Special Report
Nutrition Leadership Training in North-East Asia: an
IUNS initiative in conjunction with nutrition societies in
the region
Mark L Wahlqvist
MD1,2,9, Duo Li
PhD2, Jiang-Qin Sun
MD3, Keyou Ge
MD4,
Hee-Young Paik
DSc 5,
Sung Hee Cho
PhD6, Soo-Kyung Lee PhD
7,
Ching-jang Huang
8and
Meei-Shyuan Lee
DrPH9 1Center for Health Policy Research Development, National Health Research Institutes, Zhunan, Taiwan 2
Department of Food Science and Nutrition, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China 3
Clinical Nutrition Center of Huadong Hospital, Fudan University, China 4
Chinese Nutrition Society, Beijing, China 5
Department of Food and Nutrition & Human Ecology Research Center, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea 6
Department of Food Science and Nutrition, Catholic University of Daegu and the Korean Nutrition Society, Korea 7
Department of Food and Nutrition, Inha University, Incheon, Korea 8
Nutritional Biochemistry, Department of Biochemical Science and Technology, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan
9
School of Public Health, National Defense Medical Center, Taipei, Taiwan
Food for humans is one of the most important of all global issues. It is a critical determinant of planetary and in-dividual health, of economic development, of how sustainable energy and water supplies are, and its security a powerful determinant of peace or conflict. Those who assume leadership for the integrity of food and health sys-tems have great responsibility. The IUNS (International Union of Nutritional Sciences), regional and national nutrition science and food technology organizations have concern about the leadership capacity available and re-quired in what are rapidly changing and increasingly demanding circumstances. These include persistent poverty and hunger, climate change which threatens the sustainability of food production and fragile financial systems which are making food less affordable for many. North East Asia (NEA) is a major region for its population size, its economic wealth and disparities, its food production, its life expectancies among the best and its global reach. In 2008, for those of Chinese ancestry and of wider Asian origin, Nutrition Leadership training has been con-ducted in Hangzhou, Shanghai, Seoul and Taiwan (Hsinchu and Zhunan). Ninety prospective young leaders par-ticipated in all. Several successful early career Asian nutrition scientists and professionals served as role models. Senior colleagues acted as mentors for groups of 2 or 3. With mentors, the concept of leadership has been exam-ined, careers and roles explored, knowledge and skills honed for a different future, and plans made to network in mutual support. Early feedback indicates that new opportunities have been created and seized.
Key Words: IUNS, Chinese Nutrition Society, Korean Nutrition Society, Taiwan Nutrition Society, capacity building, leadership development, Zhejiang University, Fudan University, Huadong Hospital, Seoul National University, NHRI
INTRODUCTION
The International Union of Nutritional Sciences (IUNS) has conducted Nutrition Leadership training programs for several years after Capacity Building guidelines were developed by it and the United Nations University (UNU) in Manila in 1996. The Manila workshop had principally to do with “Institution-Building for Research and Ad-vanced Training in Food and Nutrition in Developing Countries”. It was antedated by a similar initiative, now 30 years ago, in Cairo in 1978 at a meeting convened by the UNU and the Subcommittee on Nutrition of the UN Administrative Committee on Coordination. That meeting “emphasized the special need for regional (nutrition) training institutions in Africa”. In 1994 the European Nu-trition Leadership Program (ENLP) was initiated which
concentrated on public and private sector needs for nutri-tion leadership in Europe with some reference to nutrinutri-tion in economic development. Thus, the leadership training pendulum swung between economic and health extremes over some 20 years and generally involved the UN sys-tem. During this period of recent history, concern about nutrition leadership in Africa1 has continued and
Corresponding Author: Prof Mark L Wahlqvist, Center for
Health Policy Research Development, National Health Research Institutes, No. 35, Keyan Road, Zhunan, Taiwan
Tel: 886-37-246-166 ext. 36366; Fax: 866-37-586-261 Email: profmlw@nhri.org.tw
became a particular focus during the IUNS Presidency of Professor Wahlqvist between 2001 and the IUNS Con-gress in Durban, South Africa in 2005. The IUNS and IUFoST (International Union of Food science and Tech-nology) collaborated in an on-line capacity building pro-ject for appropriate food technology training in Africa; the International Science Council (ICSU) initiated the Sciences for Health and Well-Being program with an emphasis on Africa and involving IUNS; a promising partnership between Information Technology and Nutri-tion in Africa (ITANA) involved young leaders. More-over, the importance of early life nutrition on long-term health was becoming clearer as was the complex interplay between energy balance (deficits and excess) and dietary quality (food component deficiencies and excesses), con-tributing to a spectrum of nutritionally-related disease (NRD).2 The combined interests of the IUNS-UNU (United Nations University) Capacity Building initiative and those of UNICEF to enlarge the international, re-gional and national Nutrition Programme Workforce and Leadership in Nutrition were developed at UNICEF in July 2003. At the Durban meeting, the opportunities for a collaborative effort between Africa and Asia (especially China and India) were explored. This has stimulated lead-ership programs in Asia with one on Leadlead-ership Skills in Food and Nutrition for National Development held in Mysore, India in 20063 and a review workshop at the Federation of Asian Nutrition Societies (FANS) confer-ence in Taipei, 2007.
