Nutrition Information Resources

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.

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.

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.

The International Food Risk Analysis Journal is an peer-reviewed journal published by InTech, a leading company providing open access to scientific literature in the fields of Science, Technology and Medicine.  This project, gathering experts in the field for over a year, is supported by the Food Directorate at Health Canada and Food Standards Australia / New-Zealand (FSANZ).

The International Food Risk Analysis Journal gathers reports on the latest developments in risk assessments associated with current and emerging food chemical, microbiological and nutritional safety issues. IFRAJ also aims at making available both comprehensive risk assessment documents, as well as initial risk mapping and risk profiles developed by experts in these areas.

IFRAJ is available as an open access publication via InTech's online reading platform, www.intechopen.com. The journal is available in English and French.

To find out more, please visit the journal's home page.   There you will also find all the previous issues.
To answer any questions, hear your ideas and suggestions, feel free to contact ifraj@intechopen.com.

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.

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.

FAO with Bioversity, INFOODS and the WAHO released Food Composition Tables for West Africa.

Understanding the composition of food and the intake of those foods is essential for effective policies and programs. The new 150 page publication of the Composition of West Africa foods is an important contribution to our understanding of what is in the food that people eat not only in West Africa but elsewhere. The publication contains 472 foods and 28 components. 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.

Containing over 472 foods along with their nutrient content, the tables are in an easy to use and accessible format. Published in French and English, the composition of the foods are also available in a Microsoft Excel format for easy access for analysts. The publication is titled "Table de composition des aliments d'Afrique de l'Ouest" or "West African Food Composition Table" and is a joint Publication from:

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United  Nations (FAO)
The International Network of Food Data Systems (INFOODS)
The West African Health Organization (WAHO)
Bioversity International

The publication and tables make a significant contribution to the study and promotion of dietary diversity and quality. The pdf and excel spread sheets can be downloaded from:

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

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

FAO has released its 2012 Statistical Yearbook. 

To have a look, please click here.

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.

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.

The Infant & Young Child Nutrition (IYCN) Project's Final Report "Our global efforts to prevent malnutrition during the first 1,000 days" has been released.

The report summarizes the IYCN Project's accomplishments and offers recommendations for building on IYCN's maternal, infant, and young child nutrition programming that spanned 16 countries over the past five years.

By focusing on prevention of malnutrition during the critical 1,000 days from pregnancy through a child's second birthday, involving communities in improved nutrition, and strengthening health systems, IYCN aimed to improve the nutritional status of mothers and children and to increase children's chances of surviving free of HIV.

These activities resulted in the following achievements:

- Built an enabling environment for improved nutrition
- Strengthened social and behavior change communication programming
- Enhanced complementary feeding programs
- Increased HIV-free survival for the next generation
- Brought women's and children's nutrition to the forefront of agriculture
- Strengthened health systems for healthier mothers and children

For the full report, please click here.

By UNICEF (2012)

This year's report focuses attention on the needs of children in urban areas.

One billion children live in urban areas, a number that is growing rapidly. Disparities within cities reveal that many children lack access to schools, health care and sanitation, despite living alongside these services.

For further information, please click below.

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.

 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.