Sanjay Suri
LONDON, Apr 9 2006 (IPS) – Millions could be helped this year by a new project to fortify foods with essential nutrients.
A new 20 million dollar project being managed by the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) will seek to fortify salt, flour and staple foods in a group of developing countries. The project aims to reach 200 million people in developing countries, including large numbers of adolescents and women of reproductive age.
In addition, we will look at targeted programmes to particularly address the needs of children, and our aim will be to reach 20-30 million additional children, Amanda Marlin from GAIN told IPS in an e- mailed comment.
The funding for the project has come from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which also supports the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation, the Medicines for Malaria Venture and other projects on HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and public health.
The new project could play a strong role in preventing disease.
In Europe and the U.S. we have had breakfast cereals fortified with vitamins and minerals, and salt fortified with iodine there is a sense that it is time for people in Africa and Asia to reap these same benefits, Marlin said.
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All the people who eat the fortified foods will benefit from the vitamins and minerals that have been added to them, she said. We know that these will include high percentages of adolescents and women of childbearing age, as well as children, especially in developing countries with young populations.
Food fortification is a very cost effective way of reaching populations generally, Marlin said. In India, results indicate that for one million dollars investment in salt iodization we could reach close to 250 million people.
In developing countries such as India that have high fertility rates, 40 percent of these people would be under 16 years old, and between 10 and 16 percent are under six years, she said.
The project will give priority to countries where there are large numbers of people affected by malnutrition, such as Bangladesh, Egypt, India and Indonesia.
Malnutrition arising from a lack of vitamins and minerals can lead to an increase in child deaths, birth defects, poor intellectual development, and reduced productivity.
We are aiming for a realistic target of eliminating vitamin and mineral deficiencies in the next ten years, Marc Van Ameringen, executive director of GAIN said in a statement. Adding vitamins and minerals to the foods that people eat every day is a proven solution to a genuine health and development problem and it only costs around 25 cents per person per year.
Tackling malnutrition is essential to improving health in developing countries, Dr Sally Stansfield, associate director of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation s Global Health Strategies programme said in a statement. For example, correcting vitamin A and iron deficiencies alone can help reduce maternal deaths by 20 percent and decrease child mortality by at least 23 percent.
Fortified foods such as soy sauce in China, fish sauce in Vietnam, cottonseed oil in C- te d Ivoire, wheat flour in Morocco and maize flour in South Africa are now available on the market, the Geneva-based GAIN said in a statement.
GAIN projects have made such foods available through promoting the creation of national fortification alliances, training food producers in fortification techniques, helping finance the first round of equipment or supplies, and supporting marketing campaigns.
When fully implemented, these projects will reach almost 700 million people with fortified food, GAIN said.
The involvement of food producers and retailers in the projects means that fortified foods remain on the market after the initial funding period, without the need for additional aid money, GAIN said. Over a dozen companies support GAIN s work.
The organisation said it is developing specific business alliances in China, India and Africa to involve the private sector in taking the project forward.
