USAID/BASICS to Host a Nutrition Workshop, April 20-23 in Senegal
April 16—On April 20, USAID/BASICS will convene Essential Nutrition Actions: Prevention First, a workshop aimed at clarifying future priorities for nutrition programs in developing countries. This three-day event, to be held at the Hôtel des Almadies in Dakar, Senegal, is one in a series of opportunities that USAID/BASICS is organizing during its final year of project implementation to ensure the continued momentum of child survival initiatives.
Attendees who have already confirmed their participation include stakeholders from seven countries with current or recently-completed USAID/BASICS child nutrition programs: Afghanistan, India, Madagascar, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, and Timor-Leste.
The event's title, Essential Nutrition Actions: Prevention First, was chosen to emphasize the need for program implementers to address actions that can be taken in the home to help prevent malnutrition, particularly during the critical period of growth in the first two years of a child's life. With this goal in mind, USAID/BASICS developed the Essential Nutrition Actions (ENA) concept in 1998 as a way to integrate the promotion of key preventive nutrition behaviors into family health services.
Expanding ENA has become all the more relevant in recent years, as programs for the treatment of acute malnutrition grow worldwide and, in some cases, are diverting attention from prevention initiatives. USAID/BASICS Nutrition Advisor, Thomas Schaetzel noted, "It's well-established that almost 55 percent of all deaths in children under the age of five worldwide are associated with malnutrition, but it's far less recognized that only 10 percent of these deaths are associated with severe malnutrition. Knowing that moderate and mild malnutrition are killing the most children by far, it's time for all of us to focus effort on developing an integrated approach to preventing and treating malnutrition."
Requests for additional information, including interviews or contact with the event's organizers and participants, may be directed to USAID/BASICS Communications Manager, Paul Crystal (pcrystal@basics.org).