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Documents

February 22 and 23, 2012

Washington, D.C.

Getting the Knack of NACS was a two-day state of the art (SOTA) meeting aimed at taking stock of progress since the Nutrition Assessment, Counseling and Support (NACS) meeting held in Jinja, Uganda in 2010; examining the evidence base to date; and further advancing the state-of-the-art on NACS in the context of HIV, and health care more broadly.  NACS is an organizing framework that is client-centered and emphasizes nutrition assessment, counseling and support. NACS brings together existing nutritional services, protocols and actors along the continuum of care, with referrals and effective coordination for optimal quality and impact.

Getting the Knack of NACS builds upon the theme of integration which has been high on the agenda for CORE Group for some time, and this meeting represents an effort by CORE Group’s HIV/AIDS and Nutrition Working Groups to demonstrate that integration should not only occur programmatically, but likewise through the creation of collaborative processes for discussion, debate and learning. The involvement of TOPS and the Food Security and Nutrition (FSN) Network further underscores the interest of the US NGO community in deconstructing the funding and operating silos that have built up around HIV, health and nutrition over time, and replacing them with mechanisms that reach across sectoral boundaries.

One hundred three participants from 48 organizations attended the SOTA meeting. Participants included CORE Group members and the TOPS FSN Nutrition Network, along with other key nutrition and HIV audiences, including representatives from US government agencies, UN agencies, HIV and nutrition implementing agencies, and agencies providing technical assistance to implementers. The vast majority of participants were US-based technical staff in the areas of nutrition and/or HIV. Some of the country programs where NACS is being implemented were also represented, including Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Uganda and Zambia.

For more information, visit the CORE Group webiste.

To view the full list of videos from the meeting, click here. To view the full list of presentations from the meeting, click here.