September 2018 | Issue 2

Tribute to an African Public Health Leader

Creativity & Nutrition Science

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Foreword 1

Professor Bongani Mayosi: Tribute to a true African Public Health Leader 2

The power of purpose 6

Creativity & Nutrition Science: A complete anathema or perfect partnership? 10

Creativity & Nutrition: A story from India 16

How to excite people around nutrition..? 19

Contributors 20

ForewordBY CHRISTINE TALJAARD-KRUGELL

Contents

In this issue, Katie shares a beautiful tribute to the recently passed

African Leader Professor Bongani Mayosi. Professor Mayosi was a South African NRF A-rated Scientist, a well-respected cardiologist, Dean of Health Sciences at UCT, and a leader in his field. While his loss will be felt for many years to come, we also want to review the spirit that underlies the making of such leaders. At his eulogy, he was described as “full of integrity and characterized by creativity and innovation”.

In his article, Leon speaks about the “Power of Purpose”, and how this can drive us to be the best version of ourselves. We also focus on creativity, something we may struggle to link our nutrition-world when patients dietary plans follow a specific calculation, policy programmes have outcomes to be met and research articles have specific methodologies to follow.

Interestingly, over the past years that I have been with the ANLP, I remember numerous times that individuals reconnected with their creative side

through the ANLP toolbox. Many individuals added creativity to their list of things that they will start to do more once they return to their working environments. These alumni felt that by being creative, they had more energy and were more able to find positive problem-solving solutions.

Jane writes a brilliant article on creativity, making the statement that not only CAN creativity be learned – it MUST be learned. One blogpost frames creativity as such: “Creativity is the act of turning new and imaginative ideas into reality”. When reading this definition, creativity becomes framed in practical and relevant way to our nutrition fraternity.

I hope that the ideas shared by Nema, Navneet and Jane, will inspire us all to be more creative and innovative in our path to becoming better leaders.

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Professor Bongani Mayosi:

Tribute to a true African Public Health Leader

BY CATHERINE PEREIRA

PROF BONGANI MAYOSI

I‘m sure that everyone knows the name Professor Bongani Mayosi

by now, but for our ANLP alumni in countries other than South Africa, he was the Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Cape Town (UCT) and he recently passed away tragically, at the age of 51. In 2017, the National Research Foundation awarded Prof Mayosi with A-rating as a “Leading international researcher in Cardiology and Genetics”, in 2009, he was awarded the county's highest honour, the Order of Mapungubwe (Silver) by the President for his clinical and research work. Prof Mayosi was an adviser to the national Minister of Health, he was on a number

of Journal Editorial Boards, with a huge number of publications and research outputs and he had held a number of important leadership positions. For those who want more information on the ground-breaking achievements and numerous accolades that he received can read further in, his extended and extremely impressive (45-page) CV from 2016 is available online here.

leadership principles that characterise the African Nutrition Leadership Programme.

Prof Mayosi: The Gold Standard in African Public Health Leadership

The following statements were made by people who worked with Prof Mayosi, many at the memorial service held at UCT on 2 August 2018. I have specifically highlighted the leadership principles that Prof Mayosi was described as having exemplified:

The National Research Foundation South Africa: “Professor Mayosi never forgot the challenges he had to overcome, and he therefore dedicated himself to mentoring and supporting students faced with similar challenges.”

Students described Prof Mayosi as “a guiding light and a brilliant role model who always took time to listen to their concerns. Many described him as humble and kind and said he went out of his way to help them.”

The National Deputy Minister of Health, Dr Mathume Phaahl said that “Bongani could have been a multimillionaire many times over, but he chose to serve the people up until the end...”

Professor Ntobeko Ntusi, representing the UCT Faculty of Health Sciences and Groote Schuur Hospital said that “He was second to none as a clinician. He was loved by his patients who remembered his gentle and impeccable bedside manner. As a teacher he was legendary. As a leader, Bongani was awesome. His brand of leadership was honest, inspiring, full of integrity and characterised by creativity and innovation.”

