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Revision and updating of PAG guidelines
Analytical review of information on
breast-feeding world-wide: trends, nutritional and health values,
and socio-economic significance
Goals, processes, and indicators for food and
nutrition policy and planning
Regional training programme on food and
nutrition planning
Improvement of nutritional quality of cereal and
food legumes by breeding
UN University world hunger programme associated
institutions
Conocimientos Actuales en Nutrición:
Spanish version of Present Knowledge in Nutrition
Revision and updating of PAG guidelines
Dr. Max Milner, Senior Lecturer in the International Food and Nutrition Policy and Planning Programme at MIT, and former Director of the PAG Secretariat, has undertaken to revise a number of the PAG Guidelines. A major contribution of the Protein Advisory Group of the UN system (PAG) was the preparation and distribution of a series of guidelines concerned with a variety of food production, processing, nutrition, and safety issues, relating to protein concentrates, weaning-food mixtures, animal and human testing, and procedures useful for plant-breeders in improving the nutritional quality of cereal and food legume crops. Dr. Milner is obtaining the assistance of knowledgeable scientists and technologists in a number of countries for his revisions. As work on revision and updating of individual guidelines is completed, they will be published in the UN University Food and Nutrition Bulletin. A re-draft of the original PAG Guideline No. 2, "Guideline for Preparing Food-Grade Groundnut (Peanut} Flour" will appear in the second issue of the Bulletin. Revisions of the following additional guidelines are in progress: Edible, heat-processed soy grits and flour; Edible cottonseed flour; Edible sesame flour; and Single-cell protein for human consumption.
In the spring of 1977, a small group of MIT faculty and graduate students, concerned by widely publicized and conflicting information and misinformation on the trends and significance of breast-feeding practices, sought support for an objective review of reliable published and unpublished information on this subject. Aware of efforts by the World Health Organization and other specialized groups to collect such information, the MIT group felt that a nonaligned, multidisciplinary body made up of medical and non-medical nutritionists, food scientists, economists, anthropologists, and persons in allied disciplines, could best take the available information and put it into a factual and objective context, without being beholden to the special interests of any particular group.
Because internal resources at MIT were grossly inadequate for such a study, funds were sought from a number of sources, but always with the insistence that the group would have complete freedom in analysis and publication of data. An unrestricted grant of $50,000 has been received, and additional support is being sought from foundations, government agencies, and private groups.
The study will attempt to determine, from available published and reliable unpublished information, the status of present breast-feeding practices, discernible trends, and such causal factors of these trends as can be substantiated. The study will examine the importance of breast-feeding in satisfying the nutritional requirements of infants, and its relation to the nutrition and health of the mother. This will include information on the significance of breast-feeding to the infant's physical and psycho-social growth and development. The study will be concerned with the nutritional adequacy of human breast-milk relative to the changing needs of the child, and with the timing of supplementary feeding in relation to both to needs and environmental conditions. The larger topic of infant feeding after full weaning will not be covered.
The study will deal with the evidence concerning biochemical characteristics of human breast-milk and the factors that modulate its composition; the physiological factors associated with success or failure of lactation; psychological issues of mother-child interrelationships; and the macro- and micro-economic significance of breast-feeding. It will consider the relationship between breast-feeding and fertility and the consequent demographic implications. it will also examine the relationship of breast-feeding to over-all health problems in developing countries, particularly the role of breast-feeding in reducing the frequency and severity of infections. Information on the relation of breast-feeding to health problems in industrialized countries, such as obesity, coronary heart disease, and allergies, will also be reviewed.
All available data from the properly conducted field studies of current trends in breast-feeding behaviour will be considered. Among the possible causative factors to be reviewed will be changes in availability of commercial formulas and accompanying marketing practices, urbanization and industrialization, availability and nature of health services, hospital delivery practices, the influence of physicians and health-care workers, social-policy legislation, opportunities for women outside the home, and other sociological and psychological factors affecting the mother.
