World Breastfeeding Week 2022 will focus on strengthening the capacity of actors that have to protect, promote and support breastfeeding across different levels of society.
On Tuesday 28 January 2020, the atmosphere at the Indonesian Ministry of Health felt different than usual. It was a very special day, as it marked the 60th National Nutrition Day. There was a lively and dynamic ambience at the Ministry of Health as the place was filled with visitors and the fantastic live performance of the marching band from Jakarta’s Madrasah Ibtidaiyah Negeri 16 school filled the air with great energy.
Most people, including low-income households in developing countries, buy their food from markets, both formal and informal. Therefore, it makes sense to treat them as consumers. At GAIN, our aim is to enable these consumers to improve their diets through increasing consumption of nutritious and safe foods, because a good diet is central to tackling all forms of malnutrition.
A couple of weeks ago GAIN and the World Health Organization (WHO) organised a consultation “Adolescents: Agents of Change for a Well Nourished World”. This was the third in four “stepping stones” towards forging a consensus on promising approaches for programming to improve adolescent nutrition outcomes. The x-factor in the consultation was the participation of 10 adolescents from Bangladesh, Indonesia, Pakistan and Zambia.
Too often we stop at “you are the future” and of course that is true, but whether a high school student or an early career professional, these young people are the present. They have tools like social media to mobilise and organise and speak out, they have computer literacy to design apps that can promote accountability and transparency, they have an ability to multitask and they have numbers.
