The Project to Support the East African Nutritional Sciences Institute (PA-EANSI) based in Bujumbura will benefit the entire region of the East African Community. The project will enhance nutrition security, contribute to the development of human capital and economic growth in Burundi in particular, and in the East African Community region in general, by improving access to high-level training and quality research in nutritional sciences. Its implementation builds on three components: (i) institutional and pedagogical support; (ii) support for infrastructure development; and (iii) project management. The project will be implemented over a period of five (5) years and will cost UA 6.791 million. The main expected outputs are: master's degree training in nutritional sciences for 150 students, doctoral training for 10 students and continuing education in nutrition inthe health and agriculture sectors. Students will be trained in the following areas: (i) clinical nutrition; (ii) nutrition and public health; (iii) agri-food technology; (iv) food quality; and (v) food security and climate change.

The PA-EANSI project aims to improve nutrition skills at the strategic level. It will help to strengthen nutrition security through capacity building for food processing and compliance with quality standards, as well as human capital development through capacity building for better management of malnutrition, which has a high economic and social cost in Burundi.

The overall beneficiaries of the project are primarily Burundi's population estimated at about 11 million, of which 50.22% are women and about 29% are children under five, who are the most vulnerable groups. The direct beneficiaries are Faculty of Agronomy and Bioengineering (FABI) and the teaching staff of the Faculty of the Medicine (70), future EANSI students undergoing initial or continuing training (395 by the end of the project), which adds up to a total of 465 direct beneficiaries, at least 130 of whom will be women. Health and agricultural professionals will be specifically targeted by the Master's and PhD training programmes. By 2047, the Centre is expected to contribute to the training of at least of 1,200 new Master's and 150 new PhD graduates in nutrition, not leaving out the beneficiaries of continuing/skills training. The project will take into account the needs of women, men and young people of all age brackets and social categories, with no exception. The vulnerable segments of the project area population will also be taken into account in terms of access to training through excellence scholarships combined with the candidates' vulnerability status.

DIOP LY Maimouna

m.dioply@afdb.org

ACCOUNTABILITY MECHANISM OF AfDB

The Independent Review Mechanism (IRM), which is administered by the Compliance Review and Mediation Unit (CRMU), is the independent complaint mechanism and fact-finding body for people who have been or are likely to be adversely affected by an African Development Bank (AfDB)-financed project. If you submit a complaint to the IRM, it may assist you by either seeking to address your problems by facilitating a dispute resolution dialogue between you and those implementing the project and/or investigating whether the AfDB complied with its policies to prevent environmental and social harms. You can submit a complaint electronically by emailing crmuinfo@afdb.org, b.kargougou@afdb.org, b.fall@afdb.org, and/or s.toure@afdb.org. You can learn more about the IRM and how to file a complaint at https://www.afdb.org/en/independent-review-mechanism/.