The MIT study group has received limited outside assistance to date. In particular, an expert advisory group of distinguished and experienced research workers in the field of infant nutrition was convened, under the auspices of the Nutrition Foundation, for two days in Cambridge. This group reviewed the plans for the study, listened to summaries of data thus far reviewed, and made many valuable suggestions regarding additional sources of information and the interpretation of the research data base. The responsibility for the final report and its conclusions, however, remains entirely with the MIT group.
The ultimate goal of the project is to prepare a monograph draft by the end of 1978 that can be widely distributed to interested persons and groups throughout the world for comment and criticism. After these comments and criticisms have been received and taken into account, formal publication will be arranged.
Anyone with relevant information is urged to make it available to: the Breast-feeding Analytical Review Study, MIT, 20B-202, Cambridge, MA 02139.
Goals, processes, and indicators for food and nutrition policy and planning
The goals for food and nutrition policy and planning should include far more than the meeting of minimum physiological needs. They should include economic, social, psychological, and political considerations, as well as such factors as human rights and cultural integrity. In determining the goals of national planning to overcome malnutrition there must be as much concern for the processes of distribution and consumption as for the production of food. If goals can be defined, it should be possible to formulate appropriate indicators in such a way as to permit the application of these indicators to specific parts of the national planning effort.
To discuss these aspects, the World Hunger and Human and Social Development Programmes of the United Nations University are planning a joint workshop on Goals, Processes, and Indicators for Food and Nutrition Policy and Planning, to be held at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 26 - 29 March 1979. The discussions will include consideration of different concepts of development; differences in national strategies of development as well as food and nutrition policy; the effect of differences in socio-economic and socio-political structures on the satisfaction of human needs; the relation of income district button and employment, and environmental constraints. The discussions should also help in identifying research needs at the interfaces of food, nutrition, and development.
Regional training programme on food and nutrition planning
Throughout Asia and the Pacific, as in many other regions of the world, there is a lack of trained Personnel to undertake nutrition work in the agricultural and economic sectors, particularly for the vital task of formulating and integrating national food and nutrition policies in national and sectoral development plans.
To implement these requirements a training course in Food and Nutrition Planning will be held annually, commencing June 1978, at the University of the Philippines, Los Baños, for candidates from the Asian and Pacific region.
The course is jointly organized by the Graduate School of the University of the Philippines at Los Baños, (UPLB) and the Netherlands Universities Foundation of International Cooperation/International Course in Food Science and Nutrition (NUFFIC-ICFSN), in co-operation with the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
The course leads to a degree in Master of Professional Studies (Food and Nutrition Planning), and the curriculum covers Human Nutrition and Foods, Practice of Nutrition, Food Habits Studies, Sociology, Compilation of Socioeconomic Data, Development Economics and Politics, Project Feasibility Studies, Programme Budgeting, Management and Administration as well as Planning.
The course lasts 12 months and is given in the English language. The teaching staff will consist of the academic professional staff of UPLB, guest lecturers from the region, staff of international organizations such as FAO, and staff from NUFFIC-ICFSN in the Netherlands.
Applicants must have a bachelor's degree or its equivalent in a related field, and some years of practical experience. Preference will be given to country teams, who will be employed by their governments in the field of training upon completion of the course.
Each year 20 fellowships, covering all costs related to the course, will be made available by the Dutch government.
Information on the course can be obtained from:
The Dean of the Graduate School
University of Philippines at Los Baños,
College, Laguna 3720 Philippines
Improvement of nutritional quality of cereal and food legumes by breeding
Two recent publications that merit the attention of food and agricultural scientists concerned with improvement of cereal and food legume crops are the following.
Nutritional Standards and Methods of Evaluation for Food Legume Breeders. Prepared by the International Working Group on Nutrition Standards and Methods for Evaluation for Food Legume Breeders. J.H. Hulse, K.O. Rachie, and L.W. Billingsley, 1977. IDRC-TS7e. available from: International Development Research Centre, Box 8500, Ottawa, Canada KlG-3H9.
Nutritional Evaluation of Cereal Mutants. Proceedings of an Advisory Group Meeting, Vienna, 26 - 30 July 1976, jointly organized by the Joint FAD/IAEA Division of Atomic Energy in Food and Agriculture, the Food Policy and Nutrition Division of FAO and the Gesellschaft für Strahlen und Umweltforschung. Publ. in 1977 by the International Atomic Energy Agency, P.O. Box 590, A- 1011 Vienna, Austria.
