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Sufficient resources to carry out regulatory monitoring of large-scale fortification of flour
This indicator provides information on documentation that the resources needed for regulatory agencies to conduct monitoring (e.g. training, staff, transportation, sampling protocol, laboratory analyses) of a large-scale programme for fortification of wheat or maize flour are sufficient and in place.
Governmental regulatory agencies can only complete monitoring of the programme for fortification of wheat or maize flour if they have sufficient resources to do so: technical, human, material and financial.
Documentation that sufficient resources are in place for regulatory agencies to conduct monitoring of the flour-fortification programme: Yes/No
Considerations for the calculations:
For technical resources, consider whether methods, protocols or plans exist to guide regulatory staff to adequately monitor the flour-fortification programme. For example, how many sites will be visited annually, what activities will be conducted at the site, what documentation will be left at the locale, and what actions will be taken when non-compliance is found during a visit?
• For human resources, consider whether there are sufficient persons in the regulatory agency assigned to activities for monitoring flour fortification. Are the staff adequately trained to monitor flour fortification at the mill, importation sites, commercial/retail locales and/or households, according to the regulatory plan?
• For material resources, consider whether there are sufficient resources to transport regulatory staff to the places they will monitor (e.g. mill, importation sites, commercial/retail locales and/or households), to document their findings (e.g. inspection log books), and to store and transport samples (e.g. coolers). Are there sufficient resources to analyse samples in a laboratory?
• For financial resources, consider whether there is a budget assigned for activities for monitoring flour fortification in the regulatory agency. Does the budget include staff training, staff time, staff transportation and laboratory analyses of flour and premix samples?
• If any of these or other key resources are missing, the indicator should be scored as “No”.
financial resources, human resources, material resources, monitoring , regulatory monitoring, technical resources
Food fortification
Input
Inputs
School age children, 12-23 months, 24-35 months, 36-47 months, 48-59 months, 6-11 months, Adolescents, Men, Other (not any of the above, post-menopausal women, elderly), Women of reproductive age
None,
Copper, Folate, Iron, Niacin, Selenium, Vitamin A, Thiamine (vitamin B1), Vitamin B12, Riboflavin (vitamin B2), Vitamin B6, Vitamin C, Vitamin D, Vitamin E, Vitamin K, Zinc
Market-based
Staff in regulatory agencies monitor multiple foods and health concerns simultaneously (e.g. fortification, water quality, food safety). It may be difficult to identify whether sufficient resources are allocated specifically to the fortification activities among all the responsibilities monitored by regulatory agencies.
Budgets and protocols are generally easily available, to confirm whether sufficient technical, human, material and financial resources are available.
This indicator is limited to the availability of resources for monitoring and does not assess the implementation or quality of the monitoring. The information needed for this indicator might be spread across agencies or units, creating challenges to documenting that sufficient resources exist, because either they are in multiple locations or persons managing those units do not make the information available for review.
At the outset of large-scale fortification of maize flour in a country, a monitoring plan was developed, food inspectors were trained in mill inspection, and material and financial resources were allocated to initiate regulatory monitoring.
For this indicator, the response was “Yes”, sufficient resources are available to carry out regulatory monitoring of large-scale fortification of maize flour.
Allen L, de Benoist B, Dary O, Hurrell R, editors. Guidelines on food fortification with micronutrients. Geneva: World Health Organization and Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations; 2006 (http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/43412/1/9241594012_eng.pdf, accessed 30 October 2015).