Nutrition Information Resources

The European Food Information Resource Network project (EuroFIR) was a Network of Excellence comprising of 48 partners from academia, research organisations and small-and-medium size enterprises in 27 countries. The project was funded by the European Community's Sixth Framework Programme (Priority 5: Food Quality and Safety; Contract no FP6-513944).

One of its main objectives was to develop, for the first time in Europe, a single online platform with up-to-date food composition data across Europe. Another important outcome of EuroFIR was the establishment of a longer-term sustainable platform to continue some of the activities set up during the project and this was achieved by the creation of a non-profit international association, EuroFIR AISBL.  The main aim of the Association is to support and promote the development, management, publication and application of food composition data, through international cooperation and harmonization.

The EuroFIR AISBL Newsletter is published twice a year, providing updates on the latest developments in the Association, the benefits of membership, important forthcoming events and the projects that are being undertaken within EuroFIR AISBL.  The 5th edition of the Newsletter has now been released. 

To read the Newsletter, or previous editions, please click here.

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FAO, Bioversity, INFOODS and the WAHO have released the Food Composition Tables for West Africa 2012.
 
For millions of people, diets are becoming less diverse and of poorer quality. This dietary transition has led to continued under-nutrition and increases in nutrition-related chronic diseases such as diabetes and cardio-vascular disease. To improve livelihoods, nutrition and health, accessing and consuming diverse quality foods is necessary. We also need to understand the composition and intake of food if we are to have effective policies and programmes.

‘Food Composition Tables for West Africa' is an important step towards understanding what is in the food that people eat - not only in West Africa but elsewhere. It is a joint publication from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), with Bioversity International, The International Network of Food Data Systems (INFOODS) and the West African Health Organization (WAHO). Containing over 472 foods and 28 components along with their nutrient content, the tables are in an easy-to-use, accessible format. Emphasis was given to include data on food biodiversity by incorporating cultivars/varieties and underutilized foods. For these foods, the country of origin of the cultivar/variety was reported, next to the food name.

Published in French and English, the Food Composition Table is also available in a Microsoft Excel format for easy access for analysts.

For the Publication, please click here.
For Excel Spreadsheets, please click here.

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The overall goal of work in the area of micronutrients in the Department of Nutrition for Health and Development within the World Health Organization is to improve the health and development of populations through adequate vitamin and mineral nutrition. This work is carried out in collaboration with other WHO departments, both at Headquarters and in the Regions, WHO Member States and external partners.

To read the draft report of the work carried out during the biennium 2010-2011, please click below.

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The Feinstein International Center has announced a new publication: Milk Matters: The Impact of Dry Season Livestock Support on Milk Supply and Child Nutrition in Somali Region, Ethiopia.

Children in the pastoral areas of Somali Region Ethiopia are increasingly among the most nutritionally vulnerable populations in the world. In response to more frequent droughts and recurrent nutritional emergencies in the Region, the international community has tended to prioritize the provision of food aid and therapeutic treatment of severe acute malnutrition; Little has been done to understand the potential role of milk, a well-established pillar of the pastoral diet and one of the world's most nutritionally complete foods, in maintaining child nutritional status. 

This report presents the findings of two cohort studies assessing the impact of small-scale livestock interventions, designed to sustain access to and availability of animal milk at the household level over the dry season, on the nutritional status of children under 5 years of age. The studies were conducted for one calendar year, July 2010 to July 2011, in two pastoral Zones of the Somali Region. The results reveal that, in sites exposed to the intervention, animal milk off-take improved dramatically, child consumption of animal milk increased, and child nutritional status stabilized compared to that of children in the control sites. Moreover, the direct costs of the livestock interventions were found to be 45 to 75 percent less than those incurred through therapeutic feeding programs, and the benefits were found to extend beyond nutrition to include developmental, health, and livelihoods aspects. The study represents the culmination of four years of investigative research into the role of milk in pastoral child nutrition and a call for new, holistic, and preventative approaches to addressing child malnutrition in pastoral regions.

To read the report, please click here.
 

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The attached IFRC report on the Sahel countries containsan analysis of each country affected by the Sahel food crisis in both English and French.

For each country, the context is outlined along with an overview of the current situation. 

