The challenge
The vision of Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) is a world without malnutrition. To achieve this vision, they advocate the fortification of staple foods – recognized to be a cost–effective public health intervention that can reach large segments of the population. The impact of food fortification program lies in its coverage, or the proportion of people at risk that that the program reaches. Assessing a program’s coverage – especially of those who need it most – is a recurring challenge for organizations, who are often beleaguered by small sample sizes, geographical limitations and high laboratory costs.
The solution
Fortification Assessment Coverage Tool (FACT), implemented by GAIN, is painting a clearer picture of the efficacy of fortification programs. Unlike traditional coverage assessments, FACT samples communities from all over a region – not only those in urban towns or cities – and focuses on ‘asking the right questions’ to identify barriers to coverage. To fully map the coverage, lots of samples need to be tested. BioAnalyt efficiently and accurately analyzed the samples with its iChecks and partner labs.
“Partnering with BioAnalyt made sense because we needed a rapid and reliable way to test fortified foods to assess coverage and improve the delivery of national fortification programs.”
Greg Garrett, Large Scale Food Fortification Director, GAIN
The result
By partnering with BioAnalyt, FACT’s coverage assessment could be two crucial things: affordable and scalable. Coverage assessment surveys were performed in ten countries. India, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, South Africa, Senegal, Tanzania, Bangladesh, Uganda, and Mozambique. By identifying coverage barriers during program delivery – and addressing them to improve coverage as the program rolls out – GAIN is bringing effective food fortification to more and more people around the world.
To explore further stories on our collaboration with our partners, and how we help improve nutrition along the value chain, read here