An associated development, from 2001, in Capacity Building in Nutrition and Leadership training was that of institutional research programs infection and nutrition, together responsible for most of the global burden of dis-ease. This was supported by a USD 5 milllion grant from the Ellison Medical Foundation which enabled collabora-tion between the Internacollabora-tional Nutricollabora-tional Foundacollabora-tion, the SCN (Standing Committee on Nutrition) of the UN Sys-tem. The UNU and the IUNS. This was put to great effect in Africa and South East Asia (SE Asia). In the case of SE Asia, the team which managed the initiative were Dr Emorn Wasantwisut from Thailand, Dr Geok Lin Khor from Malaysia and Dr Widjaja Lukito from Indonesia.3
Economic development has been particularly rapid in North East Asia (Japan, China, Taiwan and South Korea). The region has limited nutrition leadership, yet great po-tential to contribute not only to its own food-health situa-tion, but also to that of the world at large. This is on ac-count of its population (more than a quarter of the world’s) or human capital with its education, its belief systems, its fiscal resources, its technologies and its science. Thus, during 2008, three Nutrition Leadership Training pro-grams have been conducted in China (Hangzhou and Shanghai), Korea and Taiwan. The details are presented in this report.
The issues confronting food and nutrition science and professional life are unfolding in new directions and some of these are quite unclear (Table 1).4-6 This makes the imperative to fast track a new generation of nutrition leadership more pressing. It has been encouraging in this year 2008 of energy, food and financial crisis that senior and established nutrition leaders in NE Asia have worked
tenaciously “to pass the baton” to their younger counter-parts whilst being available as mentors.
What follows are 3 reports from NE Asia (China, Ko-rea and Taiwan) of Nutrition Leadership Training pro-grams held during 2008. Whilst much has been written about leadership,7 the experiences of the trainees and their mentors has intrinsic value for the field of nutrition as it develop through various career optional and through on-going research and policy development.
CHINA
The IUNS-CNS Chinese Nutrition Leadership Train-ing Workshop, organised by Prof.s Duo Li, Jianqin Sun,
Keyou Ge, and Mark L Wahlqvist at the Department of Food Science and Nutrition, Zhejiang University, Hang-zhou, Huadong Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai, China with theChinese Nutrition Society, Beijing, China and IUNS.
A workshop was held from 6th - 9th June 2008 at Zheji-ang University, HZheji-angzhou and Huadong Hospital, ShZheji-ang- Shang-hai (Table 2). Fifteen mentors (one from each of Australia, Korea and USA, and three from Taiwan) and 44 trainees (from 26 provinces and cities directly under the jurisdic-tion of the central government and including 6 trainees from Taiwan) participated in the workshop.
A leader should be ethical, informed, capable of role devolution and organizationally or institutionally-directed. A leader should have vision, integrity, courage and good judgment, the capacity to decide and persuade, fortitude, authority, and be able to inspire confidence in others. A leader should understand central and local government policies and regulations that are related to food and nutri-tion issues, and should be veracious and sensitive to the demands of various sectors. For a leader, the most impor-tant skill is to have outstanding communication skills both internally and externally. Public relations are re-quired on a continuing basis to communicate and ex-change information with the media, government and rele-vant services in order to disseminate reliable knowledge and create a professional brand effect. The essence of
Table 1. Confronting issues for the emerging
nutri-tion leadership
Nutritional status is the basis, with infection and trauma, of most of the global burden of disease (Millennium Development Goals, MDGs, for 2015 of UN System)8 Abject poverty and hunger affect at least 1 billion (1 in
6) of the world‘s population (MDG number one) Food is the 3rd largest part of world trade
Arable land and water shortage, excessive use of non-renewable energy and biofuels, with climate change threaten food security and affordability9
EBN (Evidence-based Nutrition) is required to inform resource allocation (food, nutritional and health eco-nomics)10
Local, regional and international health policy requires food and nutrition science inputs11
Nutrition is multidisciplinary and collaborative, integra-tive and co-coordinating capacity is required for its ef-fectiveness in food, education and health system policies Planetary health as well as the human condition needs
public relations is the ability to handle unexpected events with equanimity. A leader must be able to lead a team or agency in such a way that projects are executed in timely fashion and problems resolved. A leader must also have good ability in expressing themselves in writing. The main purpose of public relations is to find common ground between media and customer demand so as to maximize the result of dissemination results.
