PHA-Exch> a position on ready to use foods (RUTF) - for your support

[Claudio Schuftan]

   From:    thelma at sochara.org


From: Vandana Prasad chaukhat at yahoo.com



This is to express my endorsement of the position paper developed by you and
colleagues on the Ready to Use Therapeutic food (RUTF) / Plumpy Nut. I think
it is very ill advised for the Government to support the procurement of
RUTF/ Plumpy Nut for wide spread use.

I totally support the urgent need to address the huge public health problem
of under nutrition particularly in children, but also in women and men.
There are several strategies that have been used to address this problem in
the past, which has been mentioned in the paper. There are many more such
field experiments and on going nutritional interventions as an integrated
part of community health projects. We ourselves have used this in the field
and taught about it for years when we were in the medical college. However
NGO and academic institution based programs are small in reach and there is
need for a scaled up approach and for national and state policies.
Unfortunately undernutrition and basic hunger and starvation  has never got
the priority political, policy and implementation attention that it
requires. It comes into focus only where there is a product to sell, often
promoted and marketed by powerful cartels and lobbies.

The Advisory Group on Community Action for the NRHM in India (AGCA) which is
a standing committee of the NRHM has decided to also work on this issue. I
am a member of the AGCA. As you know the AGCA has pilot tested the community
monitoring of the health services in 9 states during 2008. There are now
established networks in these areas. We hope that it may be possible to
focus attention on nutrition, water and sanitation   as underlying health
determinants that are also inter-related using the mechanisms and networks
that have been established. The Jan Swasthya Abhiyan has an important role
to play in this. Attached is the PPT and a note on Community Action for
Nutrition that I had prepared for the AGCA. This could evolve into broad
based strategy after inputs from colleagues and campaigns. The draft Public
Health Acts should also address undernutrition. There is an effort towards
this in the Gujarat Public Health Act.

The broader political economy under pinnings of hunger also need to be
addressed, as they are already being done by various campaigns and
movements.

Thelma


On 1/24/09, Vandana Prasad <chaukhat at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>   dear friends,
> some of us have (hastily!!) drafted a  position paper on the hasty
> propogation of plumpy nut - an imported and expensive ready to use
> therapeutic food (RUTF) in continuation of the on-going campaign for good
> quality and sufficient food for children as the most important way to
> prevent and manage malnutrition. You can get a copy from me Vandana Prasad
> at the adres above.
> The paper is self explanatory though the issue is complex.
> please have a look. we look forward to your comments and support.
> there is a current urgent policy context heavily in favour of pre -
> packaged RUTF and we would like to take this position to policy makers.
> pls endorse with name and organisation. we want this to be a comprehensive
> list rather than a representative one.
> pls also discuss and disseminate in your relative states and campaign
> groups for further action.
> e mails to chaukhat at yahoo.com <chaukhat%40yahoo.com>, radha at bpni.org<radha%40bpni.org>,
> arun at ibfanasia.org <arun%40ibfanasia.org>
>
>
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>
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>
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>
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