The IDRC document updates and enlarges earlier initiatives of the Protein-Calorie Advisory Group of the United Nations system which, on the basis of efforts by similar expert working groups, issued in 1973 PAG Statement 22, "Upgrading Human Nutrition Through the Improvement of Food Legumes", and in 1974, PAG Guideline No. 16, "Protein Methods for Cereal Breeders as Related to Hum an Nutritional Requirements".
The IDRC document is essentially a handbook featuring: (1) a discussion of the nutritional objectives to which legume breeders should give attention; (2) recommended physical and chemical methods of analysis; (3) recommended methods of biological evaluation; and (4) a series of related background papers written by various members of the working group.
The IAEA document reviews the work of the joint FAO/ IAEA programme to improve seed protein through the use of nuclear techniques, supported since 1969 by the Federal Republic of Germany. The report features a series of papers by various research workers dealing with factors affecting the nutritional quality of cereal grains, the potentials and limitations of breeding for nutritional improvement, and various methods useful for determining nutritional quality. The document concludes with recommendations for goals and methods useful to plant-breeders in achieving cereals of improved nutritional quality.
UN University world hunger programme associated institutions
A brief description of the institutions, and the facilities provided as an associated institution of the University, is presented in the following paragraphs.
Institute of Nutrition and Food Technology (INTA)
Address: University of Chile
Casilla 15138
Santiago 11, Chile
Director: Dr. Fernando Monckeberg
Resident Co-ordinator: Dr. Ricardo Uauy
Established in 1950 as the Laboratories for Pediatric Research, its initial work was on the consequences of child malnutrition and the preventive measures to be taken. Progressively, research became multidisciplinary and integrated to include studies on national nutrition problems within their ecological setting. In 1972, the Laboratories emerged as a separate department within the university, and since 1976 it is recognized as the Institute of Nutrition and Food Technology (INTA), and the work is in multidisciplinary units.
A teaching programme, leading to a Master's Degree in Nutrition Planning, was instituted in 1975. INTA has played a major advisory role in the development of an integrated national nutrition policy currently directed by the National Council for Food and Nutrition (CONPAN), and in the nutrition-related policies of the National Health Service.
Research projects undertaken
The basic and applied research projects undertaken at INTA fall within the two priority areas of the World Hunger Programme-nutritional requirements and their fulfillment in practice (sub-programme D; and the nutrition and food objectives in national planning and development (sub-programm Ill). The applied research projects are in the following fields.
1. Prevention of iron deficiency in infancy, using a new, acidified iron-fortified milk formula developed at INTA. This would help to prevent iron-deficiency anaemia, known to be highly prevalent among infants.
2. Determination of the ability of a Chilean mixed diet to meet the protein requirements of low-income adults under their normal living conditions, using the World Hunger Programme standardized protocol.
3. Encouragement of breast-feeding in marginal urban communities. An educational-motivational programme will be tried in an effort to reverse previously described trends of decreased breast-feeding in the developing countries.
4. Environmental sanitation as a tool for nutritional intervention. The project will evaluate cost effectiveness of education, education plus sanitation, and sanitation alone, compared with a control group, and will measure specifically the incidence of diarrhea! disease and of bacterial contamination of milk in bottle-fed infants.
5. Study of the purchasing power of low-income urban families and its effects on food consumption, exploring economic indices predictive of groups running the highest nutritional risks within the country.
The agreement between the Institute of Nutrition and Food Technology and the United Nations University became effective on 1 October 1977 for an initial period of one year.
Central Food Technological Research Institute (CFTRl)
Address: Mysore 570013 India
Telephone: 20200
Cable: FOODSEARCH MYSORE
Telex: 0846-241 FTRI IN.
