The government of Malawi through Department of Nutrition, HIV and AIDS in collaboration with Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (LUANAR) and University of Malawi, College of Medicine (COM) has organized a two-day first ever workshop (October 8-9) for food and Nutrition at Bingu International Conference Centre (BICC) in Lilongwe.
The revelation was made during the press briefing Thursday on Food and Nutrition for Sustainable National Economic Development titled: “You are what you Eat”, The conference aimed at discussing and brainstorming thematic issues in areas of; Cost of Hunger in the national economic development, Nutrition and Health, Food Science and Technology, Food safety, Food laws and regulations and Cross-Cutting issues among other.
The Director of Nutrition Felix Pensulo Phiri said the world is changing; hence a need to equip human nutrition practitioners with skills to manage malnutrition and stunted growth problems.
“Among others the conference will share new concepts and technologies required to achieve national human wellbeing and development through effective food and nutrition interventions”, said Phiri.
He also highlights that the dissemination will provide a platform for sharing research findings to stakeholders from different research institutions academia, government, development partners, Civil Society Organizations, industries and many others in food nutrition.
Associate Professor for Human Nutrition LUANAR Alexander Kalimbira concurred that continuous relevant professional research development (CFD) is among the ways to reduce malnutrition to the country’s development.
“Since the surveys has reveal how big malnutrition problem is the Malawi, The government together with collaborating partners has therefore, engage strategies to reduce malnutrition among which are the scaling up of nutrition and research for evidence based programming. For instance, stunting as a nutrition indicator has being reduced from 47% in 2010 to 42 in 2014, and anemia from 59% to 31% respectively”, lamented Kalimbira.
Kalimbira further, state that Malnutrition remains a major challenge to Malawi development hence including nutrition as a priority area in the Malawi Growth and Development Strategy is critical. “This workshop is a must-not miss for all Nutrition practitioners”, He Concluded.
