to the welfare and de-
velopment of others.
Photo credit: Bread of the world
September 2013 | Volume 01 | Issue 1 13 AFRICAN NUTRITION Matters
REGIONAL NEWS
Central Africa Francophone countries:
from food diversity to nutrition disaster
Djoulde Darman Roger, Ph.D Food Sciences and Nutrition
University of Maroua, Cameroon
Central Africa Francophone coun-
tries are a group of states geographi-
cally located in the center of Africa. They are grouped for the majority;
within the community of states of
Central Africa whose acronym in
French is CEMAC. The CEMAC zone includes six countries: Cameroon,
Congo, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea,
the Central African Republic and
Chad. The Democratic Republic of Congo, Congo Brazzaville and
Rwanda complete the list of CEMAC
states to form the Sub Saharan
French-speaking countries. In 2010, the population of this region of Af-
rica was estimated at more than 60
million. The cultural and biological
diversity within the area have brought the region a variety in terms
of nutritional perspectives.
Geographical location: Favor-able for both cultivated food
crops and food from biodiver-sity
In fact, this sub-region is often
rightly called "Africa in Miniature". This is not only because of its loca-
tion in the heart of Africa but also
because of its agro ecological posi-
tion, considering the classification by FAO (2012), in terms of agro eco-
logical zones (RAEZs). The central
African zone comprise all the 4
zones of Africa theRAEZ1 Warm arid and semi-arid tropics (Chad and
Parts of Cameroon and Central Afri-
can Republic), the RAEZ 2 Warm sub
humid tropics (Part of Cameroon, Chad, Central African Republic),
theRAEZ 3 Warm humid tropics
(South Cameroon, Central African
Republic, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Democratic Republic of
Congo), and lastly the RAEZ 4 Cool
tropics (Rwanda, and parts of De-
mocratic republic of Congo). This rich agro ecological diversity is fa-
vorable for wide varieties of crops,
legumes, cereals and roots
crops. Such crop diversity is ex-pected to be sufficient to boost the
nutrition status of the local popula-
tion. This region has high potential
for agricultural expansion possibili-ties. The agricultural production po-
tential of French speaking sub-
Saharan African countries would be
sufficient to make the region food secure. In addition, the region is lo-
cated in the area were wild biodiver-
sity useful for human nutrition is
still available. Biodiversity within the sub-regions important for food and
nutritional security, as a safeguard
against hunger, a source of nutri-
ents for improved dietary diversity
Photo credit: CIMMYT
September 2013 | Volume 01 | Issue 1 14 AFRICAN NUTRITION Matters
and quality, and strengthening local food systems and environmental
sustainability.
Why chronic malnutrition in a food paradise?
Despite these strengths in food
availability within French speaking countries of the Sub-Saharan re-
gions, statistics clearly indicate a
persistence of nutritional deficien-
cies within CEMAC zone. This may be linked to few reasons within which,
land degradation, particularly acute
in this Sub-Saharan African region
where long-term overuse of soil and low, unpredictable rainfall are the
prime reasons for poor food produc-
tion. This sub zone is essentially a
region of small holders and its envi-ronments are very sensitive. At rela-
tively low population densities tradi-
tional methods start to degrade the
soil and threaten future production. Climatic realities result, except in
some humid zones, frequent crop
failures from drought or dry spells in
the growing season. Poor farmers often take everything they can out of
the soil and are unwilling to invest in
fertilizer because the growing sea-
son is very risky. Most farms in sub-Saharan Africa and specifically
within CEMAC zones intercrop any-
thing with everything. Growing a mix-
ture of crops and varying land man-agement are strategies for adjusting
to different soil and water regimes.
Demand for food will increase by
300% in sub-Saharan Africa. Over the
last decades, the number of under-
nourished people has increased by 51% in this region. Population and
income growth result in a more than
fourfold increase in total food de-
mand by 2050, compared to 2000, which is a much stronger increase
than in other regions of the world.
The resulting increase in food de-
mand will be further enforced by the projected annual economic growth
of more than 5% over the 2010–2050
periods.
Conclusion and way forward
Improvement of the lives of popula-
tions in arid regions requires efforts
to increase food production through
conservation and restoration of the natural environment. The vulnerable
people living in the arid areas in sub-
Saharan Africa represent a relatively
small share of the population. Re-cent promising initiatives to re-
green the Sahel need to be system-
atically integrated in national poli-
cies, in such a way that the entire Sahel region will benefit. In addition,
food programs should incorporate a
strategy for the structural alleviation
of hunger.
References
Ndiaye, M. B. O. (2007). Respect des critères
de convergence vs harmonisation des critères de convergence: étude comparative des performances des indicateurs de conver-
gence économique dans la zone Franc en Afrique (UEMOA et CEMAC). Revue africaine de
l‖intégration, 1(2), 31-69.
Policy, E., & Dependence, E. (2000).Agriculture
and Nutrition. studies (Newbury Park etc.), 30(4), 515-533.
Djoulde. D.R., Justin, E. N. J., & Francois-Xavier, E. (2012) Nutritional properties of “Bush
Meals” from North Cameroon‖s Biodiver-sity.Adv. Appl. Sci. Res., 3(3):1482-1493
AJEBE, L. (2012). Neglected Resource for Hun-ger and Poverty Alleviation-: City Food Produc-
tion.