Numerous opinion pieces have been written about Prof Mayosi since his sudden passing. In writing this tribute, I have used many quotes that have come from others, simply because they were so well written and provide a personal, accurate description of this inspirational man. Almost all the rhetoric has been about what a good person he was, the scientific excellence he embodied, his

leadership style and that he always made time to speak to people. He was humble and he treated everyone with respect. Dignity, integrity, honesty and selflessness are among the many words used to describe Prof Mayosi. I did not know him personally, but his contribution to health and his passing at such a young age has affected me and many others in South Africa, Africa and globally. Thus I wish to pay tribute specifically to Prof Mayosi’s leadership style. When people describe the type of person he was, he sounds like a textbook example of the

Further comments on social media (mostly from students and colleagues on Twitter) included the following:

‘”Mentor-in-chief; maker of people; and conductor of the orchestra of people trying to change the world”. That's how

Bongani Mayosi was characterized by his co-workers. He was so inspirational to me and to many others.’

‘I feel blessed to have worked under Bongani and benefitted from his leadership, kindness and humanity.’

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At the memorial service that was held at UCT on Thursday 2 August 2018, every speaker that spoke about Bongani described how he would always have a solution to every problem, that anyone could ask him anything and we would also have a suggestion of what could be done to improve the situation. The word ‘solution’ was used repeatedly. Unfortunately, however, Bongani did not have the solution or means to access a solution to his biggest problem of all. Bongani’s family shared that he had been struggling with clinical depression for a number of years and the end result was that, on Friday 27 July 2018, he took his own life.

Professor Alison Lewis, speaking on behalf of the Dean Committee at UCT of the Faculty of Engineering & the Built Environment, said Mayosi had made personal sacrifices for the benefit of others: “He carried the burden of responsibility. He carried the burden of our ambitions, goals, hopes and dreams. We could project our loftiest ideals of character onto him, but we can also forget that we are just human. The most poignant thing we can learn from any hero is that they are human.”

Let us use Professor Mayosi’s life, legacy and untimely death to create awareness and reflectMany of the pieces that have been written have made strong recommendations to consider the stressful academic environment and the pressures that are placed on leaders. The unique pressure of health professionals in academia of needing to maintain clinical experience, balance teaching and learning, research and innovation, academic citizenship and community engagement is overwhelming.

Dr Lydia Cairncross’ opinion piece stated that “The fact that Professor Mayosi’s job required that he be in the office before dawn and stay late into the night and work weekends and many hours in between is not something we should be proud of; it is something we must examine. Because responsible, caring people will always push themselves to the limit to complete the work that must be done. The failing is in the institution that requires this unhealthy work ethic in order to “perform. … If we look at the academics in our faculty, balance, self-care and downtime is a myth. It simply does not exist…

Many have indicated that there is a need to destigmatise and create awareness around mental illness . Mohammed Abdullah, writing for the Medical Brief states that‘ …we need to be careful of oversimplifying what depression is: a complex disease impacted by genes, environment, chemical imbalances in the brain, stressors, trauma and context. It is misleading to casually

represent suicide as causal series of events culminating in a tragic decision.’ The World Health Organisation has indicated that depression is common and increasing, but although there are known and effective treatments, fewer than 10% of people affected are able to access these treatments, for a variety of reasons. Suicide can be prevented.

We know that there are many pressures on the Higher Education sector in South Africa and other African countries, coupled with increasing burdens of disease and public health crises across the continent. Academics and health professionals are expected to be available 24/7; there are often urgent matters that need attention, emergencies and crises. Leaders need to practice self-care and lead by example in emulating work-life balance. We can’t continue to allow selfless, caring, dedicated people such as Professor Bongani Mayosi, who contributed so much to say many, to pay the ultimate sacrifice.

Social media has also changed the manner in which people communicate – people can now sit behind a computer, concealed, and make cruel, arrogant, rude and discriminatory comments to anyone, often without consequence. This seems to be having a spill-over effect into emails, messages and even media opinion pieces. We need to start thinking a bit more about how we engage with each other, on various forums, we need to start accepting when someone says no, they can’t take something else on and we need to start treating each other better and with more respect.