The role of nutritionists is primarily to help people dif-ferentiate and obtain reliable and meaningful information. The role of a dietitian, which is characterized by skills to work with individuals as well as institutions, needs to expand beyond clinical nutrition and hospital food service into multiple sectors, such as catering, counseling, con-sulting, media, non-government organization (NGO)/ non-profit organization (NPO) and the community-at-large. The skill set of a dietitian needs to be diverse. With dietetic work-forces being relatively scarce in relation
their demand, they need to have leadership qualities for and beyond their profession. The role of nutritionists is becoming more recognized in Chinese-speaking society. The service of nutritionists encompasses diet planning, counseling, nutrition education and strategic planning for those who have diet-restrictions and high health-risk populations. The goal of all nutritionists is to encourage people to eat healthy and thereby live happily.
Nutrition research depends not only on administration of national organization and planning, but also on the administration of Universities, research institutes, as well as root-level scientific unit or individual researchers. PhD research is an important part of nutrition research. The objective of PhD research was to cultivate independent researchers. An independent researcher should have the capability to conduct a research project by himself/herself, which includes project design, funding application, labo-ratory work, data collection, data analysis, reporting of
Table 2. Schedule of Chiese Workshop
Time Friday, 6th June 2008 Saturday, 7th June 2008 Sunday, 8th June 2008 Monday, 9th June 2008
08.30-09.00 09.00-09.30
Session 1
What is leadership and why does nutrition need it? Mark Wahlqvist,
Hee Young Paik, Keyou Ge
Session 7
Translational nutrition science: Action oriented Junshi Chen
Session 17
Eminent nutrition scientist My Career in Nutrition Science
Pao-Hwa Lin
09.30-10.00 Morning Tea Morning Tea
10.00-10.30 10.30-11.00
Session 2
Nutrition publishing (arti-cle drafting)
Jingfan Gu, Duo Li
Session 8
Evidence based nutrition, WCRF report
Junshi Chen, Mark Wahlqvist 11.00-11.30
Session 18
Reports from future leaders Ray-yu Yang,
Pianhong Zhang, Jianjun Yang, Chunji Han, Wen Hu, Shufang Zhang 11.30-12.00
Session 3
Inter-agency cooperation and social mobilization – experience and lessons Jianbin Jia
Session 9
Scenario planning and policy development of food and nutrition Xiaoguang Yang
Departure to Shanghai
12.00-13.00 Lunch
13.00-13.30
Session 19
Future directions and clos-ing, confer the certificate Mark Wahlqvist, Keyou Ge, Junshi Chen 13.30-14.00
Session 4
The Future of Nutrition Science
Global:
Mark Wahlqvist
Session 10
The Future of Nutrition Science
Chinese Communities: Pao-Hwa Lin
14.00-14.30 Session 11
Nutrition research project management
Yiyong Cheng
Session 13
What is Clinical Nutrition? International Perspective: Mark Wahlqvist China Perspective: Jiangqin Sun 14.30-15.00 Session 5 PhD research Duo Li Afternoon tea 15.00-15.30 15.30-16.00 Session 12
Field nutrition project management Keyou Ge
Session 14
Young clinicians plans for CN careers Xiaojun Liu, Meng-Chuan Huang 16.00-16.30 16.30-17.00 Session 15 Building multisectoral dietetic careers with lead-ership
Jingfan Gu, Frances Ma 17.00-17.30
17-30-18.00
Session 6
Aspirations and plans of younger nutrition scientists (This session taken place in various scenic spots around the West Lake)
Meei-Shyuan Lee Yanfang Wang
Session 16 Creating a Chinese-speaking nutrition leader-ship network
Keyou Ge, Bonnie Sun Pan 18.00- Dinner at Teahouse Tour of Zhejiang University, Dinner Duo Li Dinner
information and article preparation. “If it’s not written, it’s not research”. For publications, most importantly, the editor, examiners and readers need to be assured the au-thor has an in depth understanding of the chosen area. The authors should always keep in mind your paper is written for the reader, and they must understand what is being communicated. Scientific papers differ from fic-tional novels; a good novel allows the reader to explore possibilities with their own imagination. However, a good paper is logical, easy to understand, and well defined. Acceptance of a paper is dependent on three factors: nov-elty, significance and presentation (writing, conciseness and depth).