Director: Dr. Bance L. Amla
Resident Co-ordinator: Dr. Bance L. Amla
The Institute was established by the Government of India in 1949 as one of a chain of research and development institutions under the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research. It is also the site of the International Training Centre for Food Technology for students from South and Southeast Asia and other countries, jointly founded by the Government of India and the FAO. The research programmes of the Institute have been designed to meet the specific needs of a developing country with varied agro-climatic conditions, and for application of the programmes in the rural and semi-urban conditions of developing countries with large rural populations and with seasonal surpluses of agricultural produce. The Institute also has facilities for extending its expert services to help integrate the application of know-how, both in rural and urban areas.
Facilities provided as associated institution
The research Fellows are offered facilities for investigation in collaboration with, and/or under the supervision of, faculty members in the following areas: storage, infestation control and pesticides; milling and processing of cereals, millets, pulses, and tubers; fruit and vegetable technology; process development and fermentation technology; technology of vegetable proteins; food packaging; meat, fish, and poultry technology; and flour milling and baking technology.
The other important areas with facilities for applied research are: microbiology and sanitation; biochemistry; applied nutrition technology; lipid technology and consultancy; extension and market research.
The agreement between the Central Food Technological Research Institute and the United Nations University became effective on 1 November 1976 for an initial period of five years.
The Nutrition Center of the Philippines (NCP)
Address: Nutrition Center of the Philippines Bldg.
South Super Highway, Nichols Interchange Makati, Metro Manila
3116, Philippines
Telephone: 85 30-71 to 79
Cable: NUTRICEN MANILA
Director: Dr. Florentino Solon
UNU Resident Co-ordinator: Dr. Rodolfo Florentino
To combat malnutrition in the Philippines, two new organizations were established in 1974. One was the National Nutrition Council (NNC), with responsibility for co ordinating all nutrition programmes in the country and preparing a national programme end the other was the Nutrition Center of the Philippines (NCP), to provide appropriate technical support for the National Nutrition Programme. In 1977, the NCP extended assistance to the National Nutrition Programme by organizing relevant nutrition education and food assistance activities. The Center has continued its work on development of tools, materials, and food formulations for use in the National Nutrition Programme; on training of nutrition workers from the private sector; on provision of documentation and library services; and of supporting an early childhood development programme.
Facilities provided as associated institution
The NCP-UNU Center is entrusted with the conduct of an Advanced Training Programme on Food and Nutrition Planning and Implementation for National Development for foreign and local nutrition workers, oriented largely towards the health sector.
The programme consists of three phases. The brief first phase consists of academic sessions on Principles of Nutrition, Community Nutrition and Planning, and Implementation and Evaluation of Food and Nutrition Programmes. These are supplemented in the second phase by actual observation and analysis of existing nutrition programmes and other nutrition-related activities at the national, regional, provincial, and municipal levels. The last phase of the training programme consists of a barangay (village) practicum, which will allow the Fellows to gain firsthand experience in the application of the knowledge gained during the first two phases, as well as to conduct applied, operational, mission-oriented, short-term research at the barangay level.
The agreement between the Nutrition Center of the Philippines and the United Nations University began on 1 September 1976, and was renewed on 1 September 1978 for a period of two years.
Institute of Nutrition of Central America and Panama (INCAP)
Address: Carretera Roosevelt Zona 11
Guatemala
Central America
Telephone: 43762
Cable: INCAP GUATEMALA
Director: Dr. Carlos Tejada
UNU Resident Co-ordinator: Dr. Guillermo Arroyave
The Institute of Nutrition of Central America and Panama is a technical regional organization created in Guatemala City in 1946 through an agreement signed by representatives of the Governments of Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama, and of the Pan-American Sanitary Bureau (PASB), Regional Office of the World Health Organization. Its mission is to study the nutrition problems of the region, to seek means for their solution, and to assist the member countries in the effective application of those solutions. It has an active educational programme in conjunction with the University of San Carlos de Guatemala.
Facilities provided as associated institution
In the World Hunger Programme, INCAP offers advanced training at a Master or Doctorate degree level or equivalent to professionals who have completed their university studies. This training is provided through academic and research activities in areas related to the nutrition and food problems of the world.
The duration of the training is ordinarily one academic year, but shorter periods may be considered, provided that the completion of the basic objectives of the training are insured. Under special circumstances, periods longer than one year may be considered.
