International Conference on Nutrition & Early Human Development
Nurturing Care: From Global “Pact” to National Action; From Thriving Childhoods to Sustainable Livelihoods
October 24 - 26, Aga Khan University, Karachi
The attention that the global community is paying to the significance of the earliest years of children’s development is very assuring in a world characterized by profound adversity and vulnerability. Nations are slowly but surely beginning to realize that to secure the promise and potential inherent in each child is to safeguard the prosperity of society itself. It is imperative that the momentum to capitalize on this increased global advocacy, and the emerging science that informs it, is sustained to cultivate greater commitment and action at all levels: government, civil society, the donor community, multilateral organizations, and the human services professions.
Jointly sponsored by the Aga Khan University’s Institute for Human Development and the Centre of Excellence in Women and Child Health, the conference will provide an interdisciplinary forum for engagement around issues on which bold and urgent actions are needed to make a positive difference in the lives of children. In addition to a broad, general programme on early child/human development, the conference is being designed to feature a special thematic focus on early maternal and child nutrition.
The programme will particularly highlight undernutrition in infants and young children as a global health problem and bring attention to research conducted in low and middle-income regions of the world suggesting that adequately implemented nutrition interventions not only reduce mortality and stunting but do actually enhance behavioural and developmental competence. Ultimately, a major goal of the featured strands on early nutrition is to bridge the worlds of science and policy.
The complete programme will continue the Institute for Human Development’s tradition of presenting to stakeholders opportunities to reflect together on what we have been able to accompish together as a field and where we need to direct our creative energies in our ongoing efforts to build better and stronger futures for children, families, and communities around the world.
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