Nutrition, Human Rights and Governance

Who can apply?

This Master programme, lasting two academic years, will be well suited for applicants with Bachelor or Honours degrees in a nutrition related topic and preferably with some years of working experience. Knowledge of human rights is an added advantage.

Note: The next cohort of students will start in April, 2012.

Students admitted to Master programmes in Uganda and South Africa

• Master students in Applied Human Nutrition at Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda, (deadline November 15th 2011),
• Master students in Nutrition at Stellenbosch University, Cape Town, South Africa (deadline August 30th 2011).

The successful African applicant will receive a full-time scholarship provided by the NOMA Programme under The Norwegian Centre for International Cooperation in Higher Education.

Students admitted to Norwegian Master programmes

• Master students in Public Nutrition at the Department of Nutrition, University of Oslo, (deadline November 15th 2011)
• Master students in Public Nutrition at Oslo and Akershus University College of Applied Sciences (deadline November 15th 2011).

The successful Norwegian applicant may apply for a scholarship from the Norwegian State Educational Loan Fund (“Statens lånekasse for utdanning”).

Note: The successful Norwegian applicants should contact the Norwegian State Educational Loan Fund directly after being admitted to our NOMA programme.

Application Forms

• Application form to Makerere University (pdf)
• Application form to Stellenbosch University (pdf)
• Application form to the University of Oslo (pdf)
• Application form to Oslo and Akershus University College of Applied Sciences (pdf)

Other students with similar background may also be eligible if they can provide their own funding. Contact Per Ole Iversen.

The relevance of the Master Programme

Food insecurity, hunger and malnutrition in all forms continue to be rampant in many countries in Africa South of the Sahara. With the present forms and pace of economic and social development the UN Millennium Development Goals will not be reached in these countries. The situation is exacerbated by the current soaring food prices, the prospects of land use for biofuel production, and climate changes.

The assimilation of principles and practices of human rights and democratic governance into higher nutrition training institutions is necessary to ensure human specialist resources with capacity to provide relevant human rights education of future actors in public, civil and private sector circles working with problems of food insecurity and nutritional ill-health.

Overall frame of study

The programme consists of four current master programmes in human nutrition which have been adjusted to accommodate a four months “NOMA Track Module” taught in three countries, on the cross-disciplinary theme of “Nutrition, Governance and Human Rights”. The module comprises three 5-6 week-long units starting in Norway in April-June with an “Introduction to the international system of human rights relevant to nutrition”, continuing with “The case of South Africa” in June-July, and ending with “The case of Uganda” in July-August  (with time for rest and restitution in-between the units).

• See NOMA Study Overview (pdf)

Given that the academic year starts at different times of the calendar year in the respective countries, students may already have been exposed to some teaching before April – i.e. in South Africa where a course in Epidemiology will precede the module at the start of the first semester in February, or they will follow the module prior to the start of the regular parts of the master programme – i.e.  in Uganda in August. Norwegian students will normally already have had some of their obligatory theoretical course work before they join the NOMA Track Module.

Taking into account these slight differences in start-up timing, all students will be exposed to theoretical perspectives and practical experiences regarding the linkages between nutrition, human rights and governance, in time for their selection of themes for their master dissertation in human nutrition. This will enable them to formulate their research topics, develop their methodology for data collection and analysis, and write up the thesis within a human rights based approach. This is a condition for admission for all students, regardless of their source of funding.

Given that students will be admitted to already existing master programmes, they will adhere to the regular academic syllabi of each programme, with some slight deviations necessitated by the NOMA Track Module for time and credit reasons. Students are advised to inform themselves about the differences implied through the yearbook or website of the respective universities, and/or by addressing themselves to the contacts given above.

Locations

Scholars of nutrition and human rights in Uganda, South Africa and Norway will jointly offer an extended one-semester module on Nutrition, Human Rights and Governance as a key component of the four existing Master programmes in human nutrition at