Postgraduate education in nutrition in south Asia: a huge mismatch between investments and needs

Abstract

BackgroundDespite decades of nutrition advocacy and programming, the nutrition situation in South Asian countries is alarming. We assume that modern training in nutrition at the post graduate level is an important contributor to building the capacity of individuals to think and act effectively when combating undernutrition. In this context, this paper presents a regional situation analysis of master’s level academic initiatives in nutrition with a special focus on the type of programme we think is most likely to be helpful in addressing undernutrition at the population level: Public Health Nutrition (PHN).MethodsThis situational analysis of Masters in nutrition across South Asian countries viz. India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Maldives, Nepal, Bhutan was conducted using an intensive and systematic Internet search. Further, detailed information was extracted from the individual institute websites and library visits.ResultsOf the131 master’s degree programmes we identified one that was in PHN while another 15 had modules in PHN. Most of these universities and institutions were found in India with a few in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. In the rest of the countries, neither nutrition nor PHN emerged as an academic discipline at the master’s level. In terms of eligibility Indian and Sri Lankan programmes were most inclusive, with the remaining countries restricting eligibility to those with health qualifications. On modules, no country had any on nutrition policy or on nutrition’s interactions with agriculture, social protection, water and sanitation or women’s empowerment.ConclusionIf a strong focus on public health nutrition is key to reducing undernutrition, then the poor availability of such courses in the region is cause for concern. Nutrition master’s courses in general focus too little on the kinds of strategies highlighted in the recent Lancet series on nutrition. Governments seeking to accelerate declines in undernutrition should incentivize the delivery of postgraduate programmes in nutrition and Public Health Nutrition (PHN) that reflect the modern consensus on priority actions. In the absence of PHN type programmes, the competence to scale up nutrition capacity is likely to be impaired and the human potential of millions of infants will continue to be squandered.

Postgraduate Nutrition Education in India

“…First, we conducted a search for all nutrition related postgraduate programmes in the country. We had previously undertaken this exercise (15,18), but we repeated it in order to include any recent additions or modifications.…”

“…The focus on PHN is important because it is argued by many that such programmes are more attuned to current thinking on what to do to accelerate undernutrition reduction [11,16,17]. This paper goes beyond the analyses in Khandelwal et al [15,18] in three ways. First, we focus on what is being taught.…”

“…This paper asks whether current nutrition World Nutrition 2017;8 (2) programmes in India are aligned well enough to these attributes. While there are some analyses of nutrition curricula in the US [12][13][14], we could find only one for India [15]. The current paper builds on Khandelwal et al [15] which was a situation analysis of postgraduate programmes in nutrition in South Asia.…”

“…While there are some analyses of nutrition curricula in the US [12][13][14], we could find only one for India [15]. The current paper builds on Khandelwal et al [15] which was a situation analysis of postgraduate programmes in nutrition in South Asia. It found that of the identified 131 master's degree programmes, only one was in Public Health Nutrition (PHN).…”

“…It found that of the identified 131 master's degree programmes, only one was in Public Health Nutrition (PHN). Further it reported that only 15 of the 131 programmes had modules in PHN in the entire South Asia region [15]. The focus on PHN is important because it is argued by many that such programmes are more attuned to current thinking on what to do to accelerate undernutrition reduction [11,16,17].…”