Title of Symposium: Changing the Narrative: Promoting African Nutrition through Children’s Edutainment
Date: Friday, October 5, 2018
Time: 12h30- 13h30
Facilitator/Speaker: Tambra Raye Stevenson, MPH, Founder/CEO, WANDA: Women Advancing Nutrition Dietetics and Agriculture
Summary: As Africa rises, the current food and nutrition landscape is changing with the influence of the standard Western diet. With the recent release of the UN Food Security and Nutrition Report revealing an increase in undernutrition, healthcare costs are projected to balloon especially for obesity, diabetes, and heart disease. Governments and communities grapple with ways to improve children’s nutrition while promoting career opportunities in the food system; children’s edutainment offers innovative and creative strategies in influencing behavior change. Also edutainment provides opportunity in changing the narrative in promoting African nutrition and foodways among children to become healthy eaters, readers and global food leaders for a healthy and wealthy Africa.