THE Southeast Asia Ministers of Education Organization (SEAMEO) Regional Centre for Food and Nutrition (RECFON) is exploring collaboration with the Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA) to advance food and nutrition initiatives.
This, as RECFON officials met with SEARCA representatives last August 14 to discuss updates on the 2nd SEAMEO International Conference on Food and Nutrition (ICFN) 2024, and explore possible collaborations on their Nutrition Goes to School (NGTS) program.
To be held in September this year, the ICFN 2024 conference will focus on the gains, challenges and opportunities in Southeast Asia's environmental and nutrition research, programs and policies.
RECFON and SEARCA are among the 26 SEAMEO specialist institutions in the 11 Southeast Asian countries. RECFON conducts education, capacity building, research and information dissemination programs in food and nutrition through partnerships for sustainable human resource development.
The RECFON delegation was composed of Judhiastuty Februhartanty, research unit manager, and Indriya Laras Pramesthi, training unit manager, both accompanied by Leila Africa, a professor at the University of the Philippines Los Baños Institute of Human Nutrition and Food.
The visitors were received by Nur Azura Adam, SEARCA deputy director for programs.
The delegation discussed the center's involvement in ICFN 2024 and as event co-organizer, SEARCA will assist in information dissemination, moderate and document specific sessions, and host an institutional exhibit showcasing its initiatives in food, nutrition and the environment.
Judhiastuty also highlighted the potential for co-publishing the event's proceedings.
Meanwhile, the RECFON delegation also presented NGTS, a school-based multi-sectoral program designed to "build character and improve students' learning outcomes and active participation in school activities through proper nutrition, hygiene and sanitation."
The delegation said the program encompasses four components: nutrition education, school canteen, school garden and nutrition entrepreneurship.
NGTS was initially piloted in primary, junior high and vocational schools in six districts in East and West Java, and West Kalimantan provinces in Indonesia, and is now being expanded to Cambodia, Malaysia and Laos.
"We don't have direct activities involving the students but instead we focus on empowering the teachers through training sessions on crafting lesson plans," Judhiastuty explained.
She said each lesson plan is unique across the different schools because the teachers tailored their lesson plans to align with their school's specific priorities and available resources.
Judhiastuty also expressed interest in SEARCA's School-Plus-Home Gardens Project or SHGP due to the commonalities between the two undertakings.
Providing an overview of SHGP, Rochella Lapitan, SEARCA program specialist of the Research and Thought Leadership Department (RTLD), underscored the alignment between NGTS' four components and SHGP's pillars — nutrition, education and economics.
Lapitan said the School-plus-Home Gardens cum Biodiversity Enhancement Enterprise (SHGBEE), which aligns with biodiversity conservation and restoration, and the School Edible Landscaping for Entrepreneurship or SEL4E Project, focuses on entrepreneurship. Both are SHGP's offshoot projects.
She also mentioned the upcoming Center of Excellence on Sustainable Agricultural Intensification and Nutrition or CE SAIN-SEARCA Joint International Conference 2024: Fourth International Conference on Sustainable Agricultural Intensification and Nutrition, and the Third International Conference on SHGBEE in November 2024 in Siem Reap, Cambodia.
"We are so much alike in how we conceptualize our programs. It is just a matter of figuring out how to collaborate," Judhiastuty remarked.
The teams identified capacity building, particularly in curriculum integration, as a promising area for collaboration.
Africa suggested a joint publication between the SEAMEO centers comparing the challenges and success factors of SHGP and NGTS.
Bernice Anne de Torres, SEARCA project coordinator of RTLD, introduced SEARCA's Consortium for Agricultural Development, Research and Extension (CADRE), which is envisioned as a network of high-caliber and like-minded institutions.
De Torres said Cadre aims to drive agricultural transformation toward sustainable and inclusive development in Southeast Asia will feature five components, which are collaborative research; policy and program development; technical assistance and capacity building; knowledge management; and partnerships.
Judhiastuty sees Cadre as an entry point of collaboration and is keen to learn more about how RECFON could contribute.