Future nutritional science should place greater empha-sis on economic development and prosperity, environ-ment, education, dignity and happiness, and the sustain-ability of our planet and how they each and all relate to human health. Evidence–based nutrition (EBN) has gained currency as part of the growing role of evidence-based medicine (EBM) to increase the validity, utility and cost-effectiveness of both clinical practice and, increasingly, public health endeavours.10 The most substantial and rig-orous reports about diet and cancer in recent years have emanated from the combined efforts of the World Cancer Research Fund and American Institute for Cancer Re-search.13 The application of NaFeEDTA fortified soy sauce in the control of iron deficiency and iron deficient anemia in China as a typical example of New Nutritional Sciences in practice. As China continues to grow eco-nomically and become more globalized, it is facing simi-lar challenges in nutrition and health as developed coun-tries. Further, China’s rapid transition from a traditional Eastern to a Westernized lifestyle presents a unique op-portunity to study the etiology of many diseases. Thus, the experience of developed countries in the development of nutrition science can and should serve as an important learning tool for the Chinese nutrition science communi-ties.
Seven young trainees made brief introductions about their education and where they work, what they work for, how they work, challenges and expectations. The Work-shop ended with awarding of certificates of the IUNS-CNS Nutrition Leadership Training Workshop. It was a very successful workshop, all mentors and trainees par-ticipated from opening to closing. Every young trainee completed a questionnaire, principally every trainee was satisfy with this unique workshop, especially with the 1:3 arrangement, i.e., one mentor looking after three trainees. Based on the feedback, we will modify the program ac-cordingly for next year’s workshop. A Chinese Young Nutritionists network has been established including a web-site which has all the PowerPoint presentations, pho-tos, references and related materials from the workshop.14 (http://www.apcns.org.cn/Study-Leader.html)
KOREA
International Workshop on Capacity and Leadership Development in Nutritional Sciences, organised by
Profs Hee Young Paik, Sung Hee Cho, and Ricardo Uauy at the Department of Food and Nutrition & Human Ecol-ogy Research Center, Seoul National University, with the Korean Nutrition Society and IUNS
z Date: September 4~6, 2008
z Venue: Hoam Faculty House, Seoul National
Uni-versity, Seoul, Korea
z Organized by: the International Union of
Nutri-tional Sciences and the Korean Nutrition Society
z The purpose:
1. To promote leadership skills among young nutrition scientists of Asia
2. To strengthen capacities for innovation and coop-eration
3. To build a network of the next generation of leaders among the Asian nutrition science field
z The target audience
Young nutrition scientists in Asia and Australia at an early stage of their career were the main target audi-ence. Twenty-eight prospective participants were ac-cepted from fourteen countries at the initial screening. Two candidates declined the opportunity due to per-sonal circumstances; one participant had to leave after the first day of the workshop due to a personal reason. A total of twenty-five young scientists from thirteen countries, Australia, Bangladesh, China, India, Japan, Malaysia, Mongolia, Korea, the Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, and Vietnam, finished all sessions and re-ceived a certificate.
Nutrition Society of Australia provided full support of their nominee. Nutrition Society of Malaysia and Nutrition Society of Japan provided air tickets for one participant from their country. Expenses for all other participants were fully covered by the Workshop or-ganizers.
z The methods (eg groups):
Participants were assigned to groups of two or three members by the local organizing committee. Members of the groups were carefully selected to maximize di-versity within each group in terms of nationality, pro-fession, expertise, etc. Each group was also matched with a mentor and a host. Invited speakers and the lo-cal organizing committee members served as a mentor and a host, respectively. Participants were encouraged to associate with their group members during the ses-sions, meal time, breaks and other free time. Each par-ticipant was also assigned to have a roommate who was not a member of their team. These arrangements allowed more interactions among participants as well as with their mentors.
z Program
This workshop offered opportunities to build up lead-ership skills and to strengthen scholarship skills to the participating young nutritionists. Building a long-lasting human network among the young invited scholars was also heavily promoted. The program in-cluded, in seven sessions, presentations by nineteen speakers, group discussion and activities for the par-ticipants. The program schedule is presented in Table 3. z Program Description
The international workshop program was largely di-vided into five sections: 1) Capacity development for leadership, 2) Leadership roles for nutritionists, 3)
Pro-fessional writing for nutritionists, 4) Nutrition in Asia, and 5) a Field trip.
The “Capacity development for leadership” was de-signed to provide necessary skills to become an ef-fective leader. A total of three sessions were created for this section: a) leadership development, b) coaching skills, and c) communication skills. The capacity development for leadership: Leadership development (Session I, Sept. 4., 9:00 – 11:30) was led by Dr Susan Youngsoon Gimm at the Korea Leadership Center. Dr. Gimm conducted a highly interactive session to help participants think about what leadership is and what is required to become a leader. Some of the topics covered in the session included self-leadership, leadership to others, ma-turity continuum, competence vs. character, etc. The capacity development for leadership: Coaching skills (Session IV, Sept. 5., 9:00 – 11:30) was an-other interactive session led by Dr Gimm. In this session, participants learned definition, utility, and effective skills of coaching. The capacity develop-ment for leadership: Communication skills (Session V, Sept. 6, 9:00 – 11:30) provided participants op-portunities to learn how to work with mass media, benefits and risks of working with media, and effec-tive ways to work with other health professionals. Dr Hoon Shim at Hallym University, Dr Johanna Dwyer at Tufts University, and Dr Hyungwook Baik at Daejin University shared their expertise on this topic.
