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For the past 17 years, the African Nutrition Leadership programme (ANLP) of the NWU’s Centre of Excellence for Nutrition (CEN) has proven to be an essential toolkit for leaders all over Africa.
ANLP is an intensive 10-day leadership programme that helps professionals who work in the broader nutrition field all over the continent to develop their transformational leadership skills.
This year, CEN, together with a number of national and international partners, is hosting delegates from as far afield as Tanzania, Kenya, Burundi, Ethiopia and Nigeria.
Transforming professionals into leaders
“The programme has proven to be a great success, receiving close to 200 applications every year. From these, approximately 50 participants are selected for the two annual sessions,” says Dr Christine Taljaard-Krugell, the general manager of ANLP.
The first group of 2020 was hosted during March, and the second group will commence in November at the Elgro River Lodge outside Potchefstroom, depending on the progression of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The event is facilitated by NWU academics and external members who assist the participants with skills in communication, leadership, personal growth planning, mentoring and networking.
In equipping African leaders with the necessary transformational leadership skills, CEN is helping them to make the continent a better place and its people healthier and happier.
News
African nutrition professionals become transformational leaders
Knowing a lot about nutrition is one thing. Knowing how to transfer this knowledge to others so that they can adopt better, healthier eating habits is another challenge altogether.
Prof Johann Jerling is the director and founding member and Dr Christine Taljaard-Krugell the general manager of the African Nutrition Leadership programme.
How the course creates value
Marlyne Mananga, a senior lecturer at the Yaounde I University in Cameroon, says she found out about the course from her mentor.
“My mentor attended this course in 2008, and every year he has been encouraging me to attend. Last year when the opportunity to attend arrived, I grabbed it with both hands.”
She attended the course in March this year and says that as an introvert, it helped her improve her leadership skills and confidence.
Food for thought from Unicef
According to the United Nations Children's Fund, nearly half of all deaths in children under five are attributable to undernutrition.
This is because undernutrition puts children at greater risk of dying from common infections, increases the frequency and severity of such infections, and delays recovery.
Poor nutrition in the first 1 000 days of a child’s life can also lead to stunted growth, where the child is too short for his or her age.
This is associated with impaired cognitive ability and reduced school and work performance.
While the prevalence of stunting has been declining since 2000, more than one in five – 144 million children under five – were stunted in 2019.
Worldwide, some 47 million children under five are suffering from wasting, meaning a child is too thin for their height, while 14,3 million are severely wasted.
Source: The United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef), which is a United Nations agency responsible for providing humanitarian and developmental aid to children worldwide.
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