Editorial

Listen to an interview with the editors (podcast) on ENN's MediaHub

Welcome to this eighth issue of Nutrition Exchange (NEX), in which we have widened our geographical reach to include more readers and contributors from the Middle East and North Africa region. This is the first NEX issue to feature two articles from Lebanon. One looks at a community-based kitchen initiative (page 9), the other a school feeding programme (page 10). Both articles describe efforts to address the double burden of malnutrition (overweight/obesity and undernutrition) among the Syrian refugee and vulnerable Lebanese populations.

Malnutrition in all its forms is evident in every country in the world (as confirmed by the 2016 Global Nutrition Report). According to WHO’s analysis, very few countries have yet been able to account for the rapid rise in overweight/obesity and non-communicable diseases in their food and nutrition policies and plans. Ecuador may be an exception; the article in this issue reports that food labeling, a sugar tax on beverages and school-based initiatives to increase heathy eating and physical activity are being implemented (page 12). An interview with Nigeria’s Ministry of Budget and National Planning (page 28) provides important insights into the challenges of developing a national food and nutrition policy, particularly in securing the necessary budget lines in different ministries with a role in nutrition. Advocacy can play a crucial part in raising the profile of nutrition among parliamentarians and the media in order to influence national policies and budget allocations. An initiative in 12 countries in West Africa to scale up nutrition advocacy efforts through creating nutrition champions and civil society alliances is described in detail (page 24).

In countries where agriculture remains the primary economic activity (mainly in Africa and Asia), the focus is now on making agriculture more nutrition-sensitive; that is, seeking to maximise its contribution to nutrition. This issue contains articles on two such initiatives, in Ethiopia and Zambia. Both focus on building capacity, defined as the process by which individuals, organisations and societies strengthen their knowledge, skills and experience in order to achieve development objectives. The Ethiopia story (page 21) describes a project to identify capacity strengths and gaps in implementing the country’s nutrition-sensitive agriculture plan. In the Zambia article (page 19), the emphasis is on ‘singing the same song’ – developing key nutrition messages for agricultural extension workers. Building capacity is also the focus of an article from Kenya (page 26), where a nutrition capacity development framework is being streamlined to take account of the country’s devolved government structure and the need to support subnational level solutions for nutrition problems.

Many countries are implementing multi-sector nutrition programmes (MSNPs), which attempt to link together all the sectors – such as agriculture, education, health, water and sanitation and social protection – that can help address the immediate, underlying and basic causes of malnutrition. An article from Pakistan (page 17) describes a tool that uses existing data to identify the potential cost and nutritional impact of a range of interventions to ‘fill the nutrient gap’ across different sectors. In Nepal, the reality of carrying out multi-sector interventions is explored by two district officers charged with implementing an MSNP on the ground (page 15).

We would be delighted to feature many more of these ‘voices from the field’ –so please do share your stories and experiences of nutrition programming with us for the next issue of NEX, to be published in January 2018. Thank you to all our contributors and happy reading!

Carmel Dolan, Co-editor, NEX (carmel@ennonline.net)

Judith Hodge, Co-editor, NEX (Judith.Hodge@ennonline.net)