Date: 12–13 August 2011

Venue: Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel, Singapore

Organised by: RSIS Centre for NTS Studies and IDRC, Canada

In light of the importance of nutrition to achieve sustainable food security, IDRC and the RSIS Centre for NTS Studies organised a nutrition security workshop on 12–13 August 2011 in Singapore, with the specific aim of bringing together regional experts and researchers in nutrition security. 23 participants were invited in total from the countries of Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Philippines, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, and they have extensive experience related to food and nutrition security research in the region.

The workshop was one of four satellite workshops organised on the sidelines of the International Conference on Asian Food Security 2011 (ICAFS 2011) which took place on 10–12 August (the conference was organised by the RSIS Centre for NTS Studies and the Southeast Asian Research Center for Graduate Studies and Research [SEARCA]). Its overall purpose was to stimulate discussions to identify areas of operational research and knowledge gaps for the determinants of household and community-based food and nutrition security with specific focus on women and children (considered the most vulnerable), identify the types of policy and impact measurements to ensure nutrition security, as well as devise innovative research ideas for implementation into a framework for operational research (with clear policy implications).

There was a general consensus that in order to ensure nutrition security, policymakers would have to engage with various sectors to effectively and jointly improve nutritional outcomes, integrate nutrition into relevant sectors in food security research work in a purposeful and cost-effective manner, build strategic and operation capacity, and create simple, consistent and prioritised guidance on actionable linkages between food security and nutrition.

Click here for the Workshop’s programme.