London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

Building on the success of 2021, the second consecutive Action Against Stunting Day will explore how to advance a just transition to sustainable food systems and food security through appropriate policies, investments and support. The second Action Against Stunting Day will take place on 8 September 2022.  

In the first edition last year, we defined the key priorities in the battle against stunting. We brought together a global panel of policymakers, donors and academics to commit to promoting research and interventions to reduce stunting by 2025 

To commemorate Action Against Stunting Day, we are holding our first hybrid meeting at LSHTM to convene key changemakers in the field of nutrition such as: 

• Grainne Moloney, Senior Nutrition Advisor at UNICEF 
• Liam Smeeth, Director of LSHTM  
• Saul Morris, Director of Programme Services, Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition 

Following the event, there will be a photo exhibition of our work in India by Liz Hingley, and refreshments for all attendees at the School, a great opportunity for networking. 

Speakers

Professor Liam Smeeth, Director of LSHTM  

Professor Liam Smeeth is professor of clinical epidemiology and Director of the LSHTM. He is also a clinician in NHS general practice. During his career he has has been supported by fellowships from MRC, NIHR and Wellcome. He was previously a Trustee of the British Heart Foundation and a non-executive director of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency. He is a member of the strategic oversight committee for UK Biobank and an elected Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences.  

Professor Claire Heffernan, Principal Investigator, UKRI GCRF Action Against Stunting Hub 

Professor Claire Heffernan is Director of the London International Development Centre and Chair of International Development at the Royal Veterinary College (RVC.) She holds a joint appointment with the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM). Her work at the Centre focuses on facilitating interdisciplinary research across seven University of London institutions aimed at addressing critical challenges in international development. 

Current thematic areas include nutrition, health, agriculture, humanitarian emergencies, zoonotic diseases, impact evaluation and education. Claire’s particular areas of expertise include the application of interdisciplinary research within the development sphere in addition to the emerging paradigm of solutions-based research. 

Grainne Moloney, Early Childhood Nutrition, UNICEF 

Grainne Moloney is a Senior Advisor at the UNICEF HQ in New York on Early Childhood Nutrition. There she leads on young child diets (breastfeeding complementary feeding and micronutrients deficiencies) in the 0-5years age group. Previously Grainne worked in UNICEF East and Southern Africa regional office on prevention and treatment of wasting, and nutrition in emergencies. Prior to that, she served as the Chief of the Nutrition with UNICEF Kenya and the Chief Technical Advisor for the Food Security and Nutrition Analysis Unit, (FAO) Somalia. Grainne holds an MSc in Public Health Nutrition and BSc. in Human Nutrition and Dietetics.   

Saul Morris, Director of Programme Services, Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) 

Saul joined GAIN after three years at the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF), where he oversaw a USD200 million grant portfolio, including all the organisation’s investments in combating chronic malnutrition and anaemia. He has more than twenty-five years’ experience in international nutrition, having worked in research at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and as Head of the Public Health Nutrition Unit at LSHTM, and as a funder at the UK Department for International Development (DFID) and at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF). He has more than eighty publications in peer-reviewed journals, including as one of the lead authors of the first Lancet series in 2008 on maternal and child nutrition.  

He has worked intensively with partners to implement vitamin A, zinc, and supplementation programmes in Africa and South Asia; nutrition-sensitive conditional cash transfer schemes and agricultural development projects in Latin America, India, and Africa, and community health worker platforms in Africa and Bangladesh. 

Dr Bharati Kulkarni, Country Lead India, UKRI GCRF Action Against Stunting Hub 

Dr Bharati Kulkarni is Senior Grade Deputy Director at National Institute of Nutrition, Hyderabad, India. Her research focuses on ways to improve the nutritional status of vulnerable population groups, especially women and children. She has carried out studies on public health nutrition problems including management of severe acute malnutrition in children, body composition, nutritional interventions to improve maternal nutrition, agriculture-nutrition linkages, and agricultural interventions to improve nutritional status of women and children. She earned a Master of Public Health from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, USA and PhD from Queensland University of Technology, Australia. 

Dr Luz María de Regil, Unit Head, Multisectoral Action in Food Systems, World Health Organization

Dr Luz María De-Regil currently heads the Unit of Multisectoral Actions in Food Systems at the World Health Organization. This area of work includes accelerated action in Food Safety, policies for reducing obesity and the consumption of potentially harmful ingredients in the diet, as well as food-based approaches for improving people’s nutrition -including fortification and biofortification. Dr De-Regil is Food Scientist and an Epidemiologist with 20 years of experience in the public, private, non-for-profit and intergovernmental sectors. Her expertise spans from micronutrient malnutrition to the double burden of malnutrition, and from research in basic nutrition science to large-scale public health programming and policy.

• Please note that the recording link will be listed on this page when available. 
• Please note that you can join this event in person or you can join remotely via the Zoom webinar link.