status report - Office of Dietary Supplements - National Institutes of ...

Sciences and its Siberian Division. Workshop held: June 16–19, 1998, Moscow and Tyumen,
Russia.
The Path to Maternal and Child Health: The PVO Role in Improving Iron and Vitamin A
Status, A Workshop
An international workshop was organized by the Child Survival Collaborations and
Resources Group, a consortium of private, voluntary organizations (PVOs), supported by the
U.S. Agency for International Development and working in child survival issues.
Representatives from 80 organizations attended, including managers of micronutrient programs
in Africa, Southeast Asia, Latin America, and Russia. The ODS supported the participation of six
Russian PVO program managers and clinicians in the workshop to build on U.S.–Russian
collaboration in the area of micronutrient malnutrition. This effort calls for multiagency,
multidisciplinary cooperation to identify more precisely the nutritional status of the U.S. and
Russian populations; to focus on areas where more research is needed; to develop and implement
appropriate and sustainable interventions; and to perform regular surveillance to assess the
effectiveness, safety, and quality of such interventions. The workshop served as a forum to
exchange current knowledge on the epidemiological profile of iron deficiency and intervention
practices in the Russian Federation and to further define plans for joint activities in order to
alleviate this serious deficiency. Workshop held: May 5–7, 1998, Washington, DC.
BUDGET
At its inception, the ODS was authorized to receive $5 million. “AUTHORIZATION OF
APPROPRIATIONS.- There are authorized to be appropriated to carry out this section
$5,000,000 for fiscal year 1994 and such sums as may be necessary for each subsequent fiscal
year.” (Public Law 103-417, Section 13. [a]). This amount was not appropriated, however, and
the Director, NIH funded the ODS start-up costs for 1995 through the NIH Director’s
Discretionary Fund. Since fiscal year (FY) 1996, the operating and program funds for the ODS
have been funded as a line item in the Office of the Director’s budget. The operating levels for
FY 1996 through 1999 increased (dollars in thousands): FY 1996, 999; FY 1997, 997; FY 1998,
$ 1,497; FY 1999, $ 3,504. The focus of ODS expenditures has been promotion and support of
research and fulfilling the tasks mandated by Congress.
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