About INCAP/Main fields of work

Coordinate, harmonize and support strategies and initiatives of the institutional framework of the different SICA subsystems, organized civil society, the private sector and international cooperation in the region; for the formulation of the Food and Nutritional Security Policy for Central America and the Dominican Republic 2013-2032, formulation of the School Feeding Framework Law for Central America and the Dominican Republic, formulation of the Strategy for the prevention of overweight and obesity in children and adolescents from Central America and the Dominican Republic. Likewise, efforts are being made to strengthen initiatives for the fortification of foods with micronutrients: vitamin A, iron, iodine, zinc, and monitoring and evaluation of fortification programs through the harmonization of regional regulations in order to prevent and control micronutrient deficiencies in Member States. Another important action is support for the design, formulation and evaluation of national food and nutrition programs executed by the main organizations and institutions that work together with INCAP.

Articulation of regional networks in various areas of food and nutrition, including: Regional Network of Food and Nutritional Biochemistry Laboratories; Regional Network of Chronic Disease Research Institutions -RIIEC-; Regional Commission of Micronutrients and Fortified Foods of Central America and the Dominican Republic -CORMAF-; Regional Technical Commission for Chronic Diseases and Cancer -CTCC-.

Agreements and strategic alliances with Institutions of the Central American Integration System (SICA): Superior University Council of Central America and the Dominican Republic -CSUCA- and Commission for the Scientific and Technological Development of Central America and Panama -CTCAP-, agreements with Organizations of the Nations United as FAO, UNICEF, WFP, USAID Organizations, Embassy of Sweden among others. These joint actions strengthen the framework for the development of innovative sectoral and global strategies related to the issue of food and nutrition and its determinants.

In knowledge management, the Virtual Library on Health and Food and Nutritional Safety -BVSSAN- is strengthened and made available to the public, a collection of regional scientific-technical documents (bibliographic, audiovisual and electronic) linking Health and Nutritional Food Safety. It offers a variety of technical consultation documents of INCAP's own production, updated bibliography in hard and digital form with scientific and technical information, generated by the different agencies of the United Nations System, such as the United Nations Organization for Agriculture and Food -FAO-, United Nations Children's Fund -UNICEF-, World Food Program -WFP-, organizations of the United States Agency for International Development -USAID-, Embassy of Sweden, among others , who have worked with INCAP on the subject of nutrition and food. Here you will also find a wide variety of classic books on the subject of nutrition and food.

Initiatives are designed to promote Food and Nutritional Security (SAN) that link Agriculture - Health - Nutrition, focusing actions on pregnant and lactating women and children under 24 months - Window of Opportunity period of the 1,000 Days, so that actions in the agricultural field favor the achievement of nutritional objectives, addressing both the problems associated with energy and micronutrient deficits and those of "overnutrition" in which the poor quality of the diet and reduced physical activity lead to overweight and obesity, a risk factor for non-communicable diseases.

Development of research projects in different areas of food and nutrition in Central America and the Dominican Republic in partnership with universities and research centers including: Johns Hopkins University, Harvard University, University of Michigan, Washington University in St. Louis and RAND Corporation, with emphasis on prevention issues of "Nutrition-Related Noncommunicable Diseases."

Educational strategies are developed and promoted to strengthen the technical capacity in food and nutrition of human resources in Latin America, through different modalities: face-to-face, semi-face-to-face and distance learning; using information technologies through the Virtual Classroom. We work in alliance with public and private universities for the accreditation of programs at the technical and postgraduate level.

Development of methodologies and tools for monitoring and evaluation at the national and regional levels of nutritional intervention programs such as fortification, community interventions, diet, national health and nutrition surveys, height censuses, elaboration of basic food basket, interpretation of site information sentinels, development of methodologies for consumption surveys, analysis of comprehensive systems of nutritional interventions that include the epidemiology of malnutrition, analysis of surveys with biomarkers of iron, vitamin A, spatial analysis, geo-referential positioning systems, among others.

The Comprehensive Analytical Center (CAI) has been strengthened, including the Nutritional Biochemistry, Food Composition and Microbiology laboratories, both in its infrastructure and in the management of research protocols. There is a modern Sensory Analysis laboratory and the strengthening of the Physiology and Body Composition Laboratory (LAFICC) continues to optimize research, human resource capacities and provide technical cooperation.