Informing humanitarians worldwide 24/7 — a service provided by UN OCHA

Nutrition, Food Security and Livelihoods: Basic concepts

This course explains the concepts of food and nutrition, malnutrition, food security and livelihoods. Understanding these concepts is important to assess the nutrition situation, design and implement programmes, investments and policies that address nutrition problems (also called “nutrition-sensitive”), and evaluate the nutritional outcomes of programmes, investments and policies.

Duration:

30 minutes

Publication Date:

August 2015

Audience

The course is designed to assist professionals from a variety of sectors (agriculture, livestock, fisheries, health, rural development, education, social protection) that are involved in designing and implementing nutritionsensitive programmes, investments and policies. This includes professionals working for development partners (i.e. international organizations, donor agencies, non-governmental organizations), for national governments or as independent consultants.

You will learn about

  • Food and Nutrition related concepts and definitions.
  • Nutrient requirements and balanced diet.
  • Different forms of malnutrition.
  • Causes of malnutrition.
  • Food Security and Livelihoods.

How to register

System requirements

The online version of this course runs on the latest versions of the major browsers, such as Chrome, Safari, Edge and Firefox: https://elearning.fao.org/course/view.php?id=194

The downloadable version only runs on Windows PC’s and no additional software is needed.

This course is also available in Spanish; French; Portuguese