The Acting Dean of the UCT Faculty of Health Sciences, Dr Reno Morar has prompted all of us to remember that “Professor Mayosi was deeply committed to equity and justice in improving the health of the people in our country. It is therefore fitting that we contribute to increasing awareness of depression and other mental health illnesses in our communities and promoting destigmatisation of these conditions. We are still working towards wholeness in our many fractured environment and systems – in our Faculty, our University and our country. We value every member of our Faculty community – just as Professor Mayosi did. Let us commit now to create safe and inclusive spaces for deep reflection. I encourage personal and group reflection and let us approach this with honesty, integrity and kindness.”

UCT has created a platform, #RememberingMayosi where official letters of condolences have been published together with messages from students, colleagues, friends and acquaintances from South Africa and globally.

I would like to finish with a quote that one of Prof Mayosi’s sisters, Kuthala, read (and which she said ‘that Bongani liked’) at the official provincial funeral service that was held on 4 August 2018 :

"I shall pass this way but once; any good that I can do or any kindness I can show to any human being; let me do it now. Let me not defer nor neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again." - Etiene De Grellet

‘He was never too proud to be one with our struggle. He marched the streets of Cape Town with us in his gown to show solidarity to the student struggle as an academic….’

‘A humble teacher who was always gentle and never needed to show aggression to us those he taught. He was generous with his complements and would gently show you your blind spots.’

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The power of purpose

BY LEON COETSEE

The author Richard J Strecher describes an imaginary drug “that

has proven (by scientific research) to add years to your life; reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke; cut your risk of Alzheimer disease by more than half; help you to relax during the day and sleep better at night; double your chances of staying drug- and alcohol-free after treatment; activate your natural killer cells; increase good cholesterol; and repair your DNA. What if this imaginary drug reduced hospital stays so much that it put a dent in the national health-care crises? Oh, and as a bonus, gave you better sex?” He says the side effects will be: “More friends, more happiness. Deeper engagement in life.”

Stecher then state the obvious - that this drug will be worth billions and that the inventors of this drug will receive Nobel Prizes and have institutes named after them. The wonderful thing is that this ‘remedy’ really exists, but it’s not a drug - ”It is purpose and it is free!“ says Stecher.

There exists an abundance of evidence substantiating this relationship between purpose and health, happiness, well-being and achievement. Having an end purpose in our own lives and within our organisations is generally today recognised as a prerequisite for success and prosperity.

Purpose in life and in work can be classified into two broad categories. The first category stems from the self-centred and ego-focussed needs and desires of individuals. This desire driven happiness and satisfaction are also the foundation of many well-known theories of motivation such as that of Maslow, Herzberg and MacGregor. Abraham Maslow, for example, was the founder of humanistic psychology, viewing “self-actualisation” as the pinnacle of human existence - the stage only reachable after all other more basic needs have been satisfied.

The famous psychiatrist Viktor Frankl, was enlightened by his experience of our (human being’s) search for meaning and purpose in life under the most difficult, demanding and life-threatening of circumstances in German concentration camps during World War II. He declared that this desire-driven self-focus is narcissistic and eventually detrimental to the self. Towards the end of his career, Maslow recognised the insights of Frankl, admitted he was wrong, and even changed his very popular model to accommodate the thinking inherent in the second category of purpose classification described below.

This second category has as its basis the true self (as found in many Western and Eastern religions and in modern psychology) that transcends our self-centred and ego-focussed desires. It is related to purpose and meaning but has a determining emphasis on growth-related challenges and contributions focused on other people and society.

One of the recognised, more modern theories of motivation, Locke and Latham’s (1984) Goal Setting Theory, is based on the motivational power of goals and goal setting, i.e. purposes, in enhancing individual and team performance. A well formulated purpose statement becomes an inner (internal) motivator, focusing us on what matters most. The concept of purpose can then be described as “Incorporating self-transcending goals of deeper value”.

