Food and nutrition security in childhood
This course focuses on current food and nutrition security challenges in the context of poverty, inequity and sustainability during childhood and discusses paradigm shifts needed in actions and research.
Main content
Course leader
Inger Aakre, Associate Professor at the Centre for International Health, University of Bergen and a research scientist at the Institute of Marine Research.
Ulrike Spielau, Research Coordinator and PostDoc at the Mohn Nutrition Research Laboratory, UiB.
Course lecturers
Jutta Dierkes, Professor at Centre for Nutrition, Department of Clinical Medicine and Mohn Nutrition Research Laboratory, Department of Clinical Medicine, University of Bergen
Sigrun Henjum, Professor at the Faculty of Health Sciences, Oslo Metropolitan University
Anne Hatløy, Associate Professor, Centre for International Health, University of Bergen
Pétur B. Juliusson, Professor at Department of Paediatrics, Haukeland University Hospital and at Department of Health Registry Research and Development, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Bergen
Ingrid Kvestad, Regional Centre for Child and Youth Mental Health and Child Welfare, NORCE Norwegian Research Center, Bergen
Synnøve Næss Sleire, Post-Doc at the Institute of Marine Research (IMR), Bergen
Hanne Rosendahl-Riise, Associate Professor at Department of Clinical Medicine, University of Bergen
Catherine M. Schwinger, Senior Advisor at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health (NIPH)
Ingunn M. Stadskleiv Engebretsen, Professor at the Centre for International Health, University of Bergen
Food insecurity is a persisting global challenge and has recently been on the rise. Also, the world population is increasing while our food systems are largely contributing to hunger, inequity, and global pollution.
The sustainable development goals have embraced the WHO Decade of Nutrition ambitions 2016-2025 targets focusing on ending malnutrition affecting 1/3 of the world’s population. The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) report notes that despite progress in some regions, global trends in child undernutrition – including stunting, wasting, micronutrient deficiencies, overweight and obesity in children, continue to be of great concern. An estimated 45 million children under five years of age suffer from wasting, 149 million have stunted growth and development due to chronic lack of nutritious food in their diet while 39 million are affected by overweight.
This course focuses on acknowledging current food and nutrition security challenges in the context of poverty, inequity and sustainability during childhood and discusses paradigm shifts needed in actions and research.
The course will give a thorough insight into the following topics:
- An introduction to food security
- Malnutrition, causes, consequences, and treatment
- Micronutrients and child health
- Infant and young child feeding
- Dietary assessment: how can we measure what people eat?
- Food and Nutrition Security – Future perspectives
- Food and Nutrition Security – Where should we go from here?
The course will include lectures, group work, student activities and discussions and empower young researchers to identify their own research questions and develop research projects. The students will be able to present and discuss their own research with the other attendants and course leaders throughout the course.