Photo credit: EU Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection
Djoulde Darman Roger
September 2013 | Volume 01 | Issue 1 15 AFRICAN NUTRITION Matters
Eastern Africa takes on the SUN movement by storm through multisecto-ral engagements
Muniirah Mbabazi Robert Fungo
Malnutrition remains one of the several development challenges of our time, claiming millions of lives of global citi-zens, a majority from the developing world. UNICEF 2013 estimates about 80% of the world‖s 165 million stunted chil-dren live in 14 countries mainly in Asia and Africa. Malnutrition affects both mother and child, reducing the child‖s chances of survival and the mother‖s production capabilities. There is strong evidence on the effects of malnutrition on the development potential of indi-viduals and nations. Despite the magni-tude of the problem, in many countries nutrition remains poorly funded. Cur-rently nutrition is rising high on the global agenda and there is wide spread consensus on improving nutrition as one of the best investments for health and poverty alleviation.
On the global and local scene, there has been stimulated interest and wide spread concern and call for action to end malnutrition especially undernutrition. International effort to tackle undernutri-tion through the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement and 1,000 days partner-ship underscore the need for committed collaboration across health and develop-ment sectors; and new and better in-vestment form the public, private and civil society actors in donor countries as well as middle and low income coun-tries. The Sun movement encourages bringing several sectors on board (multisectoral approach) to tackle the malnutrition challenge. This is a proven strategy given the multi faceted nature of malnutrition.
Since its inception in 2010, African states have embraced the SUN move-ment with 28 out of the 41 SUN countries being African states and more will be joining. Eastern African states have wel-comed the movement with many of them getting on board. Fifty percent of the African SUN countries are from the Eastern African region with the latest entry from Kenya. Malawi, Rwanda, Uganda and the United Republic of Tan-zania were among the early raiser coun-tries embracing the SUN movement at its inception. The SUN movement is an opportunity for states to tackle the mal-nutrition challenge and it relies on na-tional leaders taking ownership and re-sponsibility for delivering sustainable solutions to improve nutrition in their countries. SUN countries through the world are joined in an effort to success-fully bridge the gap between creating sustainable improvements in global nu-trition and funding. As SUN countries, states are take on a collaborative ap-proach to bring together the people and resources needed to scale up nutrition interventions as well as implement nu-trition –sensitive cross-sector strate-gies. Resources for scaling up nutrition include putting coherent policy and legal framework in place; implementing and aligning programs with common objec-tives/goal and a framework for tracking progress; and mobilising sufficient re-sources (domestic and international) to realise results.
The numbers of malnourished children may not be visibly dropping; the good news is that governments within the region are putting in place suitable legal frameworks to foster this effort in fu-ture. Existing programs and nutrition action plans have been aligned with the SUN framework all geared towards achieving the SUN goal- Ending Under nutrition. The SUN movement takes into account specific country needs and ca-pabilities, priorities and processes and therefore encourages countries to es-tablish own targets for nutrition in the SUN areas. The SUN focus areas include: Universal access to affordable nutritious
food, clean water, sanitation, healthcare and social protection; Increased adop-tion of practices that contribute to good nutrition (such as exclusive breastfeed-ing for the first six months of life); Opti-mal growth of children, demonstrated as reduced levels of stunting (low height for age) and wasting (low weight for height); and Improved micro-nutrient status, especially in women and children, dem-onstrated as reduced levels of micronu-trient deficiency.
In United republic of Tanzania, empha-sis has been on decentralisation and nutrition budget line in the national budget, to ensure that nutrition inter-ventions are closest to the affected com-munities; In Kenya Nutrition legislation has been strengthened and decentrali-sation fostered; In Uganda a comprehen-sive approach has been sought to fos-ter multisectoral linkages within the Uganda Nutrition Action Plan framework which is aligned with nation priorities; In Rwanda and Malawi, nutrition leadership has been fostered.
The current impetus and impact in vari-ous SUN countries will be maintained through maintaining political leadership, expanding existing activities, maintain-ing investment and monitoring achieve-ment on the SUN goal in respective Countries. It is hoped that the SUN move-ment initiative will go a long way in re-ducing or even ending hunger.
Muniirah Mbabazi
Nutritionist Nutritsat Uganda
Robert Fungo
Secretary General at the African Nutri-tion Society
September 2013 | Volume 01 | Issue 1 16 AFRICAN NUTRITION Matters
Nutrition challenges in North African countries
Hanane LABRAIMI Ali JAFRI
Over the past decades the North Afri-can region has witnessed significant social, economic, demographic and political changes that have greatly influenced the nature, and magni-tude of health and nutrition prob-lems in the Region as a whole. While the countries of the region still struggle with problems of undernu-trition, the burden of overweight, obesity and other related chronic diseases is increasing due to nutri-tion transition and deep technical and societal changes in societies that generally doesn‖t recognize obesity as public health problem. Societies and health systems con-cerned are not prepared for this de-velopment specially that health and economic consequences are enor-mous on North African regions. The Region also faces other challenges that contribute generally to malnu-trition, including in-country inequali-ties, limited natural resources, re-current drought conditions, high population growth rates, and HIV in some countries. The key nutrition challenges facing the Region are malnutrition, micronutrient defi-ciencies, obesity, NCDs, and food-borne diseases.
