HOW DISPLAYS ARE HOLDING US TOGETHER.

Very first thing, I hope this finds each of you, your families, and friends healthy. These are difficult times for all of us and there are priorities much greater than our professions at the moment. For those of you facing hardship, we extend our heartfelt sympathies and wish your circumstances to improve soon.

Public health nutrition capacity: assuring the quality of workforce preparation for scaling up nutrition programmes.

OBJECTIVE: To describe why and how capacity-building systems for scaling up nutrition programmes should be constructed in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC). DESIGN: Position paper with task force recommendations based on literature review and joint experience of global nutrition programmes, public health nutrition (PHN) workforce size, organization, and pre-service and in-service training. SETTING: The review is global but the recommendations are made for LMIC scaling up multisectoral nutrition programmes. SUBJECTS: The multitude of PHN workers, be they in the health, agriculture, education, social welfare, or water and sanitation sector, as well as the community workers who ensure outreach and coverage of nutrition-specific and -sensitive interventions. RESULTS: Overnutrition and undernutrition problems affect at least half of the global population, especially those in LMIC. Programme guidance exists for undernutrition and overnutrition, and priority for scaling up multisectoral programmes for tackling undernutrition in LMIC is growing. Guidance on how to organize and scale up such programmes is scarce however, and estimates of existing PHN workforce numbers - although poor - suggest they are also inadequate. Pre-service nutrition training for a PHN workforce is mostly clinical and/or food science oriented and in-service nutrition training is largely restricted to infant and young child nutrition. CONCLUSIONS: Unless increased priority and funding is given to building capacity for scaling up nutrition programmes in LMIC, maternal and child undernutrition rates are likely to remain high and nutrition-related non-communicable diseases to escalate. A hybrid distance learning model for PHN workforce managers' in-service training is urgently needed in LMIC.

Household food security and buffering mechanisms in Thai and non-Thai households in Nong Loo Sub-district, Sangkhla Buri, Thailand.

This was a cross sectional study to measure any difference between Thai and Non-Thai households in the prevalence of food security and the effect of state and local buffering mechanisms on household food security status in Nong Loo Sub-district in Kanchanaburi Province. Seventy-five point eight percent of 211 households (120 Thai and 91 non-Thai households) were food insecure. Non-Thai households were found to be significantly more food insecure than Thai households (95.6% compared with 60.8%; OR=21.4). Non-Thais tended to have less knowledge of and access to buffering mechanisms; however, this was not statistically significant. Of interest, however, was that no statistically significant association was found between household food insecurity and lack of access to buffering mechanisms. Qualitative interview results suggested that landownership, possession of a Thai card (Government registration card), increased food prices, and a dependence on imported food from other districts were important factors associated with household food insecurity in the sub-district. This survey underlines the importance of the food insecurity as a problem among Thai and, more severely, among non-Thai households and provides stake holders with information that can be used to intensify programs to address this problem. Thailand has a long border area with a high proportion of non-Thai households, and it is likely that similar food insecurity problems exist in other areas also. Further research on nutrition security (as distinct from food security) of this population is recommended in order to better assess the impact of the observed food insecurity.

Panel 2.1 1: food security and nutrition.

This is a summary of the presentations and discussion of Panel 2.11, Food Security and Nutrition of the Conference, Health Aspects of the Tsunami Disaster in Asia, convened by the World Health Organization (WHO) in Phuket, Thailand, 04-06 May 2005. The topics discussed included issues related to food security and nutrition as pertain to the responses to the damage created by the Tsunami. It is presented in the following major sections: (1) findings; (2) key questions; (3) discussion; and (4) recommendations.