The directing and motivating power of purpose is also at the heart of two of the most acclaimed leadership roles, i.e. visionary leadership and transformative leadership.

Leaders regarded as both visionary and transformative, such as Alexander the great, Henry Ford, Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, and Warren Buffet, are certainly amongst the most admired leaders. What qualifies an individual as a visionary leader and a transformative leader? What are their outstanding characteristics? Observers and researchers have proposed rather extensive lists of characteristics including, being:

• A strategic thinker• A risk taker• Charismatic• An excellent communicator• Inspirational

However, a very strong case can be made that the outstanding characteristic is an ability to focus followers on a vision and create their full identification with and commitment to this vision.

A vision is an ideal - a realistic, attractive and ambitious, yet credible picture of the future. But, from the writer’s perspective - for a vision to elicit identification, commitment and the passion of followers - it must be moulded into a purpose statement. The reason for this becomes clear when one compares an analysis of the concepts of vision, purpose and target.

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• A desired, distant future state

• Concept• Image/imagination• Dream• Idea• Prophesy • Farsightedness

• An intermediate future state

• Reason • Intention/intent• Higher order objective• Rationale with deeper

value

• A short term future state

• Focus• Goal• Aim• End• Home in on• Practical

VISION PURPOSE TARGET

A Vision is the broader picture of a future state to be realised - the WHAT AND WHERE we want to be, on achieving this vision.

A purpose answers the question WHY a vision should be instituted by being very specific about the outcomes to be achieved.

Targets are the specific end results (preferably measurable and not necessarily financial) or aims we want to achieve. Formulating targets answers questions such as: Where do we want to go next? Where do we want to be next? What must the situation be at a specific time in the future?

Focussing on purpose and working to reach successive targets activates a purpose directed, vision aligned and action orientated strategy on route to achieve the vision.

Together vision, purpose and targets provide members of a team or an organisation with a long and medium term unified and aligned focus, described in terms of short term measureable outputs. The links and relationship of this process is illustrated in Figure 1.

VISION PURPOSE TARGET

Figure 1: Aligning followers and focusing their coordinated actions on specific targets (measurable outcomes)

Visionary and transformative leadership has change, growth, and creating a better future at its heart. Change, as associated with transformative leadership, is in almost all cases costly, disruptive and requires energy, effort and commitment. The need for change should thus be investigated to ensure that a real and meaningful purpose exists, and that the fulfilment of this purpose will ensure the satisfaction of a significant need.

We tend to confuse or conflate “purpose” with “meaning” but there are important differences. For example, meaning in life and work speaks to the existential question: “Why am I here/why are we here?” – “for what reason?”. But purpose in life and work is concerned with what we really value. It is embodied by the question: “Are we living and working for what matters most?”.

Our values (those that we really hold dear) are a result of our cultural heritage and environment, and of our education, our experiences, but also the

sentiments, attitudes and behaviours at a given time. A significant purpose goes beyond ones’ own needs or wants and is most often based on values such as:

• Generosity, kindness, caring, relationships, community

• Courage, ambition achievement, vitality, expertise

• Growth, development, security, independence

• Trustworthiness, humility

The determining question remains - does the plan or change fulfil a real need? Will the end result (the defined purpose) create a valuable “asset” which does not yet exist?

Understanding the value of what is to be created by the results/outcomes (the purpose) of a plan or a change, together with the transferring of these insights and ownership of these values to followers and getting commitment to realise this purpose, is the essence of both visionary and transformative leadership.

References:

Frankl, Viktor E. (1959) Man search for meaning. Great Britain: Hodder and Stoughton.

Strecher, Victor J. Life of purpose: How living for what matters most changes everything. Amazon: Kindle Edition.

Locke, Edwin A and Latham, Gary P. (1984) Goal setting: a motivational technique that works! Englewood Cliffs, NJ.

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Creativity & Nutrition Science

A complete anathema or perfect partnership?

“The world we have made as a result of the level of thinking we have done thus far creates problems we cannot solve at the same level of

thinking at which we created them.” Albert Einstein

There is no doubt that being a leader in todays world requires a whole new

attitude and set of skills. The challenges we face are more complex, things change in seconds and one of the few things that is certain, is uncertainty!

