HUMAN-RESOURCE BUILDING FOR THE PROMOTION OF NUTRITION RIGHTS - A CROSS-DISCIPLINARY CHALLENGE

The current focus on human development in general global development e fforts carries with it a need for building human resources with approp riate intellectual, communicative and operational skills for use in an alyses, decision-making and action at all levels, Human resource build ing extends beyond conventional disciplinary training and fosters the capability to work together to solve often complex problems for which each discipline does not alone have the answers, Human resources are n eeded to bridge the thinking and action between human rights and econo mic, social and cultural development, including food and nutrition imp rovements as human and social development goals and as human rights, T his paper discusses the opportunities and prospects for human resource building for the promotion of nutrition rights as a mutual challenge for human rights lawyers and institutions and nutrition training insti tutions, The view is put forward that, while human resource building f or nutrition rights is critical at the community and grass-roots level s, a commitment to appropriate programmes at academic institutions is needed to ensure the preparation of expertise as well as cadres, who c an stimulate and backstop activities at these levels and within the ci vil society as a whole and ensure credibility and sustainability. The paper gives some examples of emerging and planned efforts to establish focused nutrition rights training and calls for a networking of like- minded institutions within the human rights and nutrition communities, for a strengthened performance and impact in training for further nut rition rights theory-building, standard-setting, assessment and promot ion.