This increase is related to the nutri-tion transition. The nutrition transi-tion refers to transition from a mo-notonous diet, but rich in starch and fiber, low in fat and a physically ac-tive lifestyle to a more diverse but rich in sugars diet, saturated animal fats and engineered foods low in
fruits, vegetables and fiber and a sedentary lifestyle fashion. This step t y p i c a l l y d e s c r i b e d a s "Westernization" of behavior is con-ducive to metabolic storage dis-eases - obesity, hypertension, dyslip-idemia and diabetes - heart disease and some cancers.
The progression of these diseases occurs while still persist in these countries the stigma of malnutrition type to deficiency such as anemia and stunting. The coexistence of states of over-and under-nutrition (double load) is a real problem to health care in these countries un-prepared for this change. This re-quires a rethinking of health poli-cies, giving emphasis to prevention in the field of overweight and NCDs. It also requires to adapt nutrition messages when nutritional, appar-ently contradictory situations, can be found within the same company of the same family or even a single individual.
These actions require prior under-standing of the underlying factors. In this context, the Regional Commit-tee for the Eastern Mediterranean
has divided the Eastern Mediterra-nean Region into four groups, that include North African countries such as Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria …
Over the past decades the North Afri-can region has witnessed significant social, economic, demographic and political changes that have greatly influenced the nature, and magni-tude of health and nutrition prob-lems in the Region as a whole. While the countries of the region still struggle with problems of undernu-trition, the burden of overweight, obesity and other related chronic diseases is increasing due to nutri-tion transition in societies that gen-erally don‖t recognize obesity as public health problem. The Region also faces other challenges that con-tribute generally to malnutrition, including in-country inequalities, limited natural resources, recurrent drought conditions, high population growth rates, and HIV in some coun-tries. The key nutrition challenges facing the Region are malnutrition, micronutrient deficiencies, obesity and noncommunicable diseases, and foodborne diseases.
Figure: Prevalence of NCDs in North African countries. (Data: World Health Organization)
September 2013 | Volume 01 | Issue 1 17 AFRICAN NUTRITION Matters
The Regional Committee for the Eastern Mediterranean has divided the Eastern Mediterranean Region into four groups, or country clusters that include North African countries, with regard to nutrition stages and dominant nutrition problems, major risk factors and underlying causes, program interventions and gaps in response to these problems, and enabling environment factors for improved action. These four groups can be categorized as: countries in advanced nutrition transition stage; countries in early nutrition transi-tion stage; countries with significant undernutrition; and countries in complex emergency. Some coun-tries appear in more than one group.
Countries in advanced nutrition transition
These countries have high levels of overweight and obesity, and moder-ate levels of undernutrition and mi-cronutrient deficiencies in some population subgroups and that in-cludes Tunisia.
Countries in early nutrition transi-tion
These countries are characterized by moderate levels of overweight and obesity, moderate levels of un-dernutrition in specific population and age groups, and widespread mi-cronutrient deficiencies: Egypt, Libya, and Morocco.
Countries with significant undernu-trition
These countries have particularly high levels of acute and chronic child malnutrition, widespread mi-cronutrient deficiencies, and emerg-ing overweight, obesity and malnu-trition of affluence in certain socio-
economic subgroups: which is the case of Mauritania and population subgroups in Tunisia.
Countries in complex emergency
Sudan is the country in complex emergency situations with severe child and maternal undernutrition and widespread micronutrient defi-ciencies.
However, significant progress has been made over the past three dec-ades in a large number of countries in the Region in improving infant and young child nutrition. UNICEF reported in 2006 that Tunisia and Mauritania were both on track to meet the Millennium Development Goals targeting reduction in the pro-portion of underweight children un-der 5 years of age; 3 countries (Algeria, Egypt, and Morocco) had contained underweight prevalence rates at or below 10%, while Sudan was not on track to meet the MDGs.
The objective in the region is to con-tribute to the development of strate-gies to prevent obesity and NCDs, strategies that should be adapted to the context of nutrition transition, and feasible as acceptable by the multiple stakeholders. It have also as objectives to determine the na-ture and extent of the double burden and estimate the prevalence of bio-logical and behavioral factors risk characterization and psychosocial determinants of behavior and col-lect the views of key stakeholders on options for action.
To achieve these objectives, two complementary approaches are im-plemented simultaneously:
1. Nutritional survey of a representa-tive random sample of the popula-tion
2. Interview study to gather views of representatives of the various cate-gories of key stakeholders (policy makers, sector managers in connec-tion with the supply of the popula-tion, public health and education, associations, media, etc.) to develop actions in obesity prevention.
Nutrition transition is seriously in-stalled in the area. Nutrition educa-tion and awareness to physical activ-ity are needed. On the other side control strategies against micronu-trients deficiency and anemia should identify populations at risk and advocate nutritional communi-cation more aggressively and in the same time, taking into account the problem of overweight and double burden.
