You are kindly reminded of the 11th Public Lecture of the College of Basic and Applied Sciences, which has been scheduled as follows:
Date: Tuesday, 17th March, 2020
Time: 3:00 p.m.
Venue: Auditorium of the Centre for African Wetlands, University of Ghana, Legon
Guest Speaker: Professor Grace Marquis
Chairman: Professor Daniel K. Asiedu (Provost, CBAS)
Please keep the date and time open and endeavour to attend.
Kindly find below a profile of the Guest Speaker and summary of the Lecture
Profile of Guest Speaker
Grace S. Marquis is Associate Professor in the School of Human Nutrition at McGill University (Montreal, Canada) and Affiliate Associate Professor in the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition at Iowa State University (Ames, USA). She was the Canadian Research Chair in Social and Environmental Aspects of Nutrition from 2006-2016. Her career in maternal and child nutrition began over 35 years ago at the Instituto de Investigación Nutricional (Nutrition Research Institute) in Lima, Peru. Since 1999, her research group has worked in Ghana. In collaboration with Dr. A Lartey, funds were obtained to build the Nutrition Research and Training Centre in Asesewa (Eastern Region). Through the centre, Dr. Marquis’ team carries out community-based research that examines how social, economic, biological, and environmental factors interact and affect the diet and nutritional status of infants and young children as well as that of adolescent girls and women. Projects include multi-sector, integrated strategies that strengthen economic activities and expand knowledge to support health and growth of households living in poverty. Dr. Marquis is the primary mentor for 15 doctoral students (seven Ghanaian). She is proud of her graduates who are now well positioned as researchers at international and national research and development institutions, and the University of Ghana. Her group’s research has been disseminated through more than 80 publications in peer-reviewed journals and presented in many professional conferences around the world. Dr. Marquis is Associate Editor for Advances in Nutrition, ranked third of all nutrition and dietetics journals globally. She received a Doctorate of Laws, honoris causa, for contribution to tertiary education from the University of Ghana in 2013.
Professor Grace S. Marquis
Summary of Lecture
TITLE:
Improving nutrition in rural Ghana: A glimpse at the first decade of the University of Ghana Nutrition Research and Training Centre
SUMMARY:
Large disparities in nutrition persist in Ghana -- across regions and urban-rural settings as well as by sociodemographic classifications including sex, age, education, and wealth. Over the last 10 years, the University of Ghana Nutrition Research and Training Centre (NRTC) in the Eastern Region has provided support for national and international researchers to enhance the understanding of nutrition disparities and design interventions to improve rural lives. Nutritional status is affected by many determinants that must be addressed through coordinated activities in health, education, agriculture, finance, business, among other areas. Close collaborations through participatory research methodologies with stakeholders – from community residents to district directors – enhance the potential of sustainable intervention benefits. The projects at the NRTC work with local institutions to enrich the knowledge and skills of district staff to promote their services to the community and expand residents’ ability to address the daily challenges to providing a nutritious diet and healthy environment for their families. A decade of training and research at the NRTC has demonstrated that multi-sector approaches can improve rural nutrition and well-being.