The “Leadership roles for nutritionist (Session II, Sept. 4, 13:00 – 14:40)” covered topics such as educating, mentoring, and research and professional activities. The topic of Educating/ Mentoring was discussed by Dr Won Song at Michigan State Uni-versity, where importance of educating oneself and others were emphasized. Dr Mark Wahlqvist at Monash University, Australia laid out roles of lead-ership in nutrition research and professional activi-ties. He discussed various possible career options for nutritionists, nutrition research goals and proc-esses, and importance of a new nutrition leadership. The “Professional writing for nutritionists (Session VI, Sept. 6, 13:00 – 14:40)” taught basic and practi-cal knowledge on how to write good grant propos-als and for prominent academic journpropos-als. Dr Teresa Davis at Baylor College of Medicine discussed the process of writing a good research grant proposal from starting with a good research question to being persistent in pursuing funding sources for the good research question. Dr Davis also provided useful practical tips in writing a grant proposal with high potential for success. Drs Duo Li at Zhejiang Uni-versity, China and Meei-Shyuan Lee at National Defense Medical Center, Taiwan discussed issues with writing for publication. Necessary components for a manuscript for publication were reviewed and practical guidelines were also provided with an ex-ample of Asia Pacific Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
Several sessions belonged to the Nutrition in Asia section. Country reports, taking place throughout the workshop, provided snap shots of current nutri-tional status and nutrition problems of participating countries. Participating countries were Australia, Bangladesh, China/Taiwan, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Mongolia, Pakistan, the Philip-pines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Vietnam. Learning current nutritional status and nutrition problems of each country helped to clarify what problems are general or unique in Asia and Austra-lia. Another session under the Nutrition in Asia was Short Presentations from the invited participants. The invited participants were asked to prepare a short presentation on their background and current research/practices to introduce themselves to the audience. These short presentations were delivered in four groups throughout the workshop and were valuable in facilitating the networking among the participants.
The last session of the Nutrition in Asia was Capac-ity Development for Actions (Session VII, Sept. 6, 15:40 – 18:00) to promote networking and collabo-ration across nations and among all participants. Dr. Suzanne Murphy at University of Hawaii pointed out how research and policy should and are inter-related through five examples: setting nutrient stan-dards, specifying food-based dietary guidance, con-ducting national nutrition surveys, selecting criteria for food labeling, and designing nutrition assistance programs. Partnership with food industry was dis-cussed by Dr. V. Prakash at Central Food Technol-ogy Research Institute, although the presentation it-self had to be delivered by Dr. Uauy because an un-foreseen and urgent meeting prevented Dr. Prakash from attending the workshop. Dr Uauy of the Uni-versity of Chile and current President of the Inter-national Union of Nutritional Science urged partici-pants to think about the nutrition problems, not only of their own country but also of the world. He high-lighted the Lancet’s series on maternal and child undernutrition 2008. Current consensus of effective international action against undernutrition was dis-cussed in areas such as international nutrition sys-tem and nutrition action. Dr. Pattanee Winchagoon at Mahidol University reported the preparation status for the International Congress of Nutrition, 2009.