Just as leadership now has to be more about transformation and successful team, so to does it require creativity if we are to successfully navigate complexity, rapid change and uncertainty. I’m amazed at the draft agendas when I’m asked to facilitate meetings or strategy sessions where the clear objective is to come with new ideas and solutions to problems – the very definition of creativity. They are so often death by PowerPoint with a 3:1 ratio of being ‘spoken at’ versus ‘being consulted with’ and co-creating new concepts to address old and seeming intractable problems. Being creative. It

doesn’t surprise me that we bemoan how little progress we make and that there is little breakthrough thinking.

It makes me think of that often quoted but I fear not often digested saying of Albert Einstein, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results.”

Do you remember that question, that I think has been raised at every ANLP since its inception, – can leadership be learned? Perhaps you even remember the discussion around it. Perhaps the answer that YES leadership can be learned, unlocked a door for you if you had always thought that leaders had to be born! I know a few ANLP Alumni who have stepped up to leadership roles they never imagined they would even consider because of that ANLP discussion…

Let me share with you another fact – CREATIVITY can be learned. In fact, it must be learned – “Every great advance in science has issued from a new audacity of the imagination” (John Dewey) or if you prefer Max Plank, “A vivid intuitive imagination, for new ideas are not generated by deduction, but by artistically creative imagination.”

My reading took me to a website called Creativity at Work (www.creativityatwork.com) that writes “A study by George Land reveals that we are naturally creative and as we grow up we learn to be uncreative. Creativity is a skill that can be developed and a process that can be managed… You can learn to be creative by experimenting, exploring, questioning assumptions, using imagination and synthesising information… It requires practice to develop the right muscles and a supportive environment in which to flourish.”

Wow just like leadership!

As I read more, I got increasingly excited that I am not alone in believing that being creative and being a leader and being a scientist are not mutually exclusive! There is a wonderful blog by Jayme Cellitioci, dating back to 2014 in the Huffington Post that is a fabulous read, in fact a must read for anyone interested in the link between science and creativity.

It is titled ‘Creativity and Science: The Perfect Couple’ (https://www.huffingtonpost.com/jayme-cellitioci/creativity-and-science-the-perfect-couple_b_4782882.html). She states that “alongside a national agenda to increase STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) literacy, there is a parallel track of growing attention being placed on creativity.” Why? Because creativity is the act of turning new and imaginative ideas into reality. The only way to solve complex challenges is through creativity and thinking differently.

We need to make idea generation and idea implementation firmly ingrained habits. We need to recognise that truly great ideas will not flourish in organisations top heavy with programmes and talk shops. “Great ideas will come in organisations with a vision and a mind-set devoted to innovation and continuous improvement – to finding a better way every day” writes Charles Thompson, the author of the book ‘What a great idea’. He defines the first step to creativity as being freedom – inner freedom to consider new ideas and new possibilities. This is not always easy and many of us have created boundaries to being creative. Once we get over those, we also need to accept that creativity must be more than idea generation - the best ideas are useless unless they are acted on.

BY JANE BADHAM

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Thompson charts the process or continuum of creativity as being generation, promotion, design, implementation and evaluation. Not everyone enjoys each one of these elements, but then you ensure you have a team to cover all the bases, and surprisingly you might find yourself flexing

your muscles in other of the elements and find you actually enjoy working in more than one! In my context I always say, I see the whole forest but I’m not interested in every leaf of each tree – in other words I see the issue and have the idea towards addressing it, but I need others to then run with making it happen and the

required attention to detail. I then come back in towards the end when the rest of the team are stuck in the trees and zoom us back out to look at the forest again and the big picture we were working towards.

Being creative in problem solving is both challenging and exciting, stimulating but nerve-wrecking and demands both flexibility and discipline.