Hanane Labraimi Institut de formation aux carrières de santé. Rabat
Morocco
Ali Jafri Université Hassan II Mohammedia Casa-blanca,
Morocco
September 2013 | Volume 01 | Issue 1 18 AFRICAN NUTRITION Matters
PARTNERS SECTION
The Agenda of the Federation of African
Nutrition Societies (FANUS)
The Federation of African Nutrition
Societies (FANUS) is a voluntary, not for profit umbrella body for Africa‖s
national nutrition associations/
societies affiliated to the Interna-
tional Union of Nutrition Sciences (IUNS). Membership to the Federa-
tion is open to all not-for-profit na-
tional nutrition associations/
societies in African countries. Only one association/society per country
may join the federation, such an as-
sociation must have a constitution
that is acceptable to the Federation Council. Regional nutrition societies
may also become members of the
federation.
Formed in 2002, following the need
to establish a continental body to
coordinate efforts geared towards promoting the advancement of nu-
trition in addressing Africa‖s unique
challenges; FANUS currently has 22
IUNS adhering member societies. FANUS envisions improving visibility,
relevance and functionality national
nutrition societies. In addition it
seeks to strengthen the functioning and sustainability of national nutri-
tion societies to achieve goals, unite
and influence the nutrition agenda
in Africa.
The federation operates based on seven key areas of focus which in-
clude; Promoting the advancement
of nutrition science in Africa in a
way, that does not detract the auton-omy of any of the member states;
Encouraging and promoting closer
contact and interaction among the
nutritional associations; Encourag-ing and supporting training pro-
grammes to improve the quality of
nutrition research, teaching and ser-
vice delivery; Encouraging and sup-porting conferences and workshops
to allow exchange of information
and sharing of experiences among
nutritionists both within the conti-nent and from other continents; Re-
conceptualizing the role of nutrition
profession in the development
agenda of Africa and in the changing global economy; Encouraging com-
munication and collaboration
among nutrition scientists in Africa;
and Encouraging and promoting dis-semination of information in nutri-
tion sciences through modern infor-
mation technology.
The federation is governed by a
council that constitutes of; the
President, three Vice Presidents from the three regions in Africa
(South, North and West), Secretary
General, Treasurer and six ordinary
council members. The day to day activities are executed by the presi-
dent, vice presidents, secretary gen-
eral and treasurer. The current
FANUS president is Professor Joyce Kinabo of the Sokoine University of
Agriculture in Tanzania.
Website:
http://www.africanutrition.org/
Joyce Kinabo Sokoine University of Agriculture
September 2013 | Volume 01 | Issue 1 19 AFRICAN NUTRITION Matters
The East Central and Southern Africa (ECSA) re-
gional food fortification initiative: A model of
regional collaboration in nutrition
Dr. Josephine Kibaru-Mbae Director General of the ECSA
Health Community
Micronutrient malnutrition is a wide-
spread public health problem espe-
cially in the developing regions of
the world. Though it affects all age groups, young children and women
of reproductive age are most at risk.
The most common forms of micro-
nutrient malnutrition are iron, io-dine and vitamin A deficiency; and
lately zinc and folic acid deficien-
cies. Though required in small
amounts for proper body functioning and homeostasis, micronutrient de-
ficiencies can lead to huge public
health costs and loss of human capi-
tal formation. These deficiencies are more significant in designing strate-
gies for the prevention and control
of diseases such as HIV/AIDS, ma-
laria and tuberculosis, diet-related chronic diseases and stunting.
In the East, Central and Southern Africa (ECSA) region, more than 10
million women and children suffer
from micronutrient deficiencies.
Generally, micronutrient deficien-cies in the ECSA region constitute a
silent and yet devastating burden to
the governments and peoples. This has led to decreased productivity
and economic losses to govern-
ments and citizens of these regions.
Though the region has made great
strides towards the eradication of
iodine deficiency disorders through salt iodization programs, it is still
faced with many micronutrient defi-
ciencies—including vitamin A, iron,
zinc, folate and other B-vitamins. Food fortification continues to at-
tract the attention of development
partners and governments because
it is cost-effective and sustainable in nature. Fortifying centrally proc-
essed foods that form part of the
daily diet of most populations can
easily be introduced at a minimal cost to reduce the high burden of
micronutrient deficiencies in the
region. To this end, the Health Minis-
ters Conference of the ECSA Health Community (ECSA HC) urged member
states to prioritize nutrition inter-
ventions and passed a resolution in
2002 urging member states to initi-ate and implement food fortification
programs as strategic public health
interventions for reduction of micro-
nutrient deficiencies.
In an endeavor to support countries to take forward this Resolution, the
ECSA Secretariat with support from
USAID-East Africa convened the first
regional workshop where countries discussed and identified four staple
foods that are commonly consumed
which could provide effective chan-
nels for essential micronutrients. These include, oil, sugar, maize flour
and wheat flour. In addition, these
countries also committed to con-
tinue supporting the salt iodization agenda by ensuring that more than
90% of households consume ade-
quately iodized salt.
