Perspectives
on Global Nutrition
- by Allan Davison
Why this website? I
was contemplating retirement when, out of the blue, an
invitation came to write curriculum & courses for an
MSc in Global Health to produce "Agents of Change". Born in sub-Saharan Africa, the most impacted, most disastrous
scene of poverty and hunger, how could I resist?
When I began, resources were
abundant, except:
1) The field of global nutrition is riddled with
misinformation which has undermined much of the effort so
far. Good decisions require good data
2) Delivery
of aid was mired in controversy. Insufficient evidence to overcome ideological bias
3) There is a gap between what nutritionists in
rich counties learn and what's needed in the field.
Currently nutritionists and nutritional info are not
optimally utilized
It is a matter for optimism that the Cochrane
Collaboration, well known for unbiased, comprehensive,
evidence based assessment of medical claims, is bringing
its methodology and reputation to bear on both Evidence-based aid;
& reshaping
evidence synthesis for nutritional policy - also a Nutrition Field
located in Africa to coordinate methods for
conducting reviews in nutrition.
While researching global nutrition, I
was asked to write 2 book chapters. In these
- Global
nutrition in the 21st
century:
This contains much of my
analysis of evidence-based conclusions regarding MDG1,
biases, fallacies, and what kinds of aid work, or do
not, and why
- Nutrition
and food security: This is my analysis of how
nutritionists and nutritional principles, could best be
integrated into global health practice, emergency
missions, and sustainable development. There is a huge
role to be played by community health workers
At
this point I invite the reader to take
a diversion that my students find useful.
1) You could check your present knowledge regarding
widespread misconceptions in global health and
nutrition, by taking a 5-minute
T/F quiz. It consists of 19 commonly believed
assertions almost all of which are false. My intent
is to create skepticism, and a demand for the
information that will be provided in the resources
of this website.
2) This 5-minute
video clip is a presentation by Swedish
epidemiologist Hans Rosling to the 2015 Global
Economic summit
economists and heads of state. He asks three
questions to show the extent which these leaders
hold disastrous misconception regarding current
trends in global health and nutrition. Rosling
underlines that it is not the fact that they didn't
know the answer that is reprehensible. It is that
they were very confident of something that was
false. Good decisions, require good evidence.
To continue on the web, choose one of the following
Understand more
about nutritional inequities
- a
one page overview of information and issues
Instructional
slides for global health (these are being re-edited
but are available as a resource
1) A
4 hour module - problems, causes, &
strategies adopted: 3 slide sets
2) A set of 3 full web courses was completed
for the Global Health Education Consortium
3) Half-a-dozen short videos that
give perspective - the words of some who've
contributed to making a
difference
4) Conference presentations - most with slide sets
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