The Women’s Nutrition Roundtable, held on November 8, 2001, was sponsored by USAID/G/PHN and organized through the Food and Nutrition Technical Assistance (FANTA) project at the Academy for Educational Development (AED). The meeting brought together a wide range of participants from sixteen different organizations and/or activities that have worked on some aspect of women’s nutrition over the past few years to share information about on-going activities relating to women’s nutrition, to network among the group, and to brainstorm about possible future work on this topic.
The morning session reveals a wide range of existing activities and views about the subject of women’s nutrition. While many activities focus on maternal and/or child nutrition and health, there are none that wholeheartedly embrace the larger arena of women’s nutrition- that focus on the whole woman rather than in her narrower role as mother. It was clear from the discussion that no clear agenda on women’s nutrition currently exists, and that a central concern was the availability of new resource to address the issue. Most, though not all, in the room seemed to agree that a workable approach would involve selecting a minimum set of goals with clear measures that would provide a way to first establish a baseline and the assess progress towards improved women’s nutrition over a five-year period.