Linking Information to Action : Experiences from The U.S. and Developing Countries

Nutrition surveillance can sometimes be a powerful tool for raising awareness of nutrition problems at national and community levels and for promoting improved policies and programs to improve nutrition. Whereas many countries have been collected nutrition surveillance data for several years, the experience is often discouraging in terms of converting this data into information deemed useful by decision-makers and in terms of demonstrating impacts on decision-making. This presentation will describe the results of multi-country review of this problem undertaken by UNICEF in 1992-1994, the revised concept of "Nutrition Informatin Strategies" that emerged from the review, and the efforts currently underway at communtiy level in upstate New York to implement this revised concept.d concept.