Our founding statement of aims and
objectives begins as follows. ‘The World Public
Health Nutrition Association is the voice of public
health nutrition as taught and practiced worldwide.
It is created at a critical time in history, when
the need for collective action in the public
interest is most urgent and pressing... We encourage
policy-makers and decision takers, at all levels
from global to local, to promote equitable and
sustainable access to adequate, enjoyable,
appropriate and nourishing food. This is essential
for population health and well-being, and also for
social, cultural and economic integrity, and to
conserve the living and physical world’.
This implies that we are well trained, well
supported, and are indeed prepared and able to act
professionally. We therefore need to establish our
own standards and regulations for becoming and
remaining a qualified and recognised public health
nutritionist, as is normal within other professions.
Our certification scheme
The Council agrees that the Association has a key
role to play in setting standards and regulating the
profession. Such regulations need to include an
agreed code of professional practice and ethics. In
turn this means that what we need as a profession is
a system of certification as an international public
health nutritionist. This will benefit registered
members of the Association in many ways.
Certification will raise our status as
professionals, accelerate the process of creating
and sustaining networks, help in raising funds for
research and practice projects, and reassure
employers, colleagues, journalists and others we
work with. It will also be of special support to our
members in less resourced parts of the world.
There is another reason why as a profession we need
to agree and follow our own standards and
regulations. Other professions are disciplined. We
are not. Other professions have internal debates and
disagreements, but when it comes to making public
statements they and their professional bodies
usually do their best to speak with one voice, and
have a mechanism for doing so. By contrast, as we
all know, if a politician or a journalist were to
ask ten people calling themselves nutritionists,
including some with academic qualifications, what is
a healthy diet, they probably would get ten answers,
mostly conflicting. We have the same problem with
issues of hunger and undernutrition in impoverished
parts of the world.
Debate is essential, consensus positions are subject
to new evidence, and paradigms shift. But there is
much unnecessary and even foolish confusion and
conflict within the nutrition profession. This
damages us, and it is also a reason why so many
people suffer hunger, and all that this means. A
code of practice, internal regulation, and a
certification scheme, won’t amount to magic
solutions. But they will all help us, our work, and
our cause.
Help to make it all happen
A number of Association members have already worked
towards establishing a certification scheme across
Europe. The proposal of the Association Council now,
is that we develop a worldwide scheme. Beginning
now, an Association working group convened by Roger
Hughes, Association vice-president responsible for
professional affairs, is developing a draft of this
scheme. The draft will be circulated to all members
for comments. Better still, we are now asking
members to offer to join the working group, or else
to give advice and input now. Please now contact:
Roger Hughes
rhughes1@usc.edu.au
|