Nutrition in Focus at INCAP 55th

The Institute of Nutrition of Central America and Panama (INCAP) hosted a special scientific meeting on food security and the Millennium Development Goals, as part of a series of activities honoring the organization’s 55th anniversary.

The Sept. 8-10 meeting drew 600 experts and officials from throughout Latin America and the Caribbean to Guatemala City. Featured presenters included Vice President of Guatemala Eduardo Stein, Minister of Health Marco Tulio Sosa, and Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) Director Mirta Roses.

Discussions during the three-day meeting focused on the role of food security in strategies for achieving the Millennium Development Goals. A session on "eradicating extreme poverty and hunger" examined successful experiences in anti-hunger programs such as "Zero Hunger" in Brazil, "Opportunities" in Mexico, and "Vida Nueva" in Costa Rica. Presenters from Colombia, Cuba and Central American countries presented other examples of successful experiences in food security and local development.

A session on "achieving universal primary education" analyzed the role of nutrition and health care during pregnancy and the first three years of life, including their impact on brain development and learning capacity.

Other sessions focused on the use of folic acid supplements to prevent neural tube defects, obesity in Central America, and programs to address obesity among children throughout the region.

The meeting also included a trade fair, "Exponutrition," which featured new nutritionally improved products, nutritional supplements for use in food fortification programs, and equipment and supplies for monitoring and ensuring food safety and nutritional status of the population.

Noting the importance of the Millennium Development Goals, Vice President Stein of Guatemala quoted a U.N. Development Program report that defined inequity as "the greatest risk that our democratic states face throughout the hemisphere." He called for a new global effort in which "collective responsibility prevails and societies are committed, in an organized and active way, to overcoming the problems of inequity."

Hernán Delgado, director of INCAP, observed that "more than 50 percent of the Guatemalan population lives on barely a dollar a day, which aggravates the crisis of food security in our country."

PAHO Director Roses called for joint action to develop and implement programs to guarantee food and nutrition security in Guatemala and elsewhere in the region.

INCAP, established in 1949, is one of nine PAHO scientific and technical centers throughout Latin America and the Caribbean. It is dedicated to improving nutrition in Central America and Panama through research, information and communication, technical assistance, human resources development, and resource mobilization.