Finding synergy between international leadership development initiatives: perspectives from the nutrition leadership programmes

Abstract

There is growing recognition that to address today’s nutritional problems there is a need for effective leaders in nutrition across sectors (academic, corporate, governmental and non-governmental), and at all career levels (junior, mid-career and senior). This requires strong leadership skills to build transdisciplinary alliances, identify evidence gaps, seize opportunities for action, and to effectively communicate to varied audiences about nutrition at the individual, organizational and system levels. Regional Nutrition Leadership Programs (NLPs) are now well established in Europe, Africa, South-East Asia, Middle East, Latin-America, and Oceania. Interest has been expressed by the SUN movement and other agencies in developing leadership capabilities in other (sub-)regions. Leading change in nutrition is challenging, and requires a unique set of values, attitudes and orientations in addition to excellent technical, facilitation, strategic, and inter-personal skills. By creating awareness and developing these skills at an early- or mid-career stage, the different NLPs seek to increase the capacity of nutrition professionals to lead from where they are at all levels in the system. Representatives from different NLPs have joined forces to build the functional capacity neces sary to deal with the global nutrition challenges common to so many regions of the world. In keeping with the region-led approach of the NLPs, the initial emphasis is on supporting and strengthening existing NLPs whilst creating a common global purpose across NLPs and forging linkages between them. We will share details of this new initiative, which includes as a first step a detailed mapping of the global nutrition leadership landscape and a critical assessment of the potential added value that inter-regional collaboration could provide