The current capacity for training in public health nutrition in West Africa

Abstract

This article is based on a paper prepared for the Workshop on Establishing a Regional Institute for Public Health Nutrition Research and Training in West Africa, convened in Dakar, Senegal, 26–28 March, 2009. Information was gathered mainly prior to this workshop; several responses, however, came in after the workshop and these have been included in the current paper. In completion of the article use was made of the views and opinions as expressed during this workshop.

Objectives were to provide background information on academic programmes (undergraduate and graduate) and research institutions with a focus on human nutrition in West Africa, to describe the importance of foreign nutrition training programmes for West African students and to detail existing nutrition training activities currently in the region. Data were obtained from a survey of 15 UNICEF country offices in the West African region, previously published reports, United Nations University/International Union of Nutrition Sciences capacity development activities 1996–2009, personal communications and websites of relevant African institutions. Results indicate that West African nutrition academic programmes and research institutes do not adequately meet the demand for nutritionists and technical services in the region. Exceptions seem to be Bénin, Ghana and Nigeria. Diploma courses and other short courses have been an important means of attracting people from a variety of disciplines to nutrition. A well-equipped regional institute could directly and indirectly bolster nutrition capacity in the region. To meet the regional nutrition research and training needs in West Africa, it is not necessary to make a choice between creating a new regional institution vs. expanding existing national institutions. Based on solid capacity development principles, both options need action.

Keywords:

• public health nutrition
• nutrition research
• nutrition training
• nutrition institutional capacity
• West Africa

Acknowledgements

There are no conflicts of interest related to this manuscript. We thank the participants and institutions represented at the workshop. The advice of Grant J. Aaron, Mohammed Ag Ayoya, Inge Brouwer and Kenneth H. Brown and the contributions of colleagues who provided data regarding their respective institutions are gratefully acknowledged. Funding was provided by UNICEF, HarvestPlus, Wageningen University and HKI.

Notes

1. French speaking: Bénin, Burkina Faso, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Togo. English speaking: Gambia, Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone. Portuguese speaking: Guinea Bissau and Cape Verde.

2. Abraham Besrat worked for a long time with UNU (Tokyo) and was involved (a.o. with Scrimshaw) in implementing the fellowship programme of UNU. UNU has spent between 1975 and 2000 nearly 45% of all its fellowships on food science and nutrition; 27% of the food and nutrition fellowships came to Africa. The institutions that benefited most were: Federal Institute of Industrial Research, Oshodi; Department of Human Nutrition, University of Ibadan, Nigeria; and Food Research Institute, Ghana.

3. The programme has the title: ‘Targeting advanced fellowships to strengthen selected regionally important developing country institutions for research on health issues related to nutrition and infection’, the overall budget was $5,000,000 and many participating institutions from the north waived fees to do more with the same amount of money.

4. Two examples: from natural resources to healthy people (food-based interventions to alleviate micro-nutrient malnutrition; Bénin and Burkina Faso) and TELFUN (Tailoring food sciences to endogenous patterns of local food supply for future nutrition; Ghana and Bénin).

5. FONIO – improving the quality of fonio for West Africa and European markets (lead by Institut de Recherche pour le Developpement, IRD, Montpellier); INSTAPA – improved nutrition through staple foods in Africa (with Wageningen, IRD, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and ETH-Zurch; 6 million Euro).

6. AGS-net – the Africa Graduate Students network. It was established by Cornell-based Ph.D. students.

7. Several of the large EC-funded programmes under FP6 have included this as one of their objectives and modules are (becoming) available on the use of food composition data, on recommend intakes, etc. many more of such stand-alone modules that could be obtained at relatively low costs.