The Red Cross Red Crescent presence and activity is provided, followed by the capacities, on-going actions and plans of the national Red Cross or Red Crescent society. 

To read the document in English or French, please click below.

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Save the Children have now finalised their research on the proposed global stunting reduction.

Today, 170 million children under five are stunted, meaning they are too short for their age and more likely to have poor cognitive development.

Save the Children welcomes the World Health Organization (WHO) proposed global target for a reduction in the number of children who are stunted.

This briefing summarises the interim results of research into stunting trends, drawing out the policy implications for governments and the international community to achieve the target.

The briefing paper can be accessed by clicking here.

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On 11 May 2012, the Committee on World Food Security (CFS) formally endorsed the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security (VGGT).

The Voluntary Guidelines are the result of an unprecedented negotiation process, chaired by the United States that featured broad consultation and participation by 96 national governments, more than 25 civil society organizations, the private sector, nonprofits and farmers' associations over the course of almost three years.

The new guidelines provide a set of principles and practices that can assist countries in establishing laws and policies that better govern land, fisheries and forests tenure rights, ultimately supporting food security and sustainable development. The endorsement of the Voluntary Guidelines also has significant importance for the right to food as many violations of the right to food around the world are related to access to natural resources.

For more information, please contact:
The Right to Food Team
Agricultural and Development Economics Division (ESA)
Viale delle Terme di Caracalla
00153 Rome
www.fao.org/righttofood

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The fifth issue of Dialogue, the Newsletter of the Alliance against Hunger and Malnutrition (AAHM), is now available  online. 

To have a look, please click here.

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HarvestPlus has released A Food Composition Table for Central and Eastern Uganda. During a HarvestPlus project to disseminate orange-fleshed sweet potato in Uganda and Mozambique, nutritionists found that there was no reliable food composition table (FCT) and developed this tool complete with three electronic databases. The expectation is that this tool will be useful for others conducting nutrition research or designing nutrition interventions in the region.

Visit the HarvestPlus website to download Technical Monograph #9 and its accompanying Excel data files for your use.

The HarvestPlus Technical Monograph series can be of two kinds: state-of-the-art reviews that help to establish and define HarvestPlus research questions or "gold standard" procedures to be followed in HarvestPlus research. They are written by recognized experts in the field and are externally peer reviewed prior to publication.

Click here to see a complete list of HarvestPlus Technical Monographs.

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Just released: The UN-Water Global Analysis and Assessment of Sanitation and Drinking-Water (GLAAS).

Water, Sanitation, Hygiene and Health (WSH) completed the analysis and assessment for UN-Water, and the GLAAS 2012 report was launched by the Chair of UN-Water, Michel Jarraud, on 12 April 2012. To download the Report in its definitive version, please click here.

The Report presents new data from 74 low- and middle-income countries and 24 external support agencies, illustrating the status of key efforts and trends relating to securing increased water, sanitation and hygiene provision. The report warns that sanitation and drinking-water service coverage could regress if adequate resources are not secured to sustain routine operation and maintenance, and also points to the needs for increased efforts to continue positive trends in resource targeting, to enhance countries' absorption capacity of aid funds and to accelerate human resource development.

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Institute of Development Studies:

Analysing Nutrition Governance is a policy research project that looks behind standard nutrition indicators to find out why some countries achieve improved nutrition outcomes while others make insufficient progress. Based on evidence from Bangladesh, Brazil, Ethiopia, India, Peru and Zambia, the project aims to inform nutrition policy and advocacy. The project is based at the Institute for Development Studies, UK.

A new policy briefing summarises the key lessons on nutrition governance for those working on nutrition policy and advocacy.

Find out more and download key resources at the Analysing Nutrition Governance website.
 
Contact IDS if you have questions.

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The Global Monitoring Report 2012 ‘Food Prices, Nutrition, and the Millennium Development Goals', is a joint World Bank-IMF publication.   The Report was launched on Tuesday, 24 April 2012.

Please note that the report can be downloaded free of charge on the World Bank's website www.worldbank.org/gmr2012.

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Guided by the belief that every life has equal value, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation works to help all people lead healthy, productive lives.

