Background
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the United Nations Decade of Action on Nutrition, 2016 – 2025 (Nutrition Decade) which was proclaimed by the UN General Assembly as follow-up to the Second International Conference on Nutrition (ICN2) held in 2014 are bringing a renewed momentum for Nutrition with a clear expectation for a leadership role reaffirmed for FAO and WHO in providing evidence-informed guidance on nutrition and healthy diets.
In 2014, ICN2 called for action to address all forms of malnutrition – undernutrition, micronutrient deficiency, overweight/obesity – as well as diet-related noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), goals that were then taken up by the SDGs in 2015. Participating governments endorsed the ICN2 Rome Declaration on Nutrition which called on Member States to implement the ICN2 commitments through a set of voluntary policy options and strategies identified in the Framework for Action.
Key to achieving these global nutrition goals and commitments is ensuring an adequate, healthy diet in infants and young children so that they can develop into healthy, productive adults. Proper infant and young child feeding are critical for improving child survival and promoting healthy growth and development, with the first two years of a child’s life being particularly important, as optimal nutrition during this period lowers morbidity and mortality, reduces the risk of noncommunicable disease, and fosters overall development. A key component of optimal nutrition during childhood and beyond is adequate (but not excessive) intake of important micro- and macronutrients.
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) established vitamin and mineral requirements for all age groups in 2004. Since this time, new data have emerged suggesting that requirements for some micronutrients may need to be updated, particularly for children. Therefore, and in part to inform the planned updating of WHO guidance on complementary feeding, the FAO Nutrition and Food Systems Division (ESN) and the WHO Department of Nutrition for Health and Development (NHD) are establishing an expert group on nutrient requirements which will update nutrient requirements for children aged 0 – 36 months, following the WHO guideline development process and in line with Article 6 of the FAO Constitution.
Prior to initiating the guideline development process, WHO conducted an initial review of the recent scientific literature on nutrient requirements, and compilation of national dietary guidelines from all regions, containing detailed information about nutrient requirements in the age group of interest. Using the data obtained from this preparatory work, FAO and WHO were able to prioritize the nutrients to be updated. The first nutrients to be updated by the expert group will be calcium, vitamin D, and zinc and work on these nutrients is well under way. The next batch of nutrients consists of iron, vitamin A, folate and magnesium.
FAO and WHO are therefore currently seeking to identify experts who would be able to conduct scoping reviews of the literature for each of the four nutrients that will be updated next: iron, vitamin A, folate and magnesium.
Scope of reviews
Each of the scoping reviews should and identify, quantify and map the types and sources of evidence available in the peer-reviewed literature, and identify gaps in research and knowledge, preferentially building off any existing, high-quality systematic reviews conducted for the purposes of setting nutrient requirements where possible.
The results of the scoping reviews will inform the work of the FAO/WHO expert group on nutrient requirements in children aged 0-36 months to establish the scope of the subsequent systematic reviews, which will include:
- Formulating the key PICO questions to guide the systematic reviews
- Prioritizing relevant health outcomes to assess in the systematic reviews
- Identifying the appropriate approach to take in deriving the requirements (e.g. dose-response or factorial approach)
The scoping reviews should therefore include:
- Structured search of the scientific literature in major databases, covering topics relevant to setting requirements for each of the nutrients (e.g. epidemiological studies assessing effects on micronutrient intake and/or status on health effects; studies of nutrient requirements, absorption and loss; balance studies)
- Compilation of relevant studies with summary information, including number of studies, and breakdown by study designs, study aims, target populations, outcomes, etc.
- Any other contextual or nutrient-specific information relevant to each of the micronutrients in terms of setting nutrient requirements
- Narrative summary of findings
Because many of the elements of the scoping review will overlap with those of a subsequent systematic review, we are looking for the scoping reviews to be designed and conducted in a manner such that the results of the scoping review, the literature search in particular, can feed directly into a subsequent systematic review; i.e. the systematic searching of the literature will not need to be completely redone from scratch for the systematic review. Using this approach, there is a possibility that those selected to conduct the scoping review for a particular nutrient will also be asked to submit a separate proposal at a later date to conduct the subsequent systematic review.
Qualifications for reviewers
Required
- Expertise in systematic review and evidence synthesis methodologies as evidenced by publication of relevant documents in peer-reviewed journals
- Content expertise in one or more nutrients; i.e. iron, vitamin A, folate or magnesium nutrition and metabolism
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Familiarity with process of setting nutrient requirements
- Strong proficiency in English
- Excellent writing skills
Desired
- Prior experience in compiling and/or reviewing the evidence base specifically for the development of nutrient requirements, particularly the completion of systematic reviews used to derive requirements for iron, vitamin A, folate or magnesium
- Prior experience in the scientific process of setting nutrient requirements
- Other methodological skills relevant to this work, including assessment of the quality of evidence (e.g. risk of bias, GRADE) and statistical analysis
Proposal
Interested, qualified parties are invited to submit a brief proposal no later than 15 December 2020. (Note: while there is a possibility that those selected to conduct the scoping review for a particular nutrient will also be asked to submit a separate proposal at a later date to conduct the subsequent systematic review, the current proposal should be limited to the completion of a scoping review only).
The proposal should contain the following:
- The team lead/lead author and host institution with overall responsibility for the review, as well as other contributors. The specific competencies and contributions of each team member should be summarized.
- CV including publication list for the team lead and any of the major contributors.
- A brief description of the current scientific landscape with respect to one or more of the nutrients of interest in the context of nutrient requirements.
- A summary of the work proposed including a rudimentary protocol for the scoping review. The summary should reflect the scope of work described above. Proposals to conduct scoping reviews for multiple micronutrients will be considered, however, expertise in each of the micronutrients and capacity to conduct multiple reviews within the timeline described below must be demonstrated.
- Budget (USD $). This should outline the total amount for the review(s) including an approximate breakdown of personnel vs. institutional/other costs.
- Basic timeline covering the major milestones of the work, noting that the reviews must be completed by 3 May 2021.
- Completed Declaration of Interests (DOI) form and Confidentiality Undertaking document for team lead and other major contributors.
Timeline
- 16 November – 15 December 2020: Interested parties submit concept notes
- 15 January 2021: Selection of teams to conduct the reviews finalized
- 31 January 2021: Contracts finalized
- 1 February – 3 May 2021: scoping reviews conducted
- 3 May 2021: Scoping reviews completed
Documents must be submitted by 15 December 2020 to be eligible for consideration. Documents can be submitted through the online submission form at
https://extranet.who.int/dataformv3/index.php/628137.
This call for authors will also be cross-posted at http://www.fao.org/nutrition/requirements/en.
Questions regarding the call for experts should be addressed to NPUinfo@who.int.