Facilities for study in the following areas are currently available: food composition, food technology, nutritional biochemistry, animal nutrition, analysis and quality control of foods, physiological and clinical aspects of nutrition, metabolism and nutritional requirements, control of hypovitaminosis A, nutrition and productivity, nutrition and digestive function, nutrition and infection, rural development, population and demography, human development, national food and nutrition policies, public health nutrition, epidemiological surveillance of nutrition, and diet and recommended allowances.
The agreement between the Institute of Nutrition of Central America and Panama, and the United Nations University became effective on 1 July 1976 and was renewed on 1 January 1978 for a period of three years.
Tropical Products Institute (TPI)
Address: 127 Clerkenwell Road
London EC1 R 5DB, England
Telephone: 01 -405 7943
Director: Dr. Philip C. Spensley
UNU Resident Co-ordinator: Dr. E.M. Thain
The Institute is a British Government organization forming part of the Ministry of Overseas Development. Its function is to co-operate with developing countries in maximizing benefits from their plant and animal products.
It specializes in the various scientific, technological, and economic problems that arise subsequent to harvest, which include processing, preservation, storage, transport, quality control, marketing, and utilization of wastes and by-products. The technology and economics of industries based on plant and animal products ("agro-industries") are of particular interest.
Facilities provided as associated institution
The Institute offers United Nations University Fellows facilities to train in the practical aspects of research on food conservation. Preference would be given to requests to work in areas where TPI has general knowledge and experience, and that it considers should be developed further.
The list below is not definitive, but serves to provide examples of the areas offering opportunities for research. In addition, the Institute's programme is not static: it changes to meet the changing needs of developing countries . Consideration would, therefore, be willingly given to any proposal for applied research topics that fall generally within the field of fruits and vegetables; processing and technology of cereals and dried pulses; pest control; and general processing of food.
The agreement between the Tropical Products Institute and the United Nations University became effective on 1 December 1977 for an initial period of three years.
Venezuelan Institute of Scientific Research (IVIC)
Address: Apartado 1827, Caracas Venezuela
Telephone: 69 19 41
Cable: IVICSAS
Director: Dr. Luis Carbonell
Resident Co-ordinator: Dr. Miguel Layrisse
The "Instituto Venezolano de Investigaciones Cientificas" (IVIC: Venezuelan Institute of Scientific Research), was established in 1959 by the Ministry of Health and Welfare of Venezuela for planning, co-ordinating, and conducting research in the physical, chemical, and health sciences. It is the largest research institution in the country, and has over sixty research laboratories engaged in work in the fields of biophysics and biochemistry, micro-biology and cellular biology, ecology, experimental medicine, anthropology, hydrocarbons and chemistry, physics, engineering and computers, and mathematics.
Among them, the Pathophysiology Laboratory in the Experimental Medicine Department has been conducting, for the last several years, studies on various aspects of iron metabolism and iron-deficiency anaemia, both in experimental animals and in humans. The laboratory has been internationally recognized as a centre for research on anaemia. Among the various studies currently being undertaken are investigations on iron intake, absorption, and availability of iron from iron-fortified traditional foods.
It also serves as a centre for advanced training for graduate students.
Research project undertaken
The UNU association has helped to initiate a small network conducting applied research relevant to the problem of human iron deficiency and its prevention in the region.
The research programme will ascertain, with precision, the amount of iron absorbed from the most common Latin American diets, and the amount of iron, as fortified iron, that is necessary to be incorporated into the regular diet in order to meet the physiological iron requirement.
The work will be carried out in close collaboration with two other institutions in Latin America-the Institute of Nutrition and Food Technology (INTA), and the Institute of Nutrition of Central America and Panama (INCAP) both of which are associated institutions of the UNU.
The agreement between the Venezuelan Institute of Scientific Research and the United Nations University became effective on 1 January 1978 for an initial period of two years.