At this initial workshop, countries
clearly saw the value added by hav-
ing a regional approach and ex-pressly stated that “Building regional
collaboration will facilitate the im-
plementation of this vital national
public health intervention”. With this commitment and collaboration, the
ECSA Regional Food Fortification Ini-
tiative/Program was born. Gaps and
challenges in initiating country pro-grams were identified and priori-
tized.
With the support of Partners such as
USAID, UNICEF and Micronutrient Ini-
tiative (MI), a number of significant milestones such as the Standards
for food fortification have been
achieved. Consultatively developed
with country teams, they are based on international guidelines aligned
with the local context, countries
have adopted them to help start up
programs and are progressively re-vised in line with specific country
context. The standards have been
regionally harmonized to facilitate
fair trade in fortified foods among neighboring countries of the East
African Community.
Safe and efficacious food fortifica-
tion relies upon the availability of
food control procedures. ECSA-HC developed several food control
manuals for the fortified foods
whose scope include: procedure for
internal quality control in factories;
September 2013 | Volume 01 | Issue 1 20 AFRICAN NUTRITION Matters
inspection and auditing of factory
procedures; and inspection of foods at markets and at the importation
sites. The manuals are in use to
strengthen food control systems in
the countries. They have since been adopted by other regions and trans-
lated into French and Spanish.
To further strengthen the regulatory
and inspection systems, ECSA-HC
established a regional laboratory
proficiency network among food control laboratories across Kenya,
Uganda, Tanzania, Malawi, and Zam-
bia in 2005 and which was expanded
to include Ethiopia, Rwanda and Bu-rundi in 2009. This was aimed to en-
sure that countries have laborato-
ries that are supported by a peer-
network to be able to verify the com-pliance of the fortified foods with
standards and regulations. A manual
was also produced and tested for the
analytical assays for key micronutri-ents added to fortified foods.
To date, more than 100 government
officials have been trained on vari-
ous aspects of food fortification. Of-
ficials from the Bureau of Standards were trained on designing safe and
efficacious fortification programs,
while the food control inspectors in
regulatory authorities were trained on how to plan food control exer-
cises and prepare reports that can
be used to inform on performance of
the program. Laboratory analysts and technicians have been trained
on the use of testing methods in the
analysis of micronutrient in foods.
Those involved in planning, monitor-ing and evaluation (Bureau of Statis-
tics) have also been trained in analy-
sis of data from some of the Na-
tional surveys such as the Health Information Exchange Services
(HIES) to estimate the consumption
of fortified foods and the potential
impact of food fortification.
The ECSA-Secretariat has provided a
platform for advocacy and sharing of best practices amongst member
countries. Various fora have been
organized by the Secretariat with
support from Development Partners to provide opportunities for program
managers and contemporaries in
the food fortification program to
share experiences and ideas, les-sons learned; and set program ob-
jectives for the region. This has posi-
tively created peer pressure which
has stirred accelerated action in countries. With this improved capac-
ity, all ECSA countries have initiated
fortification of several foods with 3
of the countries- Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania- legislating mandatory pro-
grams on oil, wheat flour and Maize
flour. This readiness to initiate pro-
grams has attracted the attention of donors with the willingness to part-
ner with the ECSA countries to scale
up fortification programs.
In conclusion, a solid case has been
made for the value of a regional ap-proach to addressing nutritional
problems and other public health
maladies. A regional approach to
planning and implementation of pro-grams reduces duplication of efforts
in development of standardized
tools and guidelines and harnesses
available resources in the region for development of skills of technical
personnel and thereby maximize the
utilization of meager national re-
sources. A regional approach also provides an opportunity for peer re-
view and assessment among mem-
ber countries and institutions within
these countries. This supplements countries effort in national level ad-
vocacy and facilitates uptake and
scaling up of existing programs.
More importantly, it is in perfect har-mony with increased regional trade
and economic integration, a phe-
nomenon that can significantly in-
troduce the required scale of inter-vention for Micronutrient Deficiency
Reduction.
J. Kibaru-Mbae Director General of the ECSA Health Com-munity
September 2013 | Volume 01 | Issue 1 21 AFRICAN NUTRITION Matters
The experience of the Uganda Action for
Nutrition (UGAN) in the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN)
Movement
Muniirah Mbabazi Kato Peterson Kikomeko
In September 2010, the United
States and the government of Ire-land launched the Scaling Up Nutri-
tion (SUN) Movement, an initiative
focusing on the 1000 days of life with
a theme Change a Life Change a Fu-ture. The SUN movement brings to-
gether a diverse group of stake-
holders interested in improving the
global nutrition landscape. The SUN aims at integrating solutions across
sectors and working together by cre-
ating sustainable change that no
one program, organisation, business or government can achieve alone.
Since its launch, over 40 countries
have joined the SUN movement.