The Foundation's nutrition team recently launched a five-part video series on nutrition, highlighting key nutrients - vitamin A, zinc and iron. The short videos highlight the complexity of nutrition but the rigorous approach taken by the scientific community to define the importance of micronutrients, particularly in the health, growth and development of children.

It's a great new resource for policy makers, practitioners and researchers in the field of nutrition, child health and development, and maternal health, and even mothers who want to give their children healthier meals.

To watch the videos click below:

Introduction
Iron
Zinc
Vitamin A
Conclusion

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FAO has released its 2012 Statistical Yearbook. 

To have a look, please click here.

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One hundred and three participants from 48 organizations attended the NACS SOTA meeting Feb 22-23, 2012 including representatives of NACS programs in Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Uganda and Zambia. CORE Group's HIV/AIDS and Nutrition Working Groups collaborated with the USAID funded Title II TOPS Program to explore nutrition mechanisms that reach across sectoral boundaries and enable programmatic integration for HIV, health and nutrition.

The SOTA meeting provided an overview of current thinking and predominant issues surrounding the design, implementation and evaluation of NACS programming. Tapping into a carefully selected team of academic and programmatic experts, the event covered a range of emerging science, technical content and program experience, as well as providing a venue for in-depth information exchange.

The SOTA meeting applied a range of formats, including plenary discussions, power point presentations, panel discussions, interviews with experts using a talk-show format, and working group sessions in smaller group. The meeting ended with general conclusions and clarifying statements regarding what NACS is and how it fits into the big picture of health and nutrition programming on a global basis.

To view the full list of videos from the meeting, click here.

To view the full list of presentations from the meeting, click here.

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The Emergency Nutrition Network (ENN) has recently launched a new publication, called Field Exchange Digest (FEX D). This is an annual, digested read of ENN's flagship Field Exchange (FEX) that aims to reach a national audience.

FEX D is for practitioners working in nutrition and food security at national level with an emphasis on preparedness, emergency response, recovery and longer-term programmes. FEX D contains field articles from many different countries and contexts and up to date news about important things happening in the nutrition and food security sectors, including new guidelines, tools and training that may be relevant to you.

The next issue of FEX D will be available in English in May 2012. French and Arabic versions will be available soon after. Future issues will also be available in Spanish.

Readers will be asked to write articles about the nutrition programmes they are working on and to contribute news from their country and region. 

 To receive this publication free of charge, please click here to subscribe, or email office@ennonline.net.

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The Landscape Analysis of readiness to accelerate action in nutrition is a systematic approach to assessing where to invest and how to best invest to accelerate action in nutrition. It has the following three components:

• Desk analysis of country readiness - This involves comprehensive analysis of secondary-data indicators in 36 countries with a high burden of stunting (these countries were the initial focus of the analysis). The desk analysis uses multiple statistical methods to define country typologies of readiness which was defined by "commitment ̶ willingness to act" and "capacity ̶ ability to act". For the desk review, commitment was measured by "nutrition governance" indicator which was formulated by WHO using key elements required in countries for the processes by which policies and programmes are developed and implemented to achieve nutrition security, and capacity was measured using proxy measure of health care capacity.
• In-depth country assessments - To date, country assessments had been carried out in 18 countries: Burkina Faso, Comoros, Côte d'Ivoire, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guatemala, Guinea, Indonesia, Madagascar, Mali, Mozambique, Namibia, Peru, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Tanzania and Timor-Leste.
• Nutrition landscape information system (NLIS) (http://www.who.int/nutrition/nlis/).

The tool package of the Landscape Analysis country assessment provides guidance on "how to":

• plan a country assessment
• adapt tools for respective country context
• undertake preliminary desk review (including stakeholder mapping)
• conduct interviews and collect information
• analyse data using the analytical framework which provides indicators for assessing readiness as function of commitment and capacity to scale-up nutrition action
• organise a country stakeholders' consensus meeting

To access the full document, available in English and French, please click here.  For more information, please click here. 

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IFPRI launches the 2011 Global Food Policy Report, a new annual publication that provides a comprehensive, research-based analysis of major food policy challenges at the global, regional, national, and local levels.

The report highlights important developments and events in food policy that occurred in 2011, discusses lessons learned, offers policy recommendations, presents IFPRI's food policy tools and indicators, and takes a look forward into 2012.

