Region-wide assessment of the capacity for human nutrition training in West Africa: current situation, challenges, and way forward

Sodjinou, Roger; Fanou, Nadia; Déart, Lucie; Tchibindat, Félicité; Baker, Shawn K.; Bosu, William K.; Pepping, Fré; Delisle, Hélène

doi:10.3402/gha.v7.23247

Cited by 27 publications

(45 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…There is a weak human resource capacity at all levels. Current training approaches for nutrition are not well aligned to prevailing health problems, particularly chronic NCD (93) . NCD have usually not received sufficient priority in the public health agenda of developing countries.…”

Section: Some Challenges and Perspectivesmentioning

confidence: 99%

An overview of the nutrition transition in West Africa: implications for non-communicable diseases

Bosu

2014

Proc. Nutr. Soc.

107

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The nutrition landscape in West Africa has been dominated by the programmes to address undernutrition. However, with increasing urbanisation, technological developments and associated change in dietary patterns and physical activity, childhood and adult overweight, and obesity are becoming more prevalent. There is an evidence of increasing intake of dietary energy, fat, sugars and protein. There is low consumption of fruit and vegetables universally in West Africa. Overall, the foods consumed are predominantly traditional with the component major food groups within recommended levels. Most of the West African countries are at the early stages of nutrition transition but countries such as Cape Verde, Ghana and Senegal are at the latter stages. In the major cities of the region, children consume energy-dense foods such as candies, ice cream and sweetened beverages up to seven times as frequently as fruit and vegetables. Adult obesity rates have increased by 115 % in 15 years since 2004. In Ghana, the prevalence of overweight/obesity in women has increased from 12·8 % in 1993 to 29·9 % in 2008. In Accra, overweight/obesity in women has increased from 62·2 % in 2003 to 64·9 % in 2009. The age-standardised proportion of adults who engage in adequate levels of physical activity ranges from 46·8 % in Mali to 94·7 % in Benin. The lingering stunting in children and the rising overweight in adults have resulted to a dual burden of malnutrition affecting 16·2 % of mother-child pairs in Cotonou. The prevalence of hypertension has been increased and ranges from 17·6 % in Burkina Faso to 38·7 % in Cape Verde. The prevalence is higher in the cities: 40·2 % in Ougadougou, 46·0 % in St Louis and 54·6 % in Accra. The prevalence of diabetes ranges from 2·5 to 7·9 % but could be as high as 17·9 % in Dakar, Senegal. The consequences of nutrition transition are not only being felt by the persons in the high socioeconomic class, but also in cities such as Accra and Ouagadougou, where at least 19 % of adults from the poorest households are overweight and 19-28 % have hypertension. Concerted national action involving governments, partners, private sector and civil society is needed to re-orient health systems and build capacity to address the dual burden of malnutrition, to regulate the food and beverage industry and to encourage healthy eating throughout the life course.

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Section: Some Challenges and Perspectivesmentioning

confidence: 99%

An overview of the nutrition transition in West Africa: implications for non-communicable diseases

Bosu

2014

Proc. Nutr. Soc.

107

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“…The most recent and comprehensive survey of nutrition teaching establishments carried out in LMIC was performed in the West Africa region (64) , where eighty-three nutrition degree programmes comprising thirty-two BSc programmes, thirty-four MSc programmes and seventeen PhD programmes were identified. While more than half of these programmes were in Nigeria, six countries (Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, The Gambia and Togo) offered no nutrition degree programme.…”

Section: Workforce Preparationmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Shrimpton

Plessis

Delisle

et al. 2016

Public Health Nutr.

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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.

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“…Proceedings of the Nutrition Society surprising as earlier indicated by the Lancet Series, and also by the studies of nutrition capacity in West Africa (8,11) . The findings of this report were also consistent with the findings by Sodjinou et al regarding limited practical components of the nutrition programmes (11) .…”

Section: Capacity For Scaling Up Nutrition 535mentioning

confidence: 79%

Capacity for scaling up nutrition: a focus on pre-service training in West Africa and a Ghanaian case study

et al. 2015

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The 2013 Lancet series on maternal and child nutrition is identified and advocated for improved institutional and human capacity in nutrition towards scaling up nutrition (SUN) in countries with high stunting rates. Of the fifty-four countries with high burden of child undernutrition who have committed to the SUN movement, thirty-six are in Africa. In the present paper, the academic platform of the SUN movement in Ghana presents an overview of nutrition pre-service capacity in West Africa with a focus on Ghana. The present paper is based on the findings of a sub-region-wide assessment of degree programmes in nutrition in West Africa, plus another report on pre-service nutrition capacity in diploma awarding nursing and nutrition programmes in Ghana. Although there is inadequate evidence on pre-service nutrition training in the sub-region, the two reports provide useful evidence for action, including inadequate number and distribution of pre-service nutrition training programmes, low nutrition graduate output, poor quality of the programme curriculum and instruction, and sub-optimal capital investment. The present paper calls for urgent action to improve pre-service nutrition capacity building as a critical step towards SUN in West Africa.

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Region-wide assessment of the capacity for human nutrition training in West Africa: current situation, challenges, and way forward

Cited by 27 publications

References 11 publications

An overview of the nutrition transition in West Africa: implications for non-communicable diseases

An overview of the nutrition transition in West Africa: implications for non-communicable diseases

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

Capacity for scaling up nutrition: a focus on pre-service training in West Africa and a Ghanaian case study

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