Nutrition education in the context of the United Nations Standing Committee on Nutrition activities and publications, 1985-2006.

The United Nations System Standing Committee on Nutrition (SCN) is a forum where United Nations (UN) agencies, bilateral partners, and nongovernmental agencies meet to harmonize and coordinate nutrition policy and programs. This report reviews the positions taken regarding nutrition education throughout SCN publications, annual sessions, and thematic working groups. The first Nutrition Policy Paper, published in 1985, was a State-of-the-Art Review that investigated 6 aspects of a nutrition education system. Later SCN publications and meetings have further addressed how to conduct effective nutrition education to maximize impact. For nutrition education to be worthwhile, it must reach significant audiences and lead to behavioral change, conditions which in turn require feasibility studies and investments in terms of personnel and resources. The SCN plays an important role to these ends through: 1) the advocacy opportunity offered by the SCN Annual Session; 2) the expertise of the working groups; and 3) the dissemination channels offered by the SCN publications and Web site.