Thailand's National Nutritional Program : Lessons in Management and Capacity Development
Thailand's community nutrition program has been the most successful in Asia. This paper looks at what made it work from a management and capacity development point of view. Key lessons are identified in the following areas: Building a strong consensus at national and local levels about the importance of nutrition as an investment in the country's future, rather than as a welfare expenditure; using community volunteers on a huge scale, to cut costs, involve and empower local people, instill self-reliance and communicate effectively with target groups; partially empowering communities by involving them in needs assessment, planning, beneficiary selection and program implementation, but keeping central government control over resource allocation, so as to ensure a coherent national program; Seeking local financial contributions to almost all interventions, so as to cut costs, involve communities, instill self-reliance, and increase the chances of sustainability; Making the most use of limited financial and managerial resources by targeting needy provinces, sub-districts and villages, and high risk population groups; Using national nutrition investment plans, rather than policy statements unlinked to resource commitments, as a way of generating a national vision, giving visibility to nutrition, and giving each implementing agency clear responsibilities; Managing the nutrition sector through a series of committees, rather than by a single agency, which encouraged a wide variety of interest groups to feel that nutrition was their business; Building a strong nutrition technical support organization, which also helped maintain commitment to nutrition; Using small amounts of aid for training and building program support capacity, rather than funding large scale service delivery projects. Also discussed is whether the approaches used in Thailand are replicable in other countries, and what nutrition problems and issues remain to be addressed in Thailand.
| Summary: | Thailand's community nutrition
program has been the most successful in Asia. This paper
looks at what made it work from a management and capacity
development point of view. Key lessons are identified in the
following areas: Building a strong consensus at national and
local levels about the importance of nutrition as an
investment in the country's future, rather than as a
welfare expenditure; using community volunteers on a huge
scale, to cut costs, involve and empower local people,
instill self-reliance and communicate effectively with
target groups; partially empowering communities by involving
them in needs assessment, planning, beneficiary selection
and program implementation, but keeping central government
control over resource allocation, so as to ensure a coherent
national program; Seeking local financial contributions to
almost all interventions, so as to cut costs, involve
communities, instill self-reliance, and increase the chances
of sustainability; Making the most use of limited financial
and managerial resources by targeting needy provinces,
sub-districts and villages, and high risk population groups;
Using national nutrition investment plans, rather than
policy statements unlinked to resource commitments, as a way
of generating a national vision, giving visibility to
nutrition, and giving each implementing agency clear
responsibilities; Managing the nutrition sector through a
series of committees, rather than by a single agency, which
encouraged a wide variety of interest groups to feel that
nutrition was their business; Building a strong nutrition
technical support organization, which also helped maintain
commitment to nutrition; Using small amounts of aid for
training and building program support capacity, rather than
funding large scale service delivery projects. Also
discussed is whether the approaches used in Thailand are
replicable in other countries, and what nutrition problems
and issues remain to be addressed in Thailand. |
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