Uganda was among the first coun-
tries to join the SUN Movement and the government has since then
taken steps to scale up nutrition
sensitive actions at national and
local level. Civil society organisa-tions working towards improving
nutrition in Uganda came together
in a coalition to applaud and push
ahead the SUN agenda. The Uganda Civil Society Coalition on Scaling Up
Nutrition (UCCO-SUN) was born in
March 2011. Realising that coordina-
tion of the coalition‖s actions posed a daunting task and therefore re-
quired a dedicated team to con-
structively bring together individual members as well as maintain coali-
tion interests and minimise conflict
of interest; a neutral organisation
among the players was sought. Uganda Action for nutrition (UGAN), a
registered professional body bring-
ing together nutrition professionals
and advocates for appropriate policy and legal framework for nutrition in
Uganda was nominated and voted by
members as the coalition‖s chair to
spear head and oversee UCCO-SUN‖s agenda. To date the coalition has
over 40 members of which; half are
fully registered with the coalition.
UGAN houses the UCCO-SUN secre-tariat, World Vision Uganda is the
focal point organisation that han-
dles the coalition‖s logistics and WHO
is the UN partner organisation through which UCCO-SUN funding is
channelled.
UCCO-SUN was formed to foster civil
societies‖ capacity in nutrition advo-
cacy, monitoring and accountability.
Through policy engagement, the coa-lition brings together civil society
actors in Uganda for joint nutrition
advocacy, information sharing,
awareness and community mobili-sation.
On the international and local
scenes UCCOSUN advocates for im-
proved nutrition indicators and lob-
bies policy makers to create budget lines for nutrition at national and
local level. Recently, UCCOSUN
hosted a weeklong of activities to
mark the global week of action that was coordinated by UGAN and World
Vision Uganda. In the advocacy week
CSOs purposefully targeted and re-
quested world leaders to increase funding for nutrition sensitive initia-
tives and programs. The activities
during this week were meant to re-
mind government and donors to commit more finances to scaling up
nutrition programming. The Civil so-
cieties too, were being called upon
to align their programs with the Uganda Nutrition Action Plan (UNAP)
in addressing undernutrition.
Furthermore the coalition under the
leadership of UGAN successfully ap-
plied for a grant in 2011 from the
global SUN Multi Partner Trust Fund (MPTF) through the now Civil Society
Network. These funds are aimed at
strengthening civil societies‖ capac-
ity to contribute to the SUN agenda among the CSOs in Uganda.
However, the coalition faces chal-
lenges in enhancing its capability,
low progress towards road map im-
plementation and sustainability of current effort and momentum. The
future for the UCCO-SUN remains a
predictable success under UGAN‖s
leadership.
September 2013 | Volume 01 | Issue 1 22 AFRICAN NUTRITION Matters
AGSNet: the past, present and future
Joseph Ashong
Hayford Mawuli Avedzi
“To reduce food and nutrition inse-curity, research-based policies and programs must be developed and implemented effectively. But in Sub-Saharan Africa, weak technical, fi-nancial, and administrative capaci-ties and a serious lack of coopera-tion among relevant sectors have inhibited progress towards food se-curity”[1]
The African Graduate Students‖ Net-
work (AGSNet) was initiated in 2002 by a group of African students study-
ing nutrition at Cornell University,
USA. The goal of the organization is
to provide a forum for effective col-laboration among African graduate
students studying nutrition world-
wide and professionals interested in
minimizing and ultimately eradicat-ing malnutrition on the African con-
tinent.
The AGSNet initiative arose from the
observation that, inadequate nutri-
tion capacity development was a major hindrance to solving the high
prevalence of malnutrition on the
African continent. While countries
across the African continent face very similar nutrition challenges,
there has not been much inter- and
to some extent, intra-country col-
laboration, knowledge dissemina-
tion, transfer of expertise and adop-tion of good practices. Also, there is
lack of adequate political will in sup-
port of a nutrition agenda (which is
often non-existent) in many African countries. Consequently, attempts
at eliminating malnutrition prob-
lems on the continent have yielded
minimal impact. These challenges have contributed in no small way to
the unlikeliness of many countries
in Africa to meet the Millennium De-
velopment Goals (MDGs) by 2015.
In order to address these challenges,
the AGSNet has focused strategically on nutrition capacity development
by creating a platform for network-
ing, sharing opportunities and build-
ing relationship among students and young African professionals—the
future leaders of Africa. Through
this, the AGSNet aims at building
core nutrition competencies as well as appropriate attitudes and values
such as trust among its members,
organizational skills, and above all, a
unified front in the ―fight‖ against malnutrition in Africa.
Membership and operations
The African Nutrition Graduate Stu-
dents Network (AGSNet) currently has over 400 African graduate stu-
dents from over 40 countries study-
ing nutrition in academic institu-
tions in Africa, Europe, North Amer-ica and Asia. The network is run by a
Steering Committee, which com-
prises a Coordinating Committee
headed by a Coordinator currently based in Cornell University in the
USA. Regional representatives in
North, South, West and East Africa,
Europe and North America support the Coordinating Committee. There
are also country representatives,
who are encouraged to organize pro-
grams at the country level and pro-mote activities for the network. The
main mode of communication is via
email. The network has a website
which is currently undergoing re-structuring and a Facebook account.
AGSNet meets every two years to
take stock of its activities, elect new
officer bearers, and to set goals and programs for i ts ―calendar
year‖ (which spans 2 years). AGSNet
members are always encouraged
and supported by the network to at-tend conferences, training work-
shops and seminars to enhance
their technical capacities, gain expo-
sure and learn about the latest de-velopments in the field of nutrition
while networking with experts in the
field and building social capital.