The Field Trip (Sept. 5., 13:00 – 18:00) took the participants to the Seocho-gu Public Health Center, Kimchi Museum, and an open market. Public health centers in Korea used to be a clinic providing pri-mary medical care to low-income individuals and families; however, the majority work of the centers now is on health promotion activities. Economic development coupled with the universal medical in-surance took away the needs for a separate clinic for low-income individuals, although the public health centers, especially in rural areas, still provide some level of primary medical care. The particular public health center visited is one of the best public
Table 3. Schedule of Korean Workshop
Sept. 4, 2008 (Thu) Sept. 5, 2008 (Fri) Sept. 6, 2008 (Sat)
7:30-8:20 Breakfast 7:30-8:20 Breakfast 7:30-8:20 Breakfast
8:20-9:00 Opening/Orientation
Welcome; Congratulatory Remarks; Opening Lecture Introduction of the group
Dr. S. Cho (President, KNS); Dr. M. Wahlqvist; Dr. R. Uauy (IUNS); Dr. HY. Paik
8:20-9:00 Country Report (II)
(Australia, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Malaysia)
Moderator: Drs. K Tanaka and SK Lee
8:20-9:00 Country Report (III)
(Pakistan, the Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka)
Moderator: Drs. M Lee and G Enkhtaivan
9:00-11:30 Session І
9:00-11:00 Capacity Development for Leadership ( ): Ⅰ Leadership development
Dr. SY. Gimm
Moderator: R Uauy, SH Cho
11:00-11:30 Discussion
9:00-11:30 Session Ⅳ
9:00-11:00 Capacity Development for Leadership ( ): Ⅱ Coaching skills
Dr. SY. Gimm Moderator: J Dwyer, YS Choi
11:00-11:30 Discussion
9:00-11:30 Session Ⅴ
Capacity Development for Leadership(Ⅲ): Commu-nication Skills
9:00-9:40 Effective communication skills
Communication for Nutritionists: Dr. H. Shim 9:40-10:20 - Nutritionist’s Point of View Dr. J. Dwyer 10:20-11:00 - Health Scientist’s point of View
Dr. H. Baik
11:00-11:30 Discussion
Moderator: Drs. S Murphy and WO Song
11:30-12:00 Short Presentation І 11:30-12:00 Short Presentation Ⅱ 11:30-12:00 Short Presentation Ⅲ
12:00-13:00 Lunch
13:00-14:40 Session Ⅵ
Professional Writing for Nutritionists 13:00-13:40 Writing a grant proposal Dr. T. Davis
13:40-14:20 Writing for publication Dr. D. Li 14:20-14:40 Discussion
Moderator: Drs. M Wahlqvist and HJ Joung
13:00-14:40 Session Ⅱ
Leadership Roles for Nutritionists 13:00-13:40 Educating/mentoring (Dr. W. Song) 13:40-14:20 Research/professional activities
(Dr. ML Wahlqvist)
14:20-14:40 Discussion
Moderator: T Davis, YO Cho
14:40-15:20 Short Presentation Ⅳ
14:40-15:00 Break 15:20-15:40 Break
15:00-17:00 Session Ⅲ
Nutrition in Asia (1) : Current Status 15:00-15:15 Introduction (Dr. HY Paik)
15:15-16:40 Country Report (І)
Dr. D. Li/M.Lee, Dr. K. Krishnaswamy, Dr. K. Ta-naka, Dr. S. Cho, Dr. G. Enkhtaivan, Dr. Pattanee W., Dr. N. Khan
16:40-17:00 Discussion
Moderator:Drs. K Krishnaswamy andHY Paik
17:00-18:00 SNU Campus Visit
Leader: Drs. YH Kwon and JH Youn
15:40-18:00 Session Ⅶ
Nutrition in Asia (2):
Capacity Development for Actions (Organized by Biofood Network Center) 15:40-16:20 Research & Policy:
Partnerships and Networking: Dr. S. Murphy 16:20-17:00 - Partnerships with food industry
Dr. V. Prakash
17:00- 17:40 - International Cooperation Dr. R. Uauy 17:40-18: 00 - International meetings: ICN 2009
Dr. Pattanee W.
Discussion
Moderator: Drs. K Krishnaswamy and HY Paik
Break
Field Trip
Leader: Dr. HJ Joung
Public Health Center, Seocho-gu, Seoul Kimchi Museum
Open Market
Break
health centers in terms of financial situations, its forward-thinking approach to health promotion, and the extensive range of activities. Participants learned cultural and scientific aspects of Kimchi at the Kimchi Museum, where they tasted more than 20 different kinds of Kimchi. Participants also roamed around an open market where they had a chance to mingle with locals. The Field Trip provided a small segment of time for the workshop participants to breath easy in the middle of the very tight workshop schedule, to make friends, and to see some parts of Seoul, Korea.
z Special features
A specialist from the Korean Leadership Center, Dr Susan Y Gimm was invited to give two 150 minutes sessions on “Capacity Development for Leadership.”
Country reports were given either by invited speak-ers or by participants, if there is no invited speaker from the country.
Participants, who did not give country reports, gave a short presentation about his/her works and her per-spectives on leadership in nutrition.
A field trip was arranged to visit a district public health center, Kimchi museum, traditional open-market ending with a traditional Korean dinner.
All participants, including those from Korea, were required to stay on site throughout the program. Each participant had a roommate from a different country as well as group members from different countries.
A mentor was assigned to each group of two or three members throughout the workshop. A host, a Ko-rean scientist from the local organizing committee, was also assigned in order to assist the participants with any difficulties arising from unfamiliarity to the local conditions.
z The commitment of mentors
Mentors remained in close contacts with the mentees throughout the workshop. The participants enjoyed be-ing in a group with prominent mentor(s) and expressed their appreciation about the mentor-mentee relation-ship.
z The feedback from participants
A survey was conducted at the end of the workshop. The mean score of overall evaluation of the workshop was 4.7 out of 5. For individual programs, ‘coaching skills’ and ‘leadership development’, the two sessions of the “Capacity Development for Leadership” re-ceived the highest scores.
