GEMUN 2015 Special Conference Topic 2
Ensuring education in food and nutrition
REPORT RESEARCH
by Giulia Grattarola INDEX I. Introduction & Definition of key terms II. Background III. Measures and Projects IV. Mayor countries involved V. Reliable useful links
I. Introduction & Definition of Key Terms
• To ensure means to secure, to guarantee, to make something happening for sure. Education in its general sense is a form of learning in which the knowledge, skills, values, beliefs and habits of a group of people are transferred from one generation to the next through storytelling, discussion, teaching, training, and or research. Education may also include informal transmission of such information from one human being to another. Education frequently takes place under the guidance of others, but learners may also educate themselves (autodidactic learning). Any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts may be considered educational. • Food is any substance consumed to provide nutritional support for the body. It is usually of plant or animal origin, and contains essential nutrients, such as fats, proteins, vitamins, or minerals. The substance is ingested by an organism and assimilated by the organism's cells to provide energy, maintain life, or stimulate growth. Most food has its origin in plants. Some food is obtained directly from plants; but even animals that are used as food sources are raised by feeding them food derived from plants. Some foods not from animal or plant sources include various edible fungi, especially mushrooms. Inorganic substances such as salt, baking soda and cream of tartar are used to preserve or chemically alter an ingredient. • Nutrition is the science that interprets the interaction of nutrients and other substances in food (e.g. phytonutrients, anthocyanins, tannins, etc.) in relation to maintenance, growth, reproduction, health and disease of an organism. It includes food intake, absorption, assimilation, biosynthesis, energy metabolism and excretion.
PAGE 5 II. Background
Education is commonly and formally divided into stages such as preschool, primary school, secondary school and then college, university or apprenticeship. The science and art of how best to teach is called pedagogy. A right to education has been recognized by some governments. At the global level, Article 13 of the United Nations' 1966 International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights recognizes the right of everyone to an education. Although education is compulsory in most places up to a certain age, attendance at school often isn't, and a minority of parents choose home-schooling, sometimes with the assistance of modern electronic educational technology (also called e-learning). Education can take place in formal or informal settings. Formal education occurs in a structured environment whose explicit purpose is teaching students. Usually formal education takes place in a school environment, with classrooms of multiple students learning together with a trained teacher. Most school systems are designed around a set of values or ideals that govern all educational choices in that system. Such choices include curriculum, physical classroom design, student- teacher interactions, methods of assessment, class size, educational activities, and more. Nutrition Education is any combination of educational strategies, accompanied by environmental supports, designed to facilitate voluntary adoption of food choices and other food- and nutrition-related behaviors conducive to health and well-being. Nutrition education is delivered through multiple venues and involves activities at the individual, community, and policy levels. This definition has been adopted by the Society for Nutrition Education and Behavior and was authored by Dr. Isobel Contento, a leading authority in nutrition education. The work of nutrition educators takes place in colleges, universities and schools, government agencies, cooperative extension, communications and public relations firms, the food industry, voluntary and service organizations and with other reliable places of nutrition and health education information.
III. Measures and Projects
The purpose of this review is to provide a summary of the kinds of evaluation measures used in 265 nutrition education intervention studies conducted between 1980 and 1999 and an analysis of psychometric issues arising from such a review. The data are summarized in terms of tables for interventions with each of six key population groups: preschool children, school-aged children, adults, pregnant women and breast-feeding promotion, older adults, and inservice preparation of professionals and paraprofessionals. Measures evaluating knowledge and skills or behavioral capabilities were most widely used in studies with preschool, school-aged, and inservice populations (50%-85%) and less widely used in studies with the other groups, particularly breast-feeding promotion (5%). Measures of potential psychosocial mediators or correlates of behavior such as outcome expectancies, self-efficacy, or behavioral intention were used in 90% of behaviorally focused studies with school-aged children and in about 20% of studies with adults. Dietary intake measures were used in almost all studies, primarily food recalls, records, and quantitative food frequency questionnaires. Short frequency instruments involving only foods targeted in the intervention such as fruits and vegetables are increasingly being used. Measures of specific observable behaviors are also increasingly being used. Physiologic parameters were used in about 33% of behaviorally focused interventions with school-aged children and adults, 20% with older adults, and 65% with pregnant women and/or their infants. Criterion validity of newly developed intake instruments and content validity of instruments measuring mediating variables were reported in the majority (range 50%-90%) of studies. Reliability and stability of measures of mediating variables were reported in 50% to 75% of studies, with reliability coefficients mostly about .6 to .7. Two major conclusions from this review are that evaluation measures should be appropriate to the purpose, duration, and power of the intervention and that measures should have adequate validity and reliability in relation to both the outcomes and characteristics of the target audience. Major implications are that considerable preliminary work needs to be done before any intervention study to develop and test evaluation instruments so that they are appropriate and have adequate psychometric properties, and cognitive testing of published instruments with each new target audience is essential. We will then be better able to make judgments about the effectiveness of nutrition education.
