In 2008, the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) began drafting plans to create sustainable market-based solutions to address the problem of micronutrient deficiencies in children aged 6 to 24 months old in South Africa. Launched in 2010, GAIN South Africa’s Nutrimark project has sought to reach base of the pyramid consumers through public sector channels and market-based delivery of nutritious and affordable complementary food supplements and educational messages.
GAIN’s Nutrimark project originally consisted of three key components:
- create and market two home fortification products – a micronutrient powder (MNP) and a lipid-based nutrient supplement (LNS) both of which are associated with name brand products
- establish a nationally recognised logo, “Nutrimark” that will serve as a nationally recognisable seal of quality and of approval for home fortification products, and
- conduct education and consumer behaviour change initiatives that are in alignment with the government’s policies on breastfeeding and the introduction of complementary fortified foods.
This project covers strong benefits for identifying low-cost, scalable methods early on (such as mobile campaigns) to educate and inform customers.