The call for abstracts for the Micronutrient Forum 5th Global Conference – Building New Evidence and Alliances for Improving Nutrition – taking place in Bangkok, Thailand from 23rd to 27th March 2020, is now open.
Micronutrients are at the heart of the potential of food systems to deliver optimal health. Food systems are at the heart of determining what people eat.
The Micronutrient Forum 5th Global Conference will cover the broad spectrum of micronutrients – research, efficacy and safety, implementation and, the policy and enabling environment.
In addition, the conference will take a deep dive into how micronutrients might be optimized and protected within food systems. The Micronutrient Forum is striving to ensure greater participation from the agriculture, manufacturing, processing and distribution, retail and culinary sectors, to widen the conversation and drive multi-sectoral innovation towards sustainable solutions. The Micronutrient Forum 5th Conference provides the opportunity for sharing new micronutrient research with a diverse audience across 4 focused tracks.
TRACK 1: The biology of micronutrient nutrition and status assessment.
Topics include:
- Benchmarks, methods and metrics for improving the food systems and micronutrient delivery.
- Absorption, metabolism and interaction of micronutrients.
- Micronutrients and the double burden of noncommunicable diseases.
- Effects of genetics, infection/inflammation, and other environmental exposures, on micronutrient deficiencies.
- Innovations and updates in assessment of micronutrient status: epidemiology and global prevalence of the micronutrient deficiencies.
- Innovative technologies for micronutrient delivery.
TRACK 2: The efficacy and safety of micronutrient interventions on micronutrient intake, status and related functional outcomes.
Topics include:
- Efficacy and effectiveness of food system value chain interventions.
- The implications of climate change on micronutrient status.
- Agricultural interventions and micronutrient status/intakes.
- Multiple micronutrient powdersand reduction of anemia prevalence.
- Effectiveness of food fortification.
- Impact of interventions on micronutrient status and functional outcomes.
- Dosage, duration and frequency of additional micronutrient delivery throughout the lifecycle.
- Safety considerations of implementing concurrent micronutrient interventions.
TRACK 3: Bridging the gap between evidence and implementation to optimize the scale-up of micronutrient interventions.
Topics include:
- Dietary patterns, nutrient intakes, and food safety.
- Advances in large scale food fortification.
- Filling gaps in micronutrient data: Use of modeling tools and dietary data for program decisions.
- Frameworks and tools for successful program design and implementation.
- Experiences from implementation science.
- Innovative program or delivery models, including multi-sectoral interventions.
- Monitoring, surveillance, and evaluation for program improvement.
- Experiences and lessons learned from country programs.
TRACK 4: Engaging new actors and building new alliances, and expanding the field of view to include global, regional and national policy considerations, financing, innovative partnerships, climate change, communications, social marketing and advocacy.
Topics include:
- Value propositions across the value chain.
- Market shaping for micronutrients.
- Solutions to engagement with the private sector to invest and support high quality foods.
- Rethinking the investment case.
- Multisectoral engagement to make food systems deliver on nutrition.
- Cost-effectiveness of delivering micronutrient interventions at scale.
- Effective and responsible policies, programs and business models.
- Creating and sustaining effective leadership, communication, capacity development and advocacy.
About the Micronutrient Forum
The Micronutrient Forum tackles some of the most complex technical challenges in micronutrient malnutrition by convening experts from an international community of scientists, policy-makers, private sector and program implementers. The Micronutrient Forum was founded in 2006 and is guided by leaders from many fields who share our vision of a world where all people have optimal micronutrient status for health and well-being.
