Sustainable Micronutrient Interventions to Control Deficiencies and Improve Nutritional Status and General Health in Asia

Overall strategy of the work plan

Our work plan consists of 8 work packages that are structured in the following way and illustrated graphically below:

WP1 : Project coordination and management carried out throughout the life of the project

WP2, WP3, WP4 : Data collection and analysis carried out in month 1 to month 11

WP5, WP6 : Summarizing and consensus building carried out in month 10 to 18

WP7 : Strategy development and integration in national policies carried out in month 17 to month 22

WP8 : Dissemination carried out throughout the life of the project

WP1 will optimize communication and coordination within the Consortium and with the European Commission. A series of 4 Steering Committee meetings, with two (at the beginning and half time of the-project) open to the Advisory Board to ensure that the progress of the project is constantly monitored and that as far as possible consensus is built within the Consortium on next steps.

WP2 will map available data on nutritional status as well as current and planned (sub-) national interventions for improving micronutrient status in target groups of populations in the 4 target countries. In addition WP1 will carry out a systematic scientific review of literature on research and interventions including potential new tools for improving micronutrient status.

WP3 will assess the quality of existing food composition tables to provide updated high quality food composition tables for each SE Asia country on selected food items, nutrients and anti-nutrients, facilitating WP4.

WP4 will apply a new mathematical modeling approach to support nutrition policy and intervention program action and generate evidence-based dietary guidelines

WP5 will formulate a preliminary priority list of the most urgently needed interventions for each country with their characteristics (feasibility, limits, risks)

WP6 will analyze the views of stakeholders using Multi-Criteria Mapping, an innovative technique to identify constraints, opportunities and consensus for interventions. In each country up to 20 interviews with stakeholders from a range of disciplines will be carried out, making a total of 100 interviews. The stakeholder analysis will be conducted by institutions in each of the participating countries.

WP7 will increase awareness by policy makers about the priority interventions and develop the Road Map to integrate the priority interventions in national nutrition programs to ensure the project’s impact. In addition, operational requirements and country-specific guidelines and policy to implement food based approaches, especially food fortification will be defined.

WP8 will facilitate the dissemination of results by sharing the objectives, progress and outcomes of the project with a large audience allowing external contributions and to main stakeholders of target countries. A variety of media will be used to disseminate information to researchers, policy-makers and the general public.