‘Granny power’ can propel development, UN food agency says

Grandmothers are a large untapped renewable resource for maternal and child nutrition, health and development, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said today.

Grandmothers are “an abundant resource for development in all countries that is vastly under-utilized,” said William Clay, FAO’s Nutrition Expert, in a news release.

Participation of grandmothers leads to higher success rates for nutrition, health and community development projects, he added.

In a recent FAO seminar, this pro-granny attitude was put forward by Judi Aubel, a community development and health specialist, in her “grandmother-inclusive methodology.”

“Elders are natural leaders,” she said. “Young people are taught to value their knowledge and experience and are expected to look to them for advice.”

But FAO said most development projects are youth biased, and reflect the attitudes the organizations running them, which are based in the West where elders are generally not as well respected as they are in other parts of the world.

Dr. Aubel heads a non-governmental organization called The Grandmother Project, which reports that its work in empowering grandmothers had yielded great success in maternal and child health projects in Senegal, Mali and Laos.

She also noted that grandfathers, who play a different role, can be great allies.