Regional workshop on national nutrition surveillance

Abstract

The wide prevalence of malnutrition in several Member States of the World Health Organization's South-East Asia Region calls for appropriate mechanisms along with indicators to monitor high-risk population groups or food insecurity situations and, when certain conditions are met, trigger alerts and identify interventions. With the adoption of the WHO New Growth Standards for Children aged below five years and the availability of WHO growth references for schoolchildren and adolescents, Member States now have appropriate tools to monitor changes in the nutrition profiles of their populations. The Regional Workshop on National Nutritional Surveillance, held in Kathmandu, Nepal, from 30 November to 2 December 2009, was organized to assist Member States develop national nutrition surveillance systems. The status of growth monitoring in Member States, national experiences in establishing nutrition surveillance systems, and recommendations for future activities are included in this report.