As the saying goes, “there is strength
in unity”. AGSNet is constantlyon the
lookout for opportunities to collabo-rate with strategic and similar goal-
oriented organizations. For instance,
members of the network are encour-
aged to attend the annual African Nutrition Leadership Program (ANLP)
in South Africa to develop core lead-
ership skills. AGSNet participates
fully in the activities of the Federa-tion of African Nutrition Societies
(FANUS) and was actively involved in
the most recent meeting in Abuja,
Nigeria. The network currently holds it biennial congress as part of the
African Nutritional Epidemiology
Conference (ANEC) organized by the
African Nutrition Society (ANS). The
September 2013 | Volume 01 | Issue 1 23 AFRICAN NUTRITION Matters
most recent was held in Bloemfon-
tein, South Africa in 2012.
Challenges
Majority of AGSNet members are
graduate students who move on af-
ter their graduate training. Keeping
up the interest and enthusiasm of members after their training as well
as encouraging new students/
members to join has always been a
challenge. Financing an organization such as the AGSNet, which has a
large student membership, has been
another challenge. In addition, the
poor internet communication ser-vices in many African countries af-
fects the timely response to mail as
well as limiting members‖ access to
resources and opportunities that are made available to them. These chal-
lenges notwithstanding, the network
keeps pushing and working to meet
its primary objectives. The network has been able to hold successful
general biennial meetings since its
inauguration in 2005 in Durban,
South Africa. The AGSNet has also achieved its core objective to a large
extent. Dr. Folake Samuel of the Uni-
versity of Ibadan, Nigeria sums it all
with this statement “I know what the AGSNet has done for me” during one
of the network‖s deliberations at the
FANUS meeting in Abuja, Nigeria in
2011.
Future plans
There are plans and on-going discus-
sions and efforts to change the face
of the network and the AGSNet lead-ership is open to innovative ideas
from members and non-members
on ways to keep members active and
involved in the activities of the net-work. The network will continue to
facilitate participation of its mem-
bers in international meetings. The
next general meeting of the network is scheduled to coincide with the VI
ANEC conference in 2014 in Accra,
Ghana. At this meeting, the network
will be focusing on re-evaluating the original intentions of the founders
and coming up with practical ways
by which these intentions could be
realized in advancing the AGSNet to the next level. The network‖s consti-
tution will also be revised with re-
gards to the leadership structure
and hosting, the Coordinating Com-mittee and the Coordinator. [NM1] It
is our earnest hope that these prag-
matic ideas will be adopted and im-
plemented to move the network a step further. Discussions will also be
finalized in Accra on the exact rela-
tionship and/or role of AGSNet within
the African Nutrition Society. These and other key issues will be dis-
cussed in preparation for the meet-
ing and all members are encouraged
to actively contribute to the dis-course.
Final words
While the AGSNet exists to provide a
forum for effective collaboration
among African graduate students studying nutrition and nutrition pro-
fessionals worldwide, it cannot work
in isolation. Our doors are therefore
open to all those who share in our vision and have innovative and prag-
matic ideas for moving nutrition in
Africa and the network forward.
Acknowledgements
Our special appreciation goes to the
United Nations University, Cornell
University (College of Human Ecol-
ogy) which currently hosts the net-work‖s website, Nestle Nutrition
Foundation, Sight and Life, Clive West
Micronutrient Foundation, African
Nutrition Society (ANS) for their im-mense support. Professors Patrick
Stover, the late Michael Latham and
Tola Atinmo deserve special ac-
knowledgement for their support and encouragement. The tireless
efforts of members, both present
and past, have kept the network
alive and growing from strength to strength. Members in Nigeria and
the North American chapter, espe-
cially Canada, deserve applause for
their dedication to the activities of the network.
[1] Babu, S.C., et al., Strengthening Africa's capacity to design and implement strategies for food and nutrition security, 2004, Interna-
tional Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
Joseph Ashong AGSNet Coordinator Cornell University
H. Mawuli Avedzi University of Alberta
September 2013 | Volume 01 | Issue 1 24 AFRICAN NUTRITION Matters
The Algerian Society of Nu-trition : A Run-up for Food
and Nutrition in Algeria !
Malika BOUCHENAK-KHELLADI
President of the Algerian Society of Nutrition
The Algerian Society of Nutrition
(SAN) is a scientific association with a social character, that has been
created in 2011. It is domiciled at
Oran University and exercises its
activities on the whole national terri-tory. Most of its members, about
160, are teachers, researchers,
medical doctors, private practitio-
ners, state employees working in the field of food-processing industry,
and PhD students.
The SAN has several missions:
- To promote nutrition in all its appli-
cable fields (health, agronomy, food-
processing industry, biotechnology,
environment).
- To create and develop links be-tween basic and applied research,
as well as with practical sectors, ad-
ministrative and institutional appli-
cation and the population.
- To organize or support initiatives of
training, information and populari-zation in nutrition fields, by taking
into account the priorities of public
health.