To read the report online, please click here.

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 The Copenhagen Consensus 2012 results are available!
In 2012, the Copenhagen Consensus Center's flagship project Copenhagen Consensus 2012 provides an answer to the question:

If we had an extra $75 billion to put to good use, which problems would we solve first?

The project, a culmination of 18 months of planning, research-writing and preparation, builds on the success of two past Copenhagen Consensus projects: Copenhagen Consensus 2004 and Copenhagen Consensus 2008.

The Copenhagen Consensus 2012 Expert Panel finds that fighting malnourishment should be the top priority for policy-makers and philantropists.

Read more by clicking below.

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Action Against Hunger has just released a new report, Aid for Nutrition, which provides donors, aid recipients and other stakeholders with a detailed analysis of current spending on nutrition and of the adequacy of current aid reporting systems. It also provides recommendations on what can be done to scale up the response to undernutrition effectively.

Investments in nutrition are currently inadequate with the majority of funding going towards direct nutrition interventions in response to humanitarian crises, reflecting the short term nature of aid for nutrition. Furthermore, nutrition aid is not always directed to countries with the highest burdens of undernutrition, many donors fail to honour all commitments, and poor donor reporting practices have hindered transparency and accountability. Based on their findings, Action Against Hunger recommends that donors must commit to aid transparency principles by improving reporting practices, that donors and governments increase their investments in direct or nutrition specific interventions, that the treatment and prevention of undernutrition be also targeted in non-emergency situations, and that an annual review of investments in nutrition be done to keep the paucity of funding for nutrition high on the political agenda.

To read the report, please click here. To consult the Action Against Hunger website, please click here.

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The UNSCN is part of the steering group of this Forum, an information sharing mechanism which aims to bring together resources and initiatives related to the management of acute malnutrition. Please follow this link to become a member and access key resources on Community-based Management of Acute Malnutrition: http://www.cmamforum.org/

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8 August 2012, Rome - Immediate action to promote sustainable diets and food biodiversity so as to improve the health of humans and of the planet is urged in a book just published by FAO and Bioversity International.  Access the press release here.

In "Sustainable Diets and Biodiversity", prominent scientists, policy makers and practitioners discuss the linkages between agriculture, health, the environment and food industries. This groundbreaking publication explores the concepts of sustainable diets and how they relate to the production and consumption of the food we eat. Sustainable diets are foreseen as an important element for a shift towards sustainable development and a green economy and there is an urgent need to develop and promote strategies that emphasize the positive role of food biodiversity in human nutrition and poverty alleviation. 

To access the publication please click here.

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Nutrition has increasingly been recognized as a basic pillar for social and economic development. For the accountability of nutrition related global movements, a monitoring progress towards agreed upon international targets is essential.

This publication presents the results of the harmonization effort and reports, for the first time, joint UNICEF-WHO-World Bank prevalence and number estimates of child malnutrition for 2011 and trends since 1990. Estimates for the four anthropometric indicators are presented by United Nations, Millennium Development Goal, UNICEF, WHO regional and The World Bank income group classifications.

To read the publication, please click below.

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 A new book has been published within the IAEA Human Health Series: "Assessment of iron bioavailability in humans using stable iron isotope techniques".

To read the Publication please click below.

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Researchers from Gent University and the Institute of Tropical Medicine Antwerp have assessed the effect of specialised energy dense food supplements in the framework of a general food distribution on the prevention of acute child malnutrition. This did not result in the expected outcome: children receiving the supplements were growing a little bit more in length, reported less episodes of diarrhoea and fever, and were less like to be anaemic. However, compared to children that received only the food rations, supplemented children did not gain more weight and had an equal risk to be become undernourished.

For further information, please click below. To read the publication, please click here.

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Save the Children and World Vision presented their ‘Nutrition Barometer' during a panel discussion on stunting in children on 26 September, in New York. For the presentation of the Nutrition Barometer, an interesting panel was invited to provide comments, including Ertharin Cousins (Executive Director, WFP), David Nabarro (UN SG Special Representative for Food Security and Nutrition), Brendan Rogers (Director General, Irish Aid), and 2 panel members from Indonesia and Kenya. The discussion was moderated by Jasmine Whitbread (CEO, Save the Children).
 