PAGE 5 IV. Major Countries Involved
United States of America The Society for Nutrition Education and Behavior (SNEB) is an American non-profit organization that represents the professional interests of nutrition educators in the United States and worldwide. The organization was founded as the Society for Nutrition Education in 1968 but changed to its current name in January 2012. SNEB is dedicated to promoting effective Nutrition Education and communication to support and improve healthful behaviors and has a vision of healthy communities through nutrition education and advocacy. Members of SNEB educate families, fellow professionals, students, communities, and policy makers about nutrition, food, and health. SNEB has adopted the definition of nutrition education as defined by Dr. Isobel Contento: Nutrition education is any combination of educational strategies, accompanied by environmental supports, designed to facilitate voluntary adoption of food choices and other food- and nutrition-related behaviors conducive to health and well-being. Nutrition education is delivered through multiple venues and involves activities at the individual, community and policy levels.[1] In addition to providing resources to the nutrition education community, SNEB publishes the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior JNEB. The official publication for the Society, JNEB is a refereed, scientific periodical that serves as a resource for all professionals with an interest in nutrition education as well as dietary and physical activity behaviors. The purpose of JNEB is to document and disseminate original research, emerging issues, and practices relevant to nutrition education and behavior worldwide. The content areas of JNEB reflect the diverse interests of health, nutrition, education, cooperative extension and other professionals working in areas related to nutrition education and behavior. As the Society's official journal, JNEB also includes occasional policy statements, issue perspectives, and member communications
China As part of its technical assistance to the Government of China in the promotion of health-promoting schools (HPS), the Health Education and Health Promotion Unit of WHO collaborated with FAO in six pilot schools of the Zhejiang Province in the development of HPS with a focus on nutrition. FAO provided technical assistance in the field of nutrition education (curriculum and material development), capacity building among local education, nutrition and health professionals, as well as in project design, implementation, and monitoring and evaluation. The goals were to contribute to the improvement of the nutrition and health status of students in the project schools through health and nutrition interventions and to develop a model project for nutrition interventions as an entry point for the development of health promoting schools, which can be replicated by other schools in China.
Germany From the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), the contribution will be channelled through the German development bank Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW). “This very substantial donation will have a huge impact on hundreds of thousands of the most vulnerable people in Yemen,” said WFP Yemen Deputy Country Director Rukia Yacoub. “Crucially, it enables us to provide 115,000 schoolgirls with take-home rations until the end of the current school year.” A total US$5.5 million of the contribution will support monthly food distributions or cash disbursements to severely food-insecure Yemeni families under WFP’s protective safety net operation, while US$14 million will go to treating and preventing malnutrition among young children and pregnant and breastfeeding women. The girls’ education component amounts to US$10 million and will also include take-home rations for 25,000 children released from child labour. The remaining US$500,000 will support capacity development and innovation in the Yemen government. All these activities are part of WFP’s two-year Protracted Relief and Recovery Operation, which started in July. This operation, with a budget of around US$500 million, aims to reach 6 million people through a range of interventions including helping to develop agriculture, rural infrastructure, rainwater conservation and rural employment. Additionally the operation will provide treatment and prevention of acute and chronic malnutrition and micronutrient deficiencies, and meals and take-home rations for children regularly attending school. It will also continue to provide relief assistance to the poorest and most vulnerable.
PAGE 5 “This new operation reflects a gradual shift from providing relief to building recovery and resilience, helping people overcome barriers to food and nutrition security and manage the consequences of conflict and natural stresses,” said Yacoub. “Germany is a key donor, whose support is critical to achieving our aims.” Germany is the largest donor to WFP Yemen so far this year, having contributed more than US$43.5 million in 2014.
V. Reliable Useful Links
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nutrition • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education • http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ensure • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nutrition_Education • http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11917668 • http://www.wfp.org/news/news-release/germany-donates-us30-million-nutrition-safety- nets-girls-education-yemen
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