Participants wished more time to be devoted in ar-eas of field experiences, training on leadership skills, discussions, and group activities.
Participants rated very highly about speakers and appreciated the chance to hear from prominent schol-ars in the field. They were also very satisfied with the composition of participants, while some participants wished to have participants from more number of countries.
Participants were generally satisfied with the venue of the workshop. There were some problems with meal
services especially for those on vegetarian diet and breakfast. Vegetarian menus are generally not much served in Korea. Since the venue was a small univer-sity facility, they were not used to serving a large number of customers for breakfast in a short time. z Follow-up
After the workshop, thank you letters were sent to all the participants and invited speakers. Some partici-pants sent a thank you letter to KNS even before we sent out our letter. All the presentation files and infor-mation were uploaded to the workshop website. A workshop report was also prepared and sent to all the participants and invited speakers. Participants ex-pressed a strong wish to keep the network among the participants and mentors, but no specific efforts have been made due to limitations of resources.
TAIWAN
Taiwan Nutrition Leadership Training Program: An joint project initiated by the International Union of Nutritional Sciences (IUNS) and sponsored by National
Health Research Institutes (NHRI) of Taiwan and Taiwan Nutrition Society organised by Drs Ching-jang Huang, France Ma, Meei-Shyuan Lee and Mark L Wahlqvist.
The workshop was held on October 2nd-4th 2008, at NHRI (National Health Research Institutes of Taiwan) and the nearby Lakeshore Hotel, Hsinchu, Taiwan. The Program’s aim was to develop and advance the vision, the skill and the nature of leadership in outstanding young nutrition professionals through extensive interaction with mentors. The 21 trainees were invited based on an evalua-tion of their potential as a leader. Among them, 13 were dieticians engaged in the area of clinical, public health or industry. The remaining 8 were assistant, associate or full professors teaching and doing research in nutrition in various Universities. They were all aged no more than 40.
A total of 13 mentors participated by way of direct mentoring of a small group of trainees, talks and/or lead-ing discussions in various sessions. Most of them were from academia and specialized in nutrition which was basic science, epidemiological, public health or policy research. Some had also been significantly involved in administration and clinical practice. Dr. Widjaja Lukito from SEAMEO-TROPMED, Indonesia was a special guest mentor with a wealth of experience in each of these areas.
The workshop started with the self-introduction of each trainee and their mentors. A total of four sessions were held with a half day each. These were: 1) Leader-ship in Food, Nutrition and Health Policy; 2) NHRI open-ing with two keynote addresses; 3) Nutrition Research Leadership; 4) Clinical Nutrition Leadership. Several initiative talks were given by mentors in each session and followed by a panel discussion (Table 4). Issues for group discussion were then derived from the panel discussion. Trainees and mentors were assigned to 4 groups. Each group chose an issue and engaged in group discussion. Each session ended with a report from each group based on the group discussion. Mentors then gave their com-ments on the reports. As an example, in the panel discus-sion in Sesdiscus-sion one (Leadership in Food, Nutrition and
Health Policy), four focus issues were decided for the group discussion: Linking Nutrition and Agriculture, Food Safety in Taiwan, International Nutrition in Taiwan, and Future Perspectives about the Training and Education of Nutrition Professionals for a future workforce. Each group chose one of these topics. After the discussion, each group reported their views on how to deal with the issue through nutrition leadership. For the “Food Safety” issue, the group considered SOP (Standard Operating Procedure for the Investigation of Food Poisoning Out-breaks)15 for a response to a food-borne illness outbreak or other emergency outbreak as absolutely necessary. In addition, the process and conclusion of the risk assess-ment should be well communicated to the public. For the “International Nutrition” issue, the group suggested ex-port of the successful Taiwan experience in combating malnutrition; it may also be possible to take advantage of those International associations (as in the Buddhist com-munity) which are committed to contribute through char-ity. For “linking Nutrition and Agriculture”, the group recognized that the nutritionist can play a critical role in planning agricultural production and in linking agricul-tural producers and consumers. For the “Development of the Nutrition Professional Workforce”, the group consid-ered that professional competence is extremely important and that Universities should re-evaluate their education and training program. Furthermore, the nutrition commu-nity in Taiwan should strive to create more positions for nutrition professionals in the public domain such as in administration so that nutrition expertise is readily avail-able in policy-setting and project-planning.
Discussions in other sessions were as fruitful as in Session one. Trainees were exposed to a great variety of nutrition-related issues which had rarely been encoun-tered before. The emergency nutrition situations in Indo-nesia in recent years, reported by Dr Lukito; the ethical issues raised by Dr Wang; and the food-health literacy opportunities presented by Dr Tsai were such examples. Mentors provided their own experience in the develop-ment of their careers and how they have learned to man-age their roles more efficiently and effectively. These experiences greatly encouraged the trainees and strength-ened their self-confidence in whatever their future may bring.
