ORT, growth monitoring and education

The Nutrition Institute for Central America and Panama (INCAP) will implement the project. INCAP will meet with counterpart, donor, PVO, and private sector personnel in the six countries to promote project technologies and will help country task forces draft national strategies for using the technologies. These efforts will be supported by knowledge, attitudes, and practices studies of communities and of health providers as well as select studies in management, logistics, and financial planning systems. Regional and national seminars focusing on the country strategies will be held at the end of the first year and again halfway through the project. INCAP will provide TA, senior-level seminars, and some in-country training to strengthen the systems identified in the management studies. INCAP will also work with host country groups to conduct small operations research (OR) activities on implementation issues (e.g., community-based vs. clinic-based delivery) and to improve country health information systems in cooperation with regional and international entities. INCAP will help upgrade countries" basic and continuing education programs for health professionals and paraprofessionals. Specific activities include in-country clinical courses for physicians, nurses, nutritionists, and pharmacists; regional workshops on training materials and educational evaluation; TA for developing the materials; and public education and mass media planning, training, and OR activities. INCAP will expand its Regional Information Clearinghouse on Maternal/Infant Nutrition, Lactation, and Weaning to include materials on project technologies. The Clearinghouse will disseminate these sources to professionals and also provide TA to national information centers. This component will also fund joint INCAP-host country OR on behavioral, managerial, technical, and logistical issues relating to project technologies, as well as on the dietary management of diarrhea and such still unexplored areas as the causes of fatal diarrhea, the etiology of diarrhea, and the relation between low birth weight and infant mortality. Finally, INCAP will provide TA to increase the commercial sale of oral rehydration solution (ORS) by the private sector and perhaps to improve ORS production. Amendment of 8/31/87 extends PACD to 12/90 and adjusts inputs, increasing INCAP"s role in three areas: coordination of donor-funded child survival support; information management; and regional quality control of ORS production. (PD-AAZ-447) Amendment of 7/22/88 adds a component to control Vitamin A deficiency. INCAP will educate policymakers and senior health personnel about the magnitude of the problem in their countries and the interventions needed among specific groups. INCAP will also help design and implement these interventions and collaborate with country programs to provide training, direct TA, and research and evaluation support; help diffuse information and technology; and support exchanges among countries. (PD-AAZ-447)