Participatory action for nutrition education: Social marketing vitamin a‐rich foods in Thailand

Abstract

This paper reflects a major concern of nutrition and health educators in the developing world today, namely, how to formulate and implement participatory nutrition intervention programs with community members and key government officials who may come from a number of different development sectors. Through the description of a project entitled “Social Marketing of Vitamin A‐Rich Foods,” the paper highlights the value of a two‐way concept of nutrition communication and problem‐solving which is put in operation by establishing mechanisms for working with both institutional and community groups. This entails calling upon such conceptual frameworks as behavior analysis, nutritional anthropology, media advocacy and social marketing as means for working with collaborators in a decentralized, nondirective fashion. The paper also illustrates how mass media and printed nutrition education materials can potentially support broad institutional and community development processes as well as providing a guideline of requirements for future programs and projects.