Tanzania Food and Nutrition Centre is a semi-autonomous government institution under the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, established by Tanzania Food and Nutrition Act Number 24 of 1973 and amended by Act 3 of 1995. The Centre has a Governing Board whose members are drawn from Ministries / sectors and institutions which are stakeholders in the fight against malnutrition.  The Chief Executive of the Centre is the Managing Director who is answerable to the Governing Board. The Chief Executive is assisted by five heads of Directorates namely: Finance, Personnel and Administration; Nutrition Policy and Planning; Community Health and Nutrition; Nutrition Education and Training; and Food Science and Nutrition. The current organization of the directorates reflects the conceptual approach in tackling the causes of malnutrition.

 Vision

TFNC is recognized for generating and coordinating initiatives that enable Tanzania to become a well-nourished nation. It  is known in particular for excelling at building alliances for community-based actions, providing policy guidelines that are timely, practical and evidence based, and developing capacity for nutrition research and action.

TFNC assesses its own effectiveness by monitoring nutrition trends, nutrition expenditures and the quality of relationships and information exchanges with all nutrition stakeholders.

Mission

To provide expert guidance to actors at various levels through research, advocacy, education and training, for the provision of quality nutrition services to the Tanzania community in the prevention and control of all forms of malnutrition.

Scope of Work

Nutrition relevant actions are taken in the context of the conceptual framework for analysis of causes of malnutrition whereby the latter is viewed as a manifestation of other problems associated with the existing socio-cultural, political and economic environments in the society. The approach is systematic from the immediate (direct) causes through underlying to basic causes and it is put into action by a cyclic process of triple A: Assessment - Analysis - Action.

Nutrition relevant actions also take into consideration the current social and economic changes and adjustments involving local sectoral reforms; MKUKUTA (The National Strategy for Growth and Reduction of Poverty), the Millennium Development Goals, the goals of the National Vision 2025 and the aspects of globalization.

Functions of the Centre

The Core functions of the Centre are;

• To plan, coordinate and implement food and nutrition programmes for the benefit of the people of the United Republic;

• To facilitate training in food and nutrition and related subjects and describe conditions which must be satisfied before award is granted in such subjects upon completion of such training undertaken by the Centre or other educational / training institutions in the United Republic;

• To carry out research in matters relating to food and nutrition;

• To advise the Government, training institutions and other public organizations on matters relating to food and nutrition;

• To stimulate the public and create awareness of the importance of good nutrition and dangers of malnutrition.

Services provided

• Laboratory analysis of food and related substances;

• Food and Nutrition Library and documentation;

• Consultancy in food and nutrition;

• Nutrition tailor-made short courses on specialized topic needs;

• Research, advocacy, education and training aimed at prevention and control of all forms of malnutrition.

Collaboration

• To efficiently carry out its activities, the Centre maintains close collaboration with:-

• Relevant Ministries, regions and districts of the United Republic of Tanzania;

• Development partners (International organizations and bilateral and multilateral agencies);

• Other organizations that share TFNC's vision;

• Research Institutions / Universities (both national and foreign) 

Sokoine University of Agriculture                                     www.suanet.ac.tz

Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences       www.muhas.ac.tz

University of Dar-es-Salaam                                              www.udsm.ac.tz

Ifakara Health Research and Development Center         www.ihrdc.org

National Institute of Health Research                              www.nimr.or.tz

African Medical Research Foundation                             www.tanzania.amref.org

Tanzania Food  and Drugs Authority                                www.tfda.or.tz

TFNC is also a WHO collaborating Centre   for research and training in nutrition in Africa.

Related Links

Tanzania Government                                                      www.tanzania.go.tz/health.htm        
Ministry of Health and Social Welfare                                www.moh.go.tz

Helen Keller International                                                 www.hki.org/network/Tanzania.html

The International Baby Food Action Network (IBFAN Africa) www.ibfan.org
World Health Organisation                                                 www.who.int
Food and Agriculture Organisation                                      www.fao.org

Our address

Tanzania Food and Nutrition Centre
22 Ocean Road,
P.O. Box 977,
Dar es Salaam,
Tanzania

Email: info@tfnc.or.tz
Tel: +255-22-2118137/9
Fax: +255-22-2116713