The SEAMEO-TROPMED Regional Center for Community Nutrition (RCCN) is at present one of the 14 Regional Centers of the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization (SEAMEO) and one of the 4 Centers under the SEAMEO-Tropical Medicine and Public Health (TROPMED) - Network.

The SEAMEO was formed in 1965 with the purpose to  promote cooperation among the Southeast Asian nations through education, science and culture.  Entering the new millennium its Vision is a dynamic, self-reliant, strategic policy driven and internationally recognized organization for strengthening regional understanding and cooperation in education, science and culture for a better quality of life and mission to enhance regional understanding, cooperation and unity of purpose among member countries and achieve a better quality of life through the establishment of network and partnerships, provision of an intellectual forum for policy makers and experts and the development of Regional Centers of Excellence for the promotion of sustainable Human Resource Development.  The 14 SEAMEO Centers are specialist institutions scattered throughout the region which are structured in three clusters: learning, health and agriculture/natural resources/environment.

To address the prevalent health problems in Southeast Asia the SEAMEO-TROPMED Project was established in 1967.  With its 4 National Centers, for Nutrition & Radioisotopes (Indonesia), Parasitology (Malaysia), Public Health (the Philippines) and Tropical Medicine (Thailand) this project was to undertake cooperative activities in teaching, training and research in tropical medicine & health.  Since 1993 these 4 National Centers are known as Regional Centers and with a coordinating office in Bangkok it comprises the SEAMEO-TROPMED Network.

The SEAMEO-TROPMED Center for Nutrition is under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of National Education - Republic of Indonesia (formerly known as the Ministry of Education and Culture RI.) through the Director General of Higher Education with the University of Indonesia as host institution. The Dean of the Faculty of Medicine University of Indonesia was ex-officio the National Representative for the SEAMEO-TROPMED-National Center for Nutrition and when the National Center became Regional Center the Pusat Kajian Gizi Regional - University of Indonesia was established for the center.
The Nutrition Center has participated in teaching, training and research activities for the region since 1970.  It has offered post graduate training programs, starting with a Diploma in Applied Nutrition in 1970, followed, in addition to the Diploma program, by a Master of Science in Applied Nutrition in 1976 and a program leading to a Doctorate degree in Nutrition in 1981.  The theme of the training programs was adjusted to the changing needs for nutrition manpower in 1990 and in 1991 the first Diploma in Community Nutrition, then in 1992 the first Master of Science in Community Nutrition program were offered.  In 1992 two new programs namely the Field Research program and Short Courses were started.  The educational research activities as unseparable part of the degree training programs, addressed nutrition issues under focus of attention such as PEM, xerophthalmia, anemia, until late 1980's and since 1990, micronutrients, nutrition  & urbanization, nutrition and aging etc.  Likewise nutritional problems identification through community baseline surveys were conducted in different areas by the Diploma and MSc. program students; during 1970 until early 1980's in rural West Java, later on until 1990 in urban Jakarta and since 1990 in East Indonesia following the nutritional problem trend  and prioritized area in Indonesia.

To date 780 alumni are scattered over Asia, Africa and Europe.  They have distinguished themselves in different nutrition related fields/institutions; to name but the majority of alumni from some of the SEAMEO member countries: in national primary level school education and primary health care in Malaysia, in national nutrition programs and research in the Philippines, at Universities, hospitals and primary health care programs in Thailand, in education (mainly medical), national nutrition programs and since 1990 also in the private sector in Indonesia.

Since its establishment the SEAMEO-TROPMED Center for Nutrition has trained nutrition professionals for institution capacity building. By 1992 this endeavor was developed into the formation of Collaboration Center(s) in Community Nutrition (CCCN) a collaboration  with RCCN, Jakarta, in training and research.  Collaboration was established with Andalas University/Provincial Health Office of West Sumatra (1992), with Hasanuddin University/Provincial Health Office of South Sulawesi (1993), with Sam Ratulangi University (1977) and with the National Institute for Nutrition (NIN), Vietnam (1997). Recently cooperation with Nusa Tenggara Provinces is progressing.

To strengthen and improve its activities the RCCN has made several professional links with Indonesian institutions, the Ministry of Health RI (the Directorate of Community Nutrition, the Nutrition Research and Development Center) and with regional/ international institutions (the Industry Council for Development, Wageningen University, the Department of Medicine, Monash Medicine Center, Monash University, etc.).

The Nutrition Center's development can not be separated from the role played by the SEAMEO - Associate Member Countries.  The USA's contribution in kind and technical consultants services during the preparatory period and first years of establishment (late 1960's - early 1970's) helped the Center to conduct and improve its postgraduate regional Diploma program.  Later, during late 1970's until mid 1980's the Netherlands assisted in the consolidation of the Master of Science program and in starting the Doctorate program through the assignment of a long term full time Consultant.  The Partnership Project between SEAMEO Centers and Canadian Lead Institutions through the Canadian International Agency (CIDA) led to a partnership between the Center with the University of Manitoba (late 1980's - mid 1990's) to strengthen teaching, research programs and service functions.  The partnership included training of RCCN staff/student in Canada, a guest lecturer from Canada, provision of minor equipment for teaching & research and a short term Consultant who on his yearly visits also participated in lecturing and student's research guidance. In 1998 the Government of Germany and SEAMEO agreed to jointly promote the SEAMEO-TROPMED Center for Nutrition with a view to intensify the post graduate training programs in the fields of human nutrition and adopting its contents and organization to requirements in the South-East Asian Region. As in 1990 the SEAMEO - TROPMED - GTZ Trophology Project started, and the assistance from Canada/CIDA - project was still on going, the two projects were arranged to complement one another.
During the 10 years cooperation with the GTZ besides teaching, training and research, capacity has been built to provide consultation services in community nutrition and its related fields. Special attention has been paid to the Center's human resource  development leading to the growing number of qualified academic staff which is crucial to sustain the international quality of the training and research programs achieved.

Founders of the Center and Key Persons

Consultants :

• (1969) Prof. Dr. C.G. King, Columbia University, U.S.A.
• (1969 - 1972) Prof. Dr. Barbara Underwood,  Columbia University, U.S.A.
• (1979 - 1985) Prof. Dr. A.M. Hahn, the Netherlands
• (1987 - 1995) Dr. G. P. Sevenhuysen, University of Manitoba, Canada, CIDA
• (1989) Prof. Dr. F.P. Schelp, GTZ
• (1990) Prof. Dr. J.A. Hautvast, GTZ
• (1990 - 1998) Dr. R. Gross, GTZ.
• (1991 - 1999) Dr. J.W.  Schultink, GTZ.