Production of fortified blended complementary food by women’s self-help groups in India


After the GIVE-A-DAY event by BESTSELLER in 2015, BESTSELLER donated 17,860,000 DKK to GAIN to support its essential nutrition programs in India. This is the overview results report of the three key project components which GAIN has implemented in the last three years, from August 2015 to July 2018.
Through funding from BESTSELLER, GAIN worked in the states of Karnataka and Bihar in India, to improve the nutrition and lives of groups of semi-literate women and children. GAIN equipped women’s Self-Help Groups (SHGs) to produce nutritious food rations. In Rajasthan, BESTSELLER funding was used to support treatment of children with severe acute malnutrition (SAM).

The GAIN-BESTSELLER key project achievements:

  • Treatment of 9,640 children suffering from Severe Acute Malnutrition in the State of Rajasthan1.
  • 4 production units in India have been established which produce Fortified Blended Food (FBF) aiming to prevent malnutrition (two units in the state of Bihar, and two in the state of Karnataka)
  • The production units which are owned and operated by women’s Self-Help Groups are financially viable
  • More than 60,000 beneficiaries are being reached by Fortified Blended Food (FBF) from these women-owned production units
  • Preliminary findings of the impact evaluation in Karnataka show significant improvement in the nutritional status of children and adolescent girls in the Intervention group compared to the control group.