The International Food & Nutrition Policy Planning Programme (IFNP)
Address: Massachusetts Institute of Technology Cambridge,
Massachusetts 02139 USA
Telephone: 1617) 253-7617
Cable: MITUNATUNIV CAMBRIDGE
Telex: 92-1473
Provost: Dr. Walter A. Rosenblith
Resident Co-ordinator: Dr. Barbara Underwood
IFNP was founded in 1973 as a joint undertaking of the MIT Department of Nutrition and Food Science and the MIT Center for International Studies. The Department has long enjoyed a high international reputation for its training and research activities in nutrition and food science and other areas of applied biology as they affected developing countries. The Center has been widely acclaimed for its studies of international economic and political development for work on public-policy issues.
These interests naturally combined in IFNP-a multidisciplinary programme bringing to bear economic, political science, and nutrition expertise on the problems of planning nutrition programmes in developing countries. In addition, the IFNP programme utilizes the expertise and facilities available at Harvard University and other appropriate academic resources in the northeastern United States of America.
The multidisciplinary research and training, with orientation to world nutrition problems, includes workshop discussions and field studies. The programme involves a wide variety of disciplines in its teaching and research programmes, including nutrition and food sciences, economics, political science, urban studies, public health, demography, anthropology, management, and systems analysis. The multidisciplinary approach helps to define the policy and programming opportunities, and to select the most effective strategy for interventions and for evaluation.
Facilities provided as associated institution
The programme would offer to the UNU Fellows-who would be involved substantially in the planning, implementation or evaluation of activities designed to combat malnutrition in low-income countries-a specifically designed course of study, including seminars and workshops, and research tailored to the background and experience and to the position he or she anticipates pursuing upon completion of the programme.
The programme for each Fellow would last one year, with an option for continued training for a smaller number of Fellows in special circumstances. The training programme will assist the Fellow to enlarge his competence to use the social, economic, political, administrative, and public health tools necessary to achieve improved national nutrition status.
The agreement between the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Harvard School of Public Health, and the United Nations University became effective on 1 February 1978 for an initial period of three years.
Centre for Research in Nutrition, Laval University (CRN)
Address: Quebec G1K 7P4 Canada
Telephone: (418) 656-2439
Cable: AGRAL-2BC-UL CANADA
Telex: 0513099
Director: Dr. Germain J. Brisson
UNU Resident Co-ordinator: Dr. J. C. Dillon
Laval University demonstrated its interest in problems related to nutrition by founding the CRN in 1968. An important characteristic of the CRN is its multidisciplinary approach to nutrition. It has a permanent research team made up of professionals from various disciplines, and it also actively collaborates with the other departments of the university. The following seven permanent research teams have been established to pursue the applied research programme: food technology; nutrient recycling; toxicology; animal nutrition; nutrition and public health; clinical nutrition, and international nutrition and nutrition planning.
Laval University has already distinguished itself as a leading institution in training and research on food and nutrition in the French-speaking world, especially Africa. Currently, this consists of training and education programmes on the university campus for French-speaking scientists from Africa, Haiti, and Vietnam; overseas co-operative training and education programmes with exchange of staff and institutional backup for on-site facilities such as the University of Agriculture in Meknes, Morocco, and the University of Haiti; research projects in French-speaking countries such as Haiti and Senegal; and participation in the Canadian International Development and Research Programmes with special educational programmes, leading to Masters and Ph.D. degrees in Food and Nutrition, for Frenchspeaking nationals. The academic studies are carried out at Laval University with research projects pursued in the student's own country.
Facilities provided as associated institution
In the World Hunger Programme, the CRN will offer to professionals from French-speaking countries advanced training in the WHP sub-programmes II and III-Post-harvest Conservation of Food, and Food and Nutrition Objectives in National Planning and Development. Facilities for applied research in food conservation exist in the fields of processing and storage of food; fermentation; quality control and development of new foods from plant and animal sources; protein extraction and texturization; and technology of milk and milk products. The other subject areas are: safety of foods, and management of non-conventional food chains, particularly agricultural-waste management.
The Centre has a long-established interest in international nutrition planning. It has already been involved in planning food-aid programmes in developing countries such as Haiti, as well as in formulating nutrition policies at the national and international levels. To conduct these activities, the Centre not only depends on its own resources, but also has access to the university facilities and personnel, and may call upon experts outside the campus.