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1. Practice ‘Ready, Fire…Aim’ thinking. That is define the problem (Ready); come up with as many ideas as fast as you can without making any judgement of any idea (Fire); now sift, synthesis and choose (Aim). Don’t only use analytical and deductive reasoning be open to many ideas no matter how crazy.

2. Create idea friendly environments. Drab offices with little light that feel oppressive don’t encourage creative thinking. Paint a wall in your office a funky colour, turn it into a chalkboard; have a bean bag as well as your desk chair; put some toys on your desk or boardroom table (lego, colouring in pens); even a plant and an abstract painting or a painting or statue that embraces your vision can make the difference. In our office we have a series of three paintings that I commissioned that depict ideal infant and young child feeding and there is also an ever-growing number of statues from all over the world of mothers and children. These inspire me towards solution thinking.

3. If at first you don’t succeed – take a break. Get up from your desk, get a coffee, have a chat to a colleague or even just come back to it tomorrow.

4. Write down your ideas before you forget them. I keep a small white board next to my bed as ideas often come to me in the middle of the night and if I jot them down at once, I can roll over and go back to sleep! And thank goodness for voice recording on my phone for those ideas when I’m driving the car.

5. Train yourself to avoid (listening to or using) killer phrases. Things like ‘yes, but…’; ‘We’ve tried that before…’; ‘It will never work here…’; ‘There’s no evidence…’, ‘We don’t have any money…’ There are some famous killer phrases that were proven spectacularly wrong - Decca Records on turning down the Beatles in 1962 “Groups with guitars are on their way out”.

6. There are no dumb questions – all questions are good. Questions result in talking. Talking can result in new thinking and ideas. In fact, try a new frame of mind by replacing ‘We’ve got to find the solution’ with ‘We need to look at some possible solutions for this problem.’ It opens a whole new world.

Here are 6 tips that have worked for me from ‘What a great idea’ for developing a more creative mindset:

What I love most about creativity is its ability to perceive the world in new ways, to find hidden patterns, to make connections between seemingly unrelated phenomena, and to generate solutions. To end, my favourite quote from the inventor Thomas “There ain’t no rules around here! We’re trying to accomplish something!”

A series of pictures commissioned to embody our vision in our work in optimal infant and young child feeding and that inspire me to think creatively towards solutions.

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Creativity & Nutrition:

A story from India

BY NAVNEET MITTAL

India was ranked 97th of 118 nations in the Global Hunger Index (2016),

primarily due to subclinical micronutrient deficiencies (e.g. Iron, Zinc, Vitamin D, Vitamin A), also known as ‘hidden hunger’. The Indian National Health Policy (2017) states that one key focus should be to create public awareness of the issue and encourage parents to feed their children a more diverse diet. However, Indian mothers believe that

if their child is not ill, then the child is healthy. It is hard to convince her that the child may have subclinical micronutrient deficiencies when she is unable to see any overt signs or symptoms.

Considering this challenge an online resource was created – the Nutrimeter Diet Assessment Tool (Figure 1).

Figure 1: A Nutrimeter Diet Assessment Tool

A mother with a child between 4 and 17 years can enter the foods eaten by her child at each meal throughout the day. Figure 2 below shows an example of the food options that can be selected for breakfast. A mother can choose up to 4 menu items that her child may have consumed for breakfast, along

with other specifications like serving size and information on added sugar. A similar pattern is followed at lunch, dinner and any other meals. All menu items in the App have been included considering the food habits of Indians across various regions (including the great variety across regions).

Figure 2: Input in the Nutrimeter Diet Assessment Tool

The tool then assesses the intake of nutrients for the day and identifies the gaps when compared to the recommended daily dietary allowance (RDA) for Indian children of that age. The aim is to help the mother identify these hidden micronutrient deficiencies and plan menu items better to make sure

her child is receiving adequate essential micronutrients regularly. For example, Figure 3 below shows the intake of a child as assessed by the Nutrimeter tool for energy, fat, carbohydrates and protein along with key micronutrients like Vitamin C, Iron, Folic Acid etc. In

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Figure 4:

Figure 3: Output of the Nutrimeter Diet Assessment Tool

this example, the child consumes more than adequate fat during the day which is indicated by the green color, however the intake of other macronutrients like carbohydrate, protein etc is inadequate (indicated by the orange color if intake is between 50% and 100%? of RDA). If the intake of any nutrient is calculated as less than 50% of RDA the indicator is red.

