Yes, there is life after Porto. One feature of the Porto congress will be (or was, depending on when you are reading this) the formal announcement of the next world congress on public health nutrition, to be held in ‘the marvellous city’, Rio de Janeiro, between 27-30 April 2012. As you know, Rio is a city that faces the ocean, and has many spectacular beaches of which Copacabana is just one. We advise you to extend your trip for a week or so before or after the congress. Mark your agendas now, please!

As you can see from our ‘flag’ for the congress, some crucial decisions have already been taken by the outgoing Association Council. These followed a week-long meeting with Association President Barrie Margetts in Rio at the end of July. Present also at these meetings was outgoing Council member Geoffrey Cannon, who while he lives in Brazil also represented the Association. Present for national hosts Abrasco were its President Luiz Augusto Facchini and, notably, Inês Rugani, chair of the Abrasco nutrition group, with a number of key colleagues.

Theme, title, hosts

Decisions evident in announcements for the congress, like that shown here above, include the following:

• The theme of the congress is the same as that of our journal: World
  Nutrition. Its linked scope – knowledge, policy, action – shows that the result of science should be plans that are made to work.
   
• The title of the congress is completed with ‘Rio 2012’. It will be the great international event of that year, to be followed by the World Cup in 2014 and the Olympics in 2016, which are also being held in Brazil.
   
• Our partners and hosts are the Brazilian national organisation for public health professionals. This emphasises that the profession and practice of nutrition is best positioned as a branch of public health.

Principles

Rio 2012 will also be organised and structured according to a number of principles, some of which have been advocated by veterans of nutrition congresses for many years.

• Structure. Rio 2012 will have a beginning and an end as well as a middle. Its theme will be elaborated into a set of objectives that will guide the programme. A number of sessions will take the form of pre-organised workshops designed to develop these objectives. The congress will end with a series of agreed statements designed to be made the basis of rational policies and effective programmes.
   
• Nature. Rio 2012 will be a scientific congress, in the broad sense of the word, but not merely academic. Also, much knowledge does not derive only from conventional scientific investigation. Sessions will feature public health nutritionists, and also participants for whom food and nutrition policy and practice are crucial, but who are not academically trained nutrition scientists.
   
• Scope. Rio 2012 will identify public health nutrition as a branch of public health, not of nutrition as a biochemical discipline. Nutrition should revive the tradition of classical dietetics. As stated in The Giessen Declaration, it needs to be based on ethical and also evolutionary, ecological and historical principles. It has social (including cultural), economic, and environmental, as well as biolological and behavioural dimensions.
   
• Relevance. Rio 2012 will fully take into account the circumstances of the period in which we live now, which is a time of unparalleled challenge and opportunity. One of the changes it is likely to take into account, in the choice of topics and speakers, is the steadily increasing influence in world affairs of great unaligned nations that have retained substantial resources. These include South Africa, India, China – and Brazil.
   
• Interaction. Rio 2012 will be an occasion for debate, discussion and agreements, more than a meeting at which experts speak at audiences. This will be reflected in the structure and nature of the programme, and also in seating arrangements. There will be a place for podiums and lecterns, but formal presentations will be followed by a substantial time reserved for genuinely interactive discussion.
   
• Resources. Rio 2012 is being mounted with the declared support of the Brazilian federal government, including its public health agency Fiocruz; and with the backing of relevant departments of the city of Rio de Janeiro. The congress will be held at the Rio State University. It will be funded by registration fees, and by sponsorships and other material support from public institutions and non-conflicting private sources.
   
• Ambition. Rio 2012 will be an occasion to clarify the nature of public health nutrition, and to transform its scope, relevance and influence as a major and crucial part of public health. All public health professionals are now confronted with issues as tremendous as those that faced the pioneers of the 19th century. United, we have it in our power to begin the world over again, always guided by principles of justice and equity.

These are some of the agreed concepts for Rio 2012. Committees will be formedbefore the end of this year, as partnerships between the Association and Abrasco. This website will report progress regularly. We expect to have an outline programme ready for the January 2011 issue of this website, posted at the chimes of midnight.