In the immediate future, the CRN will develop, in addition, a research programme with the Institut de Technologie Alimentaire (ITA), Dakar, Senegal, in the area of post-harvest conservation of food.
The agreement between the Centre for Research in Nutrition and the United Nations University became effective on 1 June 1978 for an initial period of three years.
Conocimientos Actuales en Nutrición: Spanish version of Present Knowledge in Nutrition
The Institute of Nutrition of Central America and Panama (INCAP) and the Latin American Archives of Nutrition (official organ of the Latin American Nutrition Society) are pleased to announce the publication of Conocimientos Actuales en Nutritión, a Spanish translation of Present Knowledge in Nutrition, fourth edition published by the Nutrition Foundation Inc., USA. This reference book, containing 53 chapters, provides the latest information on all nutrition-deficiency diseases and important human nutrition problems and up-to-date information on the latest advances in nutrition sciences. Since this reference book will be useful to research workers, teachers, and students of nutrition and food sciences in the Spanish-speaking parts of the world, the United Nations University provided partial financial support for the publication of this Spanish translation.
Copies may be obtained from the Latin American Archives of Nutrition, c/o INCAP, Apartado Postal 1188, Guatemala, C.A. at US$6 per copy.
The Latin American Society of Nutrition also announces the publication of the following workshop proceedings:
(1) "Nutritional and Epidemiological Monitoring Systems";
(2) "Pre-and Post-Natal Nutrition";
(3) "Nutritional Value of Leguminous Grains and Factors Affecting Their Production, Availability and Consumption".
They are also available at the same address as above. Publications (1 ) and (2) are issued as supplement No. 1 of the Archives which is priced at US$5 per copy and publication (3), issued as supplement No. 2, is priced at US$3 per copy.
From the CHARTER OF THE UNITED NATIONS UNIVERSITY
ARTICLE I Purposes and structure
1. The United Nations University shall be an international community of scholars, engaged in research, postgraduate training and dissemination of knowledge in furtherance of the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations. In achieving its stated objectives, it shall function under the joint sponsorship of the United Nations and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (hereinafter referred to as UNESCO), through a central programming and co-ordinating body and a network of research and post-graduate training centres and programmes located in the developed and developing countries.
2. The University shall devote its work to research into the pressing global problems of human survival, development and welfare that are the concern of the United Nations and its agencies, with due attention to the social sciences and the humanities as well as natural sciences, pure and applied.
3. The research programmes of the institutions of the University shall include, among other subjects, coexistence between peoples having different cultures, languages and social systems; peaceful relations between States and the maintenance of peace and security; human rights; economic and social change and development; the environment and the proper use of resources; basic scientific research and the application of the results of science and technology in the interests of development; and universal human value related to the improvement of the quality of life.
4. The University shall disseminate the knowledge gained in its activities to the United Nations and its agencies, to scholars and to the public, in order to increase dynamic interaction in the world-wide community of learning and research.
5. The University and all those who work in it shall act in accordance with the spirit of the provisions of the Charter of the United Nations and the Constitution of UNESCO and with the fundamental principles of contemporary international law.
6. The University shall have as a central objective of its research and training centres and programmes the continuing growth of vigorous academic and scientific communities everywhere and particularly in the developing countries, devoted to their vital needs in the fields of learning and research within the framework of the aims assigned to those centres and programmes in the present Charter. It shall endeavour to alleviate the intellectual isolation of persons in such communities in the developing countries which might otherwise become a reason for their moving to developed countries.
7. In its post-graduate training the University shall assist scholars, especially young scholars, to participate in research in order to increase their capability to contribute to the extension, application and diffusion of knowledge. The University may also undertake the training of persons who will serve in international or national technical assistance programmes, particularly in regard to an interdisciplinary approach to the problems with which they will be called upon to deal.
ARTICLE II Academic freedom and autonomy
1. The University shall enjoy autonomy within the framework of the United Nations. It shall also enjoy the academic freedom required for the achievement of its objectives, with particular reference to the choice of subjects and methods of research and training, the selection of persons and institutions to share in its tasks, and freedom of expression. The University shall decide freely on the use of the financial resources allocated for the execution of its functions....