On accusations of dependency and top-down implementation:

The achievement of micronutrient goals has created dependency. How? Not only are many iodine deficiency disorders (IDD) and vitamin A deficiency disorders (VADD) schemes top-down --with an element of dependency there-- but supplies and other resources are, more often than not, donor provided. In the long run, in terms of sustainability, what worries some of us is the ‘ownership-donorship’ interplay. At the end of the day, it is a zero sum game.

On this issue of top-down, I do disagree with what some colleagues imply when they tell us that solutions lie in a continuum from vertical micronutrient interventions to those addressing stunting and underweight so that the former call for vertical goals which need little action at community level and only the latter need active community involvement; I disagree with them when they say that it is only when goals need action at community level that actionable levels must be consulted with community representatives.

To me, the idea of ‘some amount of community action’ is non-sensical. Implying that for child chronic malnutrition most actions are to be devised and carried out by the community implies shifting the responsibility for having so many malnourished children among them to the community itself --so they better deal with it...