The SMILING project: a North-South-South collaborative action to prevent micronutrient deficiencies in women and young children in Southeast Asia.
BACKGROUND
The "Sustainable Micronutrient Interventions to Control Deficiencies and Improve Nutritional Status and General Health in Asia" project (SMILING), funded by the European Commission, is a transnational collaboration of research institutions and implementation agencies in five Southeast Asian countries--Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos PDR, Thailand, and Vietnam--with European partners, to support the application of state-of-the art knowledge to alleviate micronutrient malnutrition in Southeast Asia.


OBJECTIVE
The major expected outcomes are to improve micronutrient status on a large scale, to identify priority interventions in each Southeast Asian country, and to develop a road map for decision makers and donors for inclusion of these priority interventions into the national policy.


METHODS
SMILING has been built around a strong project consortium that works on a constant and proactive exchange of data and analyses between partners and allows for the differences in contexts and development stages of the countries, as well as a strong North-South-South collaboration and colearning.


RESULTS
The selection of Southeast Asian countries considered the range of social and economic development, the extent of micronutrient malnutrition, and capacity and past success in nutrition improvement efforts. SMILING is applying innovative tools that support nutrition policy-making and programming. The mathematical modeling technique combined with linear programming will provide insight into which food-based strategies have the potential to provide essential (micro) nutrients for women and young children. Multicriteria mapping will offer a flexible decision-aiding tool taking into account the variability and uncertainty of opinions from key stakeholders. The lessons learned throughout the project will be widely disseminated.
Institute of Research for Development, UMR Nutripass, Montpellier, France. Jacques.Berger@ird.fr
Jacques
J
Berger
Gentiane
G
Blanchard
Maiza Campos
MC
Ponce
Chhoun
C
Chamnan
Mary
M
Chea
Marjoleine
M
Dijkhuizen
Coleen
C
Doak
Esmee
E
Doets
Umi
U
Fahmida
Elaine
E
Ferguson
Paul
P
Hulshof
Yves
Y
Kameli
Khov
K
Kuong
Kongsap
K
Akkhavong
Kounavong
K
Sengchanh
Bach Mai
BM
Le
Thi Lua
TL
Tran
Siti
S
Muslimatun
Nanna
N
Roos
Prak
P
Sophonneary
Frank
F
Wieringa
Emorn
E
Wasantwisut
Pattanee
P
Winichagoon
D001210:Asia, Southeastern; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005060:Europe; D005260:Female; D006292:Health Priorities; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007391:International Cooperation; D044342:Malnutrition / Q000517:prevention & control*; D018977:Micronutrients / Q000172:deficiency*; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D018673:Nutrition Policy; D009752:Nutritional Status
D018977:Micronutrients