• Programme Coordinator: Patrick J. Stover, Ph.D., Director of the UNU Food and Nutrition Programme.
  
• Programme Adviser: Dr. Nevin Scrimshaw

  

Malnutrition remains a global problem of even greater significance than was the case when the UNU Council designated the World Hunger Programme as one of the UNU's three foci in 1975. Reasons for this relate to the ever increasing significance of adequate nutrition to national development and meeting global aspirations for an improved quality of life for all people. These rising expectations, the ever-heightening understanding of the significance of biologic imperatives that can be met only by the appropriate nutrients at the appropriate life stages, and the impact that both of these conditions impose on the United Nation's commitment to rights based approaches in fulfilling mandates that relate to human development make food and nutrition highly relevant to the UNU.

The Food and Nutrition Programme continues to engage in activities of global significance and enjoys the support of sister agencies throughout the UN system and the broader academic community. The programme has achieved a widespread and enviable reputation in contributing to the solution of major nutrition problems of developing countries and for its significant contributions to increasing the competence of developing country institutions to deal with national food and nutrition problems. UNU funding is used most effectively in covering additional support from foundations and government agencies.

Important for UNU is its extensive integration into the UN system including a leadership and mediating role of the ACC/SCN, a number of joint activities with WHO (most recently UNU management of a joint iron research programme and the development of new International Growth References for Infants and Small Children), with FAO UNICEF, IAEA (joint workshop on protein and amino acid requirements), with the World Bank with UNESCO.

Cornell University has housed the UNU Food and Nutrition Programme (UNU-FNP) since June 1996 and continues to enrich and expand the programme in the areas of research and capacity building. . The FNPhas instituted a network that serves as a steering committee to support UNU global activities with regional centers in Asia, North Africa and the Mid East, East Africa, South Africa, Latin America and Eastern Europe. Mahidol University serves as the Asian Regional Center; the Instituto de Nutriciecnolia de los Alimentos (INTA) in Santiago, Chile serves as the Latin American regional center; Wageningen University in the Netherlands serves as the European regional center; National Institute of Nutrition, Cairo serves as the regional center in the Mid East; The Regional Center for Quality Health Care is the focal center for East Africa; South Africa's programs are organized by the University of Western Cape, S Africa.

Several of the past projects under this programme are listed below:

• International Network of Food Data Systems (INFOODS)
• International Iron Nutrition Project (IINP)
• International Dietary Energy Consultative Group (IDECG) ANNUAL REPORTS

Current projects include:

• Multi-Country Growth Reference Study (MGRS)
• Global Initiative for Enhancing Institutional Capacity in Food and Nutrition
• African Nutrition Leadership Initiative - (joint project with IUNS)
• Harmonization of Approaches for Setting National Dietary Standards
• African Graduate Students Network

Food and Nutrition Bulletin and the Journal of Food Composition and Analysis

The highly esteemed quarterly Food and Nutrition Bulletin, a publication for nearly 30 years, is often the only scientific publication in their field to reach developing country nutrition and health workers. The Journal of Food Composition and Analysis is published quarterly by Academic Press as an official publication of UNU/INFOODS. These two journals continue to exemplify the University's commitment to food and nutrition for human and social development and be supplemented by publications based on specialized workshops organized or sponsored by UNU in whole or in part.

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