Capacity-building in the management of moderate acute malnutrition

Evidence from low- and middle-income countries indicates that although there is a willingness to prevent and treat malnutrition at scale, there is very limited capacity to achieve this. Three broad areas of concern are human resources and the quality of services; management systems and supplies; and demand side factors. This paper focuses on building human resources in the context of preventing and managing malnutrition. Training should provide several options and approaches suitable for different settings and focus on core competencies. Preservice training should be the main focus of training, while in-service training should be used for continuing medical education and refresher training. Communities of Practice, in which national and international health professionals come together to deepen their knowledge and pool their skills to pursue a common ambition, are seen as one way forward to building the necessary human resources for scaling up training.