A2Z: The USAID Micronutrient and Child Blindness Project consolidates, builds, and expands on USAID's long-term investment in micronutrients, child survival, and nutrition. A2Z takes proven interventions to scale, introduces innovation, expands services, and builds sustainable programs to increase the use of key micronutrient and blindness interventions to improve child and maternal health. With work in vitamin A supplementation of children, newborn vitamin A, food fortification, maternal and child anemia control, monitoring and evaluation, and health systems strengthening, A2Z's focus countries have included Bangladesh, Cambodia, the East, Central and Southern Africa region, India, Nepal, Philippines, Tanzania, Uganda and West Bank.
The objectives of A2Z’s program in Uganda are to support increased vitamin A supplementation coverage in selected districts, expand coverage of fortified foods, improve coverage and adherence to anemia protocols for pregnant women, and support development of guidelines to include zinc in diarrhea case management for young children.
A2Z provides technical inputs to a wheat and maize flour fortification program supported by the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN). A2Z is also strengthening existing fortification programs in such as areas as inspection and monitoring of iodized salt and vitamin A fortified oil. The country routinely supervises factories, importation sites, and retail stores. Most of the salt in the country complies with iodization regulation, and more than 95 percent of the oil available at retail stores appears to be fortified with adequate vitamin A content. Wheat flour samples are also periodically analyzed for their iron content. A food and nutrition consumption survey is underway in collaboration with Makerere University, the National Working Group in Food Fortification, and GAIN to determine the suitability and potential benefit of the food fortification policies of the country. As part of advocacy and planning support, A2Z is assisting in cost studies of oil and sugar fortification.
A2Z is also strengthening existing fortification programs in such as areas as inspection and monitoring of iodized salt and vitamin A fortified oil.
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Thu, 10/08/2015 - 11:36 | ginaContrib | Edited by william_nkoom. | published |