Each group was asked to discuss and present their ideas about Nutrition Leadership characteristics. The re-sponses included: Responsibility, Integrity, Courage, Vi-sion, Kindness, Sharing, Capability in Coordination and Execution, Life-long Learning, Creativity, Inspiring, Wis-dom, Charisma, Team player, Innovation and being Open- minded.
While several IUNS Nutrition Leadership Training Programs have been held in various parts of the world, it was still a challenge for the organizers to figure out what might be an appropriate approach for Taiwan, considering its unusual status. With the valuable guidance of all men-tors and the efforts and committed participation of all trainees, this workshop was highly successful by the final accounts given from each group. In the 2 day and 2 night event, there was an atmosphere which revealed the wide-range and broad spectrum of nutrition. The critical role nutrition professional can play and the impact and
contri-bution he/she can make, both nationally and internation-ally, was evident to the potential future leaders. For most of the participants, it exceeded their past experiences and provided new insights. One group of trainees decided to share their experience by helping to organize similar workshops and, hopefully, to inspire more future nutrition leaders. The full program has been video recorded and posted on the website16: http://ehealthpolicy.nhri.org.tw/ lecture.htm, which can be viewed freely.
CONCLUSIONS
The hallmarks of these nutrition leadership training pro-grams were, firstly, that they were convened jointly by a host Nutrition Society, along with IUNS, and that there was clear commitment from the relevant health sciences, sector or system; there was, nevertheless, relatively little input from the food system (food production, transport, technology, processing, packaging, retailing, marketing, commerce), non-government organizations (NGOs), or
finance. Secondly, the young potential leaders were given front-line roles and expected to be active contributors. Thirdly, there was a low ratio of mentor to trainee leader (usually 1:2 or 3). Fourthly, there was “time out” for mentors to be with trainees in attractive, restful and natu-ral settings, conducive to creativity and conversation. Fifthly, there were inter-generational role models with similar cultural backgrounds who had experiences to share, like Dr Pao-Hwa Lin, nutritionist for the DASH study for the dietary prevention of hypertension.17 Sixthly, there was an identification of pressing needs for nutrition and health policy and leadership to reflect sustainability and affordability. Finally, responsibility for conclusions and future directions was accorded to the trainees.
It was generally agreed that there were specific chal-lenges for collective and local action by a new generation of nutrition leaders (Table 5).
The over-arching decisions of the workshops were to build networks on the internet amongst the coming gen-eration of leaders for mutual support, problem definition and solution. These networks could have commonalities based in science and technology, language and culture, geographical region, professional affinities, or shared problems, alert systems or the promulgation of discovery
Table 5. Challenges for a new generation of nutrition
leaders
A nutrition leadership shortage
The need for succession with trust, as a mutual responsi-bility of younger and more senior leaders
Acknowledgement that the nature and needs for leader-ship change with time, place and culture
A fragmentation of science and practice with ultra-specialisation which reduces possibilities for cohesive so-lutions to personal, community and global threats Technological advances and competencies which tend to
be generational, e.g., agriculture, transport, IT Community leaders could facilitate connections between
localities for strategies with importance for health, food safety, sustainability and security in diverse localities Culturally and globally sensitive styles of leadership
and innovation. It would be valuable to have some meas-ure of the impact of such a network strategy.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
In each location, the support of institutional and nutrition soci-ety staff played a key role in the success of the programs.
AUTHOR DISCLOSURES
All authors declared that there is no conflict of interest.
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Special Report
Nutrition Leadership Training in North-East Asia: an
IUNS initiative in conjunction with nutrition societies in
the region
Mark L Wahlqvist
MD1,2,9, Duo Li
PhD2, Jiang-Qin Sun
MD3, Keyou Ge
MD4,
Hee-Young Paik
DSc 5,
Sung Hee Cho
PhD6, Soo-Kyung Lee PhD
7,
Ching-jang Huang
8and
Meei-Shyuan Lee
DrPH9 1Center for Health Policy Research Development, National Health Research Institutes, Zhunan, Taiwan 2
Department of Food Science and Nutrition, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China 3
Clinical Nutrition Center of Huadong Hospital, Fudan University, China 4
Chinese Nutrition Society, Beijing, China 5
Department of Food and Nutrition & Human Ecology Research Center, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea 6
Department of Food Science and Nutrition, Catholic University of Daegu and the Korean Nutrition Society, Korea 7
Department of Food and Nutrition, Inha University, Incheon, Korea 8
Nutritional Biochemistry, Department of Biochemical Science and Technology, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan
9
School of Public Health, National Defense Medical Center, Taipei, Taiwan
