Necessity of establishing Regional Nutrition Partnership and Capacity Building Network in Central Asia and Caucasus

Children's Nutrition security is still an unfinished agenda in Central Asia region. Still between 10 to 30% of the children in Central are stunted. The number of overweight under-5 year old children have increased from 2.1 to 4.5 million from 2000 to 2016 (over 100% increase) which is the greatest increase compared to other regions. The regional average for use of iodized salt is at 61 per cent (of which 51 per cent adequately iodized). Infant and young child feeding practices are poor across the Region, with a 26% rate of Exclusive Breast which is the poorest in the world. In such demanding region with a transiting nutrition agenda, it was necessary to look into the regional capacities of building blocks of the nutrition sector through a systematic desk review. Based on the findings, in Central Asia and Caucasus the public health nutrition is not a recognized discipline and hence no single university is offering such educational programs. Although almost all countries in this region have a national nutrition plan, only less than 50% of these plans are costed. In only 12% of the countries dedicated national managers are in charge of the national nutrition programs and majority are not nutritionist by background, and widely the nutrition workforce is not equipped with expertise and competencies to tackle the nutrition from a community or public health point of view. The building blocks of an influential, strong and functional nutrition sector includes but not limited to: Functional and trained workforce, leadership and governance, financing, evidence generation, information systems and knowledge exchange and integrated programs. Ultimately to raise the profile of nutrition as a corner stone to development, the capacity of the building blocks of the nutrition sector in Central Asia needs to be empowered in a coordinated manner. To achieve this UNICEF proposed an initiative to establish a functional Regional Nutrition Capacity Development and Partnership Platform, In December 2017, the Regional Sustainable Food Systems symposium, for Europe and Central Asia was held in Budapest and as a concluding remark, formation of a functional Nutrition Capacity Development and Partnership Platform for Central Asia and the Caucasus was welcomed and recommended. (author)