Accra, Ghana – On the 3rd of July, Nestlé Central and West Africa (CWAR) held a
workshop with the partners of its Healthy Kids programme to share best
practices and discuss how to strengthen and scale up the initiative in the
region.
Nestlé seeks to promote healthy
eating and active lifestyles to help children achieve and maintain a healthy
body weight into adulthood. The Nestlé Healthy Kids programme forms an integral
part of the company’s commitment to help children develop positive habits that
will last a lifetime.
In Central and West Africa, the
initiative has already benefitted more than 75,000 school-aged children in
Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Nigeria, and Senegal. The
programme is developed and implemented in partnership with Ministries of
Education, Health, universities or non-governmental organisations and tailored
to local health and nutritional needs.
“At Nestlé, we are convinced
that for a company to be able to operate over the long term, it needs to create
value for the communities where it operates”, said Kais Marzouki, Market Head
of Nestlé CWAR in his Welcome Address. “This is particularly true in our region
where Nestlé cannot thrive without a healthy population. The Healthy Kids
programme is part of our response to the malnutrition issues facing the
countries in Central and West Africa”, he added.
Nestlé and its partners
discussed how to build sustainable and impactful programmes that contribute to
the health of local schools and their surrounding communities. Topics addressed
included developing scientific and evidence-based monitoring & evaluation;
addressing teachers’ needs and teaching methods and moving beyond the classroom
to engage the whole community.
In 2014, there were 77 Healthy Kids Programmes
taking place around the world, with 294 partners, including NGOs, nutrition
institutes, national sport federations and local governments
............................. Nestlé builds capacity for
healthcare professionals in Central and West Africa
In a related issue,Nestlé is helping to boost the expertise of
healthcare professionals in Central and West Africa through a number of
training programmes, scientific
symposiums, conferences
and workshops covering topics that are related to maternal
and infant nutrition
and health.
The company is doing this through the Nestlé
Nutrition Institute Africa (NNIA), which is part of the Nestlé Nutrition
Institute (NNI). The NNI is a non-profit organisation that offers a variety
of on- and offline unbranded educational services to healthcare
professionals, with a focus on the first 1,000 days of life from conception
to the child’s second birthday.
The NNIA aims to
train African paediatricians and healthcare professionals on
gastroenterology, hepatology and nutrition to boost their competences in
these specific areas.
In Central and West
Africa, a significant shortage of qualified healthcare professionals impacts
on the countries’ ability to fight disease and provide essential, life-saving
interventions. By investing in their training and education, Nestlé aims to
build healthcare professionals’ capacity in nutrition and develop strong
networks of professional experts.
Nutrition resource
The NNIA is a nutrition resource for healthcare
professionals in Africa and a multi-disciplinary educational organisation
dedicated to the science of nutrition on the continent.
In 2014 alone, about
6,500 healthcare professionals have been trained through NNIA activities.
Nearly 9,000 of them are also registered to its website.
The NNIA collaborates
with professional associations and healthcare institutions across the region,
and supports scientists through annual scientific awards with award money
invested into research. It also offers short and middle term scholarships to
healthcare professionals in public health nutrition.
Building
capacity in maternal and infant nutrition
As part of NNIA’s
activities, the annual CWAR Advanced Nutrition Workshop (CANUP) brings
together healthcare professionals such as doctors and paediatricians from all
over Central and West Africa.
The CANUP workshop,
organised in both English and French-speaking countries, shares resources,
research and training on maternal and infant nutrition based on the latest
scientific data.
Since 2011, a total of 275 paediatricians have received training, who
in turn, went on to train about 3,000 other healthcare professionals.
This year, Nestlé
piloted the first NNIA International Course in Applied Nutrition (ICAN) aimed
at nurses and midwives from English-speaking countries in Central and West
Africa.
The course aims to
provide them with practical nutrition knowledge and the latest evidence-based
nutrition related topics for use in their daily roles.
Topics include the
importance of nutrition in the first 1,000 days of life and long-term health.
After this successful pilot, Nestlé is considering rolling out the course to
French-speaking countries in the region next year.
International
collaboration
The NNIA, in
collaboration with the European
Society for Paediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition
(ESPGHAN), also offers postgraduate training to African paediatricians on
gastroenterology and nutrition.
It aims to boost the
number of trained paediatrics in these areas of expertise, who will then
extend this knowledge to other healthcare professionals.
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Nestlé Nigeria helps
develop young people’s skills in engineering
Buoyed by the need to support
and develop young engineering talent, Nestlé Nigeria PLC established a
Technical Training Centre in its Agbara Factory. Launched in September 2011,
26 students have now completed the programme.
Under an agreement between
Nestlé, the Nigerian authorities and the Swiss government, the top five
graduating students of each batch undergo an additional three-month
internship in Switzerland.
This year’s top five
graduating students had the opportunity to follow a three-month internship at
Nestlé Product Technology Centre (PTC) in Orbe and at the Nespresso factory
in Switzerland. This was sponsored by the Swiss Government. This exciting
opportunity allowed students to be exposed to different areas such as
production, quality, engineering and technology. It further enhanced their
skills and broadened their technical expertise.
“We are committed to helping
young people contribute to the technological development of Nigeria,” said
Dharnesh Gordhon, Nestlé Nigeria’s Chief Executive Officer. “Our aim is to
nurture local ability in science and engineering while widening our potential
employee talent pool.”
Ambassador of Switzerland to
Nigeria, Dr. Hans-Rudolf Hodel commended Nestlé for its openness and
enthusiasm. “I am convinced that the Nestlé Technical Training Centre in
Agbara and the cooperation between Nestlé and the Swiss Government are making
a small but significant contribution to the strengthening of the Nigerian
labor market and economy by providing highly qualified and much-needed
Polyvalent Technical Operators.”
The Nestlé Technical Training
Programme serves to impact the students with practical engineering knowledge
and skills. Students undergo an intensive 18-month theoretical and practical
engineering syllabus based on the London City & Guilds curriculum for
Mechanical and Electrical Engineering. The programme is open to young
Ordinary National Diploma certificate holders, with specialty in electrical,
electronic, mechanical and automation engineering.
All students from the first
wave found permanent employment and eight of those were employed by Nestlé
Nigeria Plc. A second wave, finishing in July 2015, will see a further 13
students joining the company. A third wave will start in September 2015 with
20 participants – the largest group since the programme was launched.
Given the success of this
program and the launch of the Global Youth Initiative, Nestlé Central and
West Africa Region is planning to establish a similar Technical Training
Centre at the Yopougon factory in Côte d’Ivoire. Starting in 2016, this will
first provide technical training facilities for Nestlé employees in its two
factories in Côte d’Ivoire (Yopougon and Zone 4). In the long term, there are
plans to extend the facilities to external students as per the example in
Nigeria.
This initiative is part of
Nestlé’s commitment to help develop young people’s skills across the world
develop skills and make them more employable. It aims to develop young talent
for the company and help tackle the global youth unemployment crisis.
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