Distinguished Nutrition Advocate

The Distinguished Nutrition Advocate (DNA) is involved in:

assisting the SCN chair in raising awareness of nutrition problems and mobilizing commitment to solve them

acting as a spokesperson for the SCN in support of the malnourished and food insecure throughout the world and those at risk or chronic or acute malnutrition

proposing new ideas for the SCN to strengthen its work in accelerating the reduction in malnutrition arising out of the growing inequality between the rich and the poor, as well as natural and man-made disasters

extending the SCN's already large advocacy network of nutrition professionals to seek to influence key decision makers and leaders at senior governmental and private sector levels.

Former DNAs are Dom Mauro Morelli and MS Swaminathan

Dom Mauro Morelli

Dom Mauro Morelli was named the SCN's Distinguished Nutrition Advocate (DNA) in March 2003 at the SCN 30th Session in Chennai, India. Bishop Mauro Morelli was born in Avanhandava, SP, Brazil, in 1935, and was ordained a priest from Saint Mary's Seminary and University, Baltimore, USA in 1965. Some of Dom Mauro's achievements include:

parish priest in the Paróquia São João Batista, Rio Claro, Brazil (1966-74)

Conference of Brazilian Bishops as Regional Secretary (CNBB), São Paulo State (1971-75)

elected a bishop, auxiliary to the Archdiocese of São Paulo (1974)

member of the CNBB-Regional Representative Commission (1975-81) and its president (1979-81)

member of the CNBB-National Representative Commission (1975-81)

first bishop for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Duque de Caxias, Rio de Janeiro State (1981-present)

Brazilian delegate to the IV Latin-American Bishops' Conference, Santo Domingo (1992)

President, National Food Security Council, Presidency of the Republic (1993-94)

independent auditor for the National Human Rights Plan (1996)

Minas Gerais State Food Council, president

Within and outside Brazil, Dom Mauro has participated in workshops and conferences related to ecumenism, environment, development, food security and nutrition, human rights, constitutional law, agrarian reform and other social issues. He has received two national distinctions and another eleven awards given by Municipalities of States for his social and educational work. Most recently, Dom Mauro has been named president of the National Food Security Council for São Paulo.

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MS Swaminathan

Professor MS Swaminathan has been acclaimed by TIME magazine as one of the twenty most influential Asians of the 20th century and one of the only three from India, the other two being Mahatma Gandhi and Rabindranath Tagore. Professor Swaminathan was Chairman of the UN Science Advisory Committee set up in 1980 to take follow-up action on the Vienna Plan of Action. He has also served as independent Chairman of the FAO Council and President of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources.

A plant geneticist by training, Professor Swaminathan is widely referred to as the scientific leader of the green revolution movement. His advocacy for sustainable agriculture leading to an ever-green revolution makes him an acknowledged world leader in the field of sustainable food security. The International Association of Women and Development conferred on him the first international award for significant contributions to promoting the knowledge, skill, and technological empowerment of women in agriculture and for his pioneering role in mainstreaming gender considerations in agriculture and rural development. Professor Swaminathan was awarded the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership in 1971, the Albert Einstein World Science Award in 1986, and the first World Food Prize in 1987.

Professor Swaminathan is a Fellow of many of the leading scientific academies of India and the world, including the Royal Society of London and the US National Academy of Sciences. He has received 41 honorary doctorate degrees. He currently holds the UNESCO Chair in Ecotechnology at the MS Swaminathan Research Foundation in Chennai, India. Professor Swaminathan is also now the President of the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs.

For more information, please contact the SCN Secretariat

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Distinguished Nutrition Advocate

Former DNAs are Dom Mauro Morelli and MS Swaminathan

Dom Mauro Morelli

MS Swaminathan

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