When established, the Institute was a small unit with insufficient facility. After 20 years of development, in the Institute, there are a systematically trained staff team, some laboratories well equipped. To fulfil the responsibility, however, there is still a big gap.
Based on the Prime Minister’s Decision 230/1998 QD-TTG and the Minister of Health Decision 148/1999/QD-BY on organization and responsibility of the Institute of Nutrition, it is necessary to know the main characteristics of the Institute as follow
- As a leading institution of the Ministry of Health, The Institute should well execute the research, professional guidance on nutrition in community health, food hygiene and safety and pathological nutrition and diet.
As an unique institute in the country on nutrition, the Institute is an efficiently advisory agency to the State and different ministries on nutrition policy, on the relation between nutrition and food security. The Institute should be a center for monitoring, collection and analysis of data on food consumption and nutritional situation to support not only the Ministry of health but also the other ministries. The Institute should not only propose the recommendations on appropriate nutrition but also cooperate with other sectors like agriculture and food industry in order to improve diet.
The Institute should become a center on food science, food analysis and produce the nutritious products to serve society, firstly the high risk groups.
- So in manpower development and upgrading facility, the Institute should delicately balance between nutrition and food hygiene and safety activities, between the staff working at community and in laboratory. The Institute should try step by step to make all departments become the professional and well equipped units. With experience gained from the previous periods, it is necessary to have all but not only one equally strong laboratories to fulfil the professionally technical tasks. The following laboratories need to be strengthened:
- Nutritional bio-chemistry laboratory
- Micronutrient laborator
- Functional exploring laboratory
- Food analysis laboratory (on nutritional and chemical contents)
- Food Toxicology laboratory
- Food microbiology laboratory
In this moment, it is necessary to prioritize to laboratory for food hygiene and safety.
Each department should be concretely delegated.
The basic nutrition department should focus on the researches on nutritional requirement, appropriate diet, growth, development of bio-chemical indicators and methodology and physiology of nutritional status
The community nutrition department should focus on researches on community health problems and solutions such as maternal and child nutrition, micronutrient and nutrition in different professions and ages. The community nutrition department needs a laboratory for rapid analysis in community and survey on diet practices
The nutrition surveillance unit within the applied nutrition department together with the Household food security and nutrition policy unit should be strengthened. The applied nutrition department organizes interventions in community, develops the inter-sectoral models. The content of applied nutrition is research on application of technical advantages to strengthening and ensuring food security and household nutrition security.
The pathological nutrition and dietetics department should be strengthened. The department should, in one hand, study nutritional interventions for each specific pathological situation, in the other hand, develop the preventively curative diet. The researches on elderly nutrition and related pathological situations should be carried out by this department. It is necessary to better equip both equipments and staff at the pathological nutrition clinic for gaining better prestige, as well as expanding cooperation with the other pathological nutrition network in the region.
The laboratories of the Food chemistry and Food hygiene and safety department should be continuously upgraded to fulfil its tasks on scientific researches and monitor food hygiene and safety. Food poisoning and nutritional value of food should also be paid attention. The Table of nutritional value of Vietnamese foods should consists of different forms: to be used in scientific research, in training and ordinary form for school and housewives. Food analysis booklet should be periodically updated and published.
Experimental workshop should be reorganized: to produce the products for the Institute ‘s programs/projects (PEM, micronutrient) and also for the market.
The center on nutrition education should execute its responsibilities: education, information, communication and counseling on nutrition. In this moment, the IEC activities should be strengthened together with production and distribution of universal materials to community and to other sectors. The center does not solely execute the activities but should cooperate with the other departments in the Institute, the implementing projects and serve the objectives of the nutrition policy in each period.
Manpower development should be prioritized on quality and the subject’s urgency. In addition to cooperation with the Medical college on Nutrition Bachelor’s degree training for district level and Nutrition Master’s degree for nutrition network, it is necessary to held regular training courses for staff working in the network. The library should be upgraded to fulfil its tasks as a center of important information for nutrition sector nationwide as well as for inter-sectoral formation and scientific research.
Based on the available facility, it is necessary to reorganize the departments and units to maximally use the working space and overcome the shortcomings of the actual organization. The professional areas should be prioritized in appropriate manner.
Looking back 20 years of development of the Institute, we should clearly see the achievements but in coming years, the Institute should make effort to fulfil its tasks.
1. Firstly, concerning scientific research, when established, the Institute has focused on maternal and child malnutrition and micronutrient deficiency during a long time due to urgent demand, but the scientific research and application should be expanded. Several issues on research should be paid attention such as nutrition and chronic diseases, schooling nutrition, nutrition in sport, nutrition in professions and ages, nutrition in elderly. Food hygiene and safety, situation, causes of and solutions for improving food contamination are the urgent issues.
2. Manpower development is still necessary to be continued to have a multi-sectoral staff with good knowledge and skill to serve different specialities. It is necessary to think about training contents on nutrition at different levels and sectors to serve the general policy on improved nutritional status of Vietnamese people. Development of nutrition and food hygiene and safety network within health sector needs to be sufficiently prioritized.
3. Organization and management of scientific research should be put in order. Every researcher should participate in the scientific researches with appropriate time proportion for material reading, implementation, data analysis, reporting and publication. In the other hand, they should well execute their professional guidance, implementation of the community projects.
Ensuring scientific research and caring the staff working and living condition should be parallel prioritized. It is also necessary to reserve a defined budget to support technical development and manpower development among youth.
The Institute of Nutrition has step by step confirmed its position. That is thanks to effort of several continuous staff generations who establish and develop the facility as well as execute the responsibilities, thanks to careful guidance from the Ministry of Health and other ministries and sectors, thanks to close cooperation of the network nationwide and the effective assistance and cooperation of the international organizations and friends.
The new period requires the new efforts. To intensively and cooperatively think for identifying the approaches and solutions is the actual urgent task in order to bring the Institute to steadily forward in the coming steps.