Multi-institutional approaches to community based nutrition interventions: Introduction to the symposium S02

Description

Purpose: This session will move beyond single setting approaches and address the potentials of the increasing number of multi-institutional approaches to community based public health nutrition interventions from around the world. Rationale: Individual-level and single institution-based programs have been largely unsuccessful in addressing the obesity epidemic. As a result recent innovative programs have been taking a different approach and are aiming at doing integrated and coordinated programs across several institutional and community settings at the same time. Such interventions can target a broad category of settings such as schools, kindergartens, supermarkets, corner-stores, restaurants and community media actors simultaneously and in coordination, a so-called super-settings approach. Such programs often need to give in on the possibility of demonstrating quick and clear effects on traditional outcome measures. Furthermore they face challenges in terms of lengthy formative and participatory processes and difficulties in coordination, and dissemination. However in terms of sustainability-of-intervention they show promising results. The objectives of the symposium is to take a global perspective and brings researchers from around the world together in order to present and discuss examples of interventions using a super-settings approach for community-based programs. Important topics covered would be: How best to engage stakeholders from multiple institutions in order to build ownership and sustainability? How do we synchronize interventions across multiple settings within communities to create cohesion and consistency and what could joint values and principles for the overall intervention be? How do we know which intervention components are creating what effect and how do we evaluate complex programmes? Which methods for evaluation are suitable and acceptable in terms of scientific standards and in the same time low-cost and easy to administer for the local stakeholders? With presentations from different continents on multi-institutional approaches this session will contribute illustrate the diversity in approaches and be able to paint a rich picture of advantages and pitfalls of such approaches as well be able to contribute to setting methodological and theoretical directions for the research community.
 

Period	21 May 2014
Held at	Unknown external organisation