- To organize one or several scien-
tific meetings a year, alone or with the partnership of other societies
and organisms.
- To generate works of collective ex-
pertise.
- To encourage and broadcast infor-
mation and the scientific findings, in
particular by creating a scientific journal.
- To assure that nutrition is repre-
sented with national and interna-
tional authorities.
- To work with all institutions and
ministerial departments interested
in its objectives.
- To organize, at best, actions or ac-tivities in nutrition.
The SAN organized its 1st Interna-
tional Congress in 2012 (5th and 6th
December), in Oran, Algeria. This
conference was an opportunity of exchange and discussions around
many aspects of food, nutrition &
health, metabolic physiopathology,
phytotherapy & health, and finally the biotechnologies and nutrition.
The SAN created its biannual journal entitled ―Nutrition & Santé‖ ISSN 2253
-0983, with an international scien-
tific committee. This journal aspires
to publish any works in English and French related to the fields of nutri-
tion, food sciences, biotechnologies,
m e t a b o l i c p h y s i o p a t h o l o g y
(diabetes, obesity, metabolic syn-drome, hypertension), cardiovascu-
lar physiopathology, pharmacologi-
cal and nutritional therapeutic ap-
proaches, as well as phytotherapeu-
tic approaches. In December 2012, in
Vol. 01, N° 00, were published the proceedings of the 1st International
Congress of the SAN. In 2013, in Vol.
02, N°01 and N° 02, selected original
papers presented during the same congress will be published.
Besides, the SAN is involved in a Pro-gram project entitled «HealthyKids»
in Algeria, in partnership with the
Ministry of Health (MSPRH) and
Nestlé Algérie. This project‖s objec-tives are to prevent nutritional defi-
ciencies and overweight-obesity in
the schoolchildren between 7 and 11
years old, by promoting the better food practices and physical activity.
Indeed, to act on prevention re-
quires the implication and collabo-
ration of several stakeholders, in-cluding scientists, academics, NGOs,
consumers, health policy makers,
the food-processing industry, and
national and international authori-ties. Nutritional education is thus a
powerful tool to make sure that the
children understand the importance
of the nutrition and the physical ac-tivity for their health throughout
their life.
M. Bouchenak-Khelladi Oran University Director of the Clinical and Metabolic Nutrition Laboratory
Www.san-dz.org
September 2013 | Volume 01 | Issue 1 25 AFRICAN NUTRITION Matters
The African Nutrition Society Celebrates Nevin S. Scrimshaw
The African Nutrition Society (ANS) has learnt with profound sadness the passing of Professor Nevin Scrimshaw, a leading light and force major for nutrition over the last eight decades or more. Nevin‖s life and work speaks for itself and as has been captured variously in the media and the nutrition community, this great pioneer has been a teacher, mentor, researcher, and influenced not only many a nutritional scientist and leader today, but global nutri-tion policy. As a young organisation with aspirations that matched his own vision and ambitions for nutrition train-ing and capacity building in Africa, we were delighted to be asked to host a celebration of Professor Scrimshaw‖s 90th birthday at our 3rd Africa Nutritional Epidemiology Conference (ANEC III) in Cairo, Egypt in 2008. In paying tribute to him, we initiated the “Nevin Scrimshaw Award” for excellence in international nutrition of which he was the first re-cipient. Professor Scrimshaw is the epitome of a great teacher and trainer of the ―can do‖ variety who through great sacrifices, sought to follow the strength of his convictions and toiled to promote the global nutrition agenda and in particular, nutrition and health in developing countries. It is therefore with the greatest honour that ANS joins the global nutrition fraternity to celebrate the life and work of Professor Nevin S Scrimshaw. As a scientific learned soci-ety for nutrition, we are proud to continue to be associated with the Nevin S Scrimshaw Internaitional Nutrition Foundation, and will continue to honour him through the “Nevin S Scrimshaw Award” and the Nevin S Scrimshaw
Medal which is presented biennially to outstanding scientists in international nutrition.
OBITUARY
September 2013 | Volume 01 | Issue 1 26 AFRICAN NUTRITION Matters
Announcements
15-20 September 2013
IUNS 20th International Congress of Nutrition
Malaga, Spain
Website: http://icn2013.com/
30 Jan-1 Feb 2014
International Conference on Nutrition & Growth
Barcelona, Spain
Website: http://ng.kenes.com/
10-19 March 2014
12th African Nutrition Leadership Programme (ANLP 2014)
South Africa
Website: africanutritionleadership.org
21-25 July 2014
6th African Nutritional Epidemiology Conference (ANEC 6)
Accra, Ghana
Theme: Food and Nutrition security in Africa: New challenges for sustain-ability
19-21 November 2014
Second International Con-ference on Nutrition (ICN2)
Rome, Italy
More info: http://www.fao.org/food/nutritional-policies-strategies/icn2/en/
September 2013 | Volume 01 | Issue 1 27 AFRICAN NUTRITION Matters
September 2013 | Volume 01 | Issue 1 28 AFRICAN NUTRITION Matters
AFRICAN NUTRITION MATTERS
OFFICIAL BULLETIN OF THE AFRICAN NUTRITION SOCIETY