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This paper reflects a major concern of nutrition and health educators in the developing world today, namely, how to formulate and implement participatory nutrition intervention programs with community members and key government officials who may come from a number of different development sectors. Through the description of a project entitled "Social Marketing of Vitamin A-Rich Foods," the paper highlights the value of a two-way concept of nutrition communication and problem-solving which is put in operation by establishing mechanisms for working with both institutional and community groups. This entails calling upon such conceptual frameworks as behavior analysis, nutritional anthropology, media advocacy and social marketing as means for working with collaborators in a decentralized, nondirective fashion. The paper also illustrates how mass media and printed nutrition education materials can potentially support broad institutional and community development processes as well as providing a guideline of requirements for future programs and projects.

In the context of the eight major themes proclaimed at the Rome meeting of the International Conference on Nutrition in 1992, an eight-stage process incorporated thematic components into the development agendas of developing nations. The eight progressive stages, which are presented here in the context of Thailand's experiences, are recognition that nutrition is a national (or community) problem, a systematic national (community) nutrition assessment, building a critical mass around prime movers, gaining political and social commitment, taking concrete steps toward creating intersectoral collaboration and planning, expanding awareness and initiating action, integrating nutrition into social and health development efforts, and designing programmes that improve people's quality of life by involving community members as agents of change, not simply passive receivers of government services.

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An intersectoral child development services project is being undertaken in Thailand to develop a model process for providing age appropriate care and education to rural children through an integrated programme of nutrition, health and educational services designed to meet community needs and perceptions. Using behavioral analysis and explanatory models, project results show that the effectiveness of nutrition education can be facilitated by (1) recognizing the family as the unit of service, (2) focusing on solutions rather than problems, (3) using a two-stage promotional message strategy to encourage better child caretaking, and (4) viewing potential new practices as behavioral processes, rather than single entities aimed at a specific outcome. Program planning should also include the successive construction and analysis of community-based explanatory models which justify people's nutrition and health behaviors. The ultimate aim is to identify differences between explanatory models held by community members and health/nutrition educators, negotiate this conflict, and thereafter develop more practical and realistic methods for modifying behavior.