In the midst of the global COVID-19 pandemic, food fortification is a critically important tool for addressing and preventing malnutrition. 6-months into the pandemic, some of the world’s leading development organisations, including UN agencies and international non-governmental organizations in the fortification space, explain how the pandemic is impacting national food fortification programs and recommend actions that should be taken to protect fortification programs at this critical time.
The Government of People’s Republic of Bangladesh has just given the green light to the new Iodised Salt Act 2020 act aimed at improving the monitoring and efficacy of the country’s salt iodisation programme. The new Act will increase and incentivise compliance, as well as strengthen the ability of the regulatory authorities to enforce salt iodisation.
Today, the World Food Programme (WFP) was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for its efforts to combat a surge in global hunger amid the coronavirus pandemic. To congratulate on the award, Lawrence Haddad, GAIN Executive Director, sent the following message to David Beasley, Executive Director of the World Food Programme.
Eggs are packed with essential fatty acids, vitamins and minerals, but too few enjoy access to this critical source of protein. This week, GAIN is celebrating this "super food" and honouring the contributions of "food heroes" - individuals who throughout the COVID-19 pandemic have continued to bring eggs to market and onto the table, especially for young children.
As the COVID-19 pandemic shifts into its second phase, food fortification has never been so necessary in the fight against malnutrition, according to a call to action endorsed by Food Fortification Initiative, Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition, Helen Keller International, Iodine Global Network, Nutrition International, the Scaling Up Nutrition Movement, UNICEF and the World Food Programme.
A few months ago, a new analysis came out with a shocking number: about 1.6 billion people could not afford a healthy, sustainable diet. A few weeks ago, the publication of the 2020 "State of Food Insecurity and Nutrition in the World" (SOFI) report further rocked the food and nutrition community with an even more startling number: an estimated 3 billion people could not afford a healthy diet.
With a year to go, the Summit will offer a platform like no other to bring together key players from the worlds of government, science, business, policy, and academia, as well as farmers, indigenous people, youth organisations, consumer groups, environmental activists, and other key stakeholders.
Today the United Nations Special Envoy, Agnes Kalibata, announced experts across the fields of food, agriculture, health and climate change who have committed to advance solutions to make food systems more resilient and inclusive through the UN Food Systems Summit in 2021.
The COVID-19 crisis has demonstrated that humanity is placing too much pressure on the natural world and has laid bare profound inequalities in societies. Deforestation, wildlife trade and conversion of land for highly intensive and unsustainable agriculture and livestock production, are destroying ecosystems and increasing interactions between wildlife and humans, opening the door to infectious disease outbreaks.
My first exposure to the effects of malnutrition occurred in 1999 in central war-torn Angola. Due to the armed conflict, hundreds of thousands of internally displaced people (IDPs) were fleeing their homes and hunkering down in various camps huddled around the outskirts of the main town.