The Barometer provides a snapshot of national governments' commitment to addressing children's nutrition. It measures governments' political and legal commitment as well as their financial commitment.
The document can be downloaded here.
 
WFP Executive Director Ertharin Cousin, who was on the panel, took the opportunity to present her vision of the UN network's role in supporting national and global efforts to reduce undernutrition. Ms Cousins mentioned that "nutrition is not health or agriculture, but that it is both. We don't have the luxury of focusing on one sector; we have the obligation to deal with all."  Ms Cousins further added that the UN has the Standing Committee on Nutrition (SCN) at the global level and REACH at the country level to support countries who are in the lead.

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"Economic growth is necessary but not sufficient to accelerate reduction of hunger and malnutrition". This is the new key message of the FAO "The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2012 ".

The State of Food Insecurity in the World raises awareness about global hunger issues, discusses underlying causes of hunger and malnutrition and monitors progress towards hunger reduction targets established at the 1996 World Food Summit and the Millennium Summit. The publication is targeted at a wide audience, including policy-makers, international organizations, academic institutions and the general public with a general interest in linkages between food security, and human and economic development.

The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2012 is published jointly by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the International Fund for Agricultural Development and the World Food Programme.

For more information, please contact: mailto:sofi@fao.org or visit the website.

You can download the report by clicking here.

For more details on the The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2012, please click on the link below

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Interesting compilation of articles on hunger and malnutrition, spanning the last 30 years from  Michael Lipton, Margaret Buchanan-Smith, Mona Sharma, Paul Howe, Jeremy Swift, Richard Longhurst, Simon Maxwell, Ian Scoones, Stephen Devereux, John Thompson, Biraj Swain, Geoff Tansey and Harsh Mander and others.

All the articles in this IDS publication are available online and free of charge.

To download click here.

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The State of Food and Agriculture, FAO's major annual flagship publication, aims at bringing to a wider audience balanced science-based assessments of important issues in the field of food and agriculture. Each edition of the report contains a comprehensive, yet easily accessible, overview of a selected topic of major relevance for rural and agricultural development and for global food security. This is supplemented by a synthetic overview of the current global agricultural situation.

For more information, please contact Terri Raney or visit the website.

The publication can be downloaded here.

For more details on The State of Food and Agriculture 2012, please click on the link below

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The Lancet Nutrition Series  are launched on 6^th June 2013 !
Five years after the initial series, The Lancet re-evaluates the problems of maternal and child undernutrition and also examines the growing problems of overweight and obesity for women and children, and their consequences in low-income and middle-income countries.

The Series highlights the availability of proven interventions that could address the persistent burden of malnutrition, presenting the best evidence and latest developments in the field.

Articles, papers and comments can be downloaded here.

For more information, click below.

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Essential Nutrition Actions: Improving maternal, newborn, infant and young child nutrition

WHO has issued a consolidated package of guidance on nutrition targeting the first 1,000 days of life. This publication contains essential nutrition actions (ENA) that policy-makers could implement to reduce infant and child mortality, improve physical and mental growth and development, and improve productivity. The package is divided in 2 parts:

• Part I presents the interventions currently recommended by WHO, their rationale and evidence and describes the actions required to implement them. The document uses a life course approach, from pre-conception throughout the first 2 years of life. 

• Part II analyses the implementation of ENAs in operational large-scale programmes, gives their effectiveness when delivered in an integrated fashion as well as their implications for designing future programmes and sustaining existing ones.

The report can be downloaded here. 

Global nutrition policy review: What does it take to scale up nutrition action?
The Global nutrition policy review analysed policy environment and governance, policy implementation in specific nutrition areas, policy coherence (identification of stakeholders and coordination mechanism) and the implementation of monitoring and evaluation.

The Review is based on a questionnaire survey conducted during 2009-2010, in which 119 WHO Member States and 4 territories participated. Results are presented by regions and complemented by the results of the in-depth country assessments of the Landscape Analysis on Countries' Readiness to Accelerate Action in Nutrition initiated by WHO in 2008. Though the Review identified a number of gaps in the design, content and implementation of these policies and programmes, it appears that much progress has been made since ICN 1992 in the design and implementation of national nutrition policies and plans of action.


The report can be downloaded here

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