This tool has been extremely helpful in creating public awareness on hidden hunger and supporting balanced meal planning, especially for vulnerable populations such as children. This online tool was combined with a 360-degree communication campaign via various mediums like print, TV etc. to further raise awareness of the prevalence of subclinical micronutrient deficiency in Indian children (Figure 4).

These examples highlight the importance of presenting scientific information on nutrition in consumer friendly, easy to understand language through media channels that can access the masses. It is only when CREATIVITY is integrated with Nutrition Science that MAGIC happens!

How to excite people around nutrition..?As it may be difficult for many of

us to link nutrition to creativity, we asked Hema Kesa, a community nutrition expert from the University of Johannesburg, to provide us with some ideas. She gave us some great tips on how to be creative in the school food environment and how to use technology to engage people around nutrition.

Creativity in schools and how it can move nutrition forward.• Dedicate a corner in the class, maybe

as part of Life Orientation/Skills, to good nutrition and healthy eating – put up posters and/or make a table display

• As part of Nutrition Education: paint messages on waste bins or on one wall in the school

• Learners already take part in competitions such as World School Milk Day: get the learners to also make creative drawings or items out of milk cartons

• Other initiatives could involve Chef demonstrations, or healthy lunchbox competitions amongst industry partners

Technology and nutrition – the future:

Against the background of the 4th Industrial Revolution and the development of Artificial Intelligence, one needs to incorporate

technology with nutrition:

• Create FREE Apps (Heathy eating, healthy lifestyles and nutrition education) for mobile phones.

• Create FREE games (Heathy eating, healthy lifestyles and nutrition education) for mobile phones.

Such Apps could be useful for the general public but also for school learners as most secondary learners have smart phones. Different educational levels could be introduced.

Thinking about single parents, an App that gives easy, healthy recipes that kids love could be useful.

Depending on the intention of the message, these Apps may also be useful for pregnant women and new mothers to promote breastfeeding and have a Q&A section for nutrition knowledge. One such example is MomConnect, an SMS service for pregnant mums in South Africa. While this isn’t specifically nutrition focused there is a Q&A section including information on breastfeeding. Such services are certainly often well received, half of women registering their pregnancy in the public sector (amounting to over half a million women) registered for the MomConnect service (Barron et al., 2016).

BY HEMA KESA

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Contributors

Leon Coetsee Extraordinary professor, Centre of Excellence for Nutrition, North West University, Potchefstroom Campus Leon11@vodamail.co.za

Jane Badham Managing Director JB Consultancy, South Africa jane@jbconsultancy.co.za

Christine Taljaard-Krugell - Editor Part-time researcher and Lecturer & RSA Registered dietician Centre of Excellence for Nutrition, North West University, Potchefstroom Campus christine.taljaard@nwu.ac.za

Lisa Ware - Language Editor Researcher. University of the Witwatersrand. lisa.jayne.ware@gmail.com

THE LEADER is published and distributed as an electronic version only. THE LEADER appears on the ANLP’s website (www.africanutritionleadership.org). Comments and success-stories linked to any of the focus areas of the ANLP are welcomed and can be posted on the ANLP LinkedIn site.

Please send any correspondence or initiatives to Christine Taljaard-Krugell (africannutritionleadership@gmail.com).

Design by Graphikos: graphikos@nwu.ac.za, 018 299 4232

Hema Kesa Academic Head of Department: Hospitality Management School of Tourism and Hospitality (STH) University of Johannesburg hemak@uj.ac.za

Catherine Pereira Lecturer: Department of Dietetics and Nutrition; Faculty of Community and Health Sciences; University of the Western Cape. cpereira@uwc.ac.za

Navneet Mittal Independent Nutrition Consultant, Kenya, Nairobi navneetmittal@gmail.com