Action - Nutrition International - Pakistan - Food Fortification Programme - Oil fortification - All population groups

Programme: Nutrition International - Pakistan - Food Fortification Programme

Programme description

Pakistan has one of the highest burdens of malnutrition in the world. More than half of the under-five year old population suffers from either stunting (chronic malnutrition), wasting (acute malnutrition), or both. One in four pregnant women are suffering from iron deficiency anaemia; and zinc, vitamin D and vitamin A deficiencies affect 37%, 41% and 56% of children under five respectively, on a national level [1]. Meeting nutrient needs is a prerequisite to preventing malnutrition, in combination with other proven health interventions.

In March 2016, Mott MacDonald as the Management Lead, with Nutrition International (NI) as the Technical Lead were awarded a 5-year grant with the main objective of fortifying commercially produced wheat flour (with iron, folic acid, vitamin B12 and zinc) and edible oil/ghee (with vitamins A and D) throughout Pakistan. This is one of the largest fortification programs in the world and it is expected to reach ~150 million people with fortified food staples.

The program aims to cover more than 100 edible oil/ghee mills and over 1,000 wheat flour mills to ensure adequate fortification. It will achieve its objectives by:

  1. Providing technical assistance to federal, provincial and special area governments by:
  • Supporting legislation and development of standards and specifications
  • Strengthening public/private management for food control/QA
  • Supporting the development and implementation of a monitoring system
  • Facilitating financial sustainability for the regulators
  • Identifying equipment needs and providing feeders
  • Supporting procurement, importation, storage and distribution of a sustainable supply of high-quality premix to the industry
  • Assisting in-mill quality control
  1. Assisting wheat flour and vegetable oil/ghee industries by:
  1. Raising public awareness of the nutritional benefits of fortified food by conducting public advocacy, media and communications campaigns, to generate demand for fortified staples.
  2. Supporting research and evidence generation for food fortification to inform programme implementation. This includes an assessment of impact through the measurement of red blood cell folate in women of reproductive age.

Programme type

National

References

[1] Pakistan National Nutrition Survey 2011
Status: 
On-going

Start date:

March
2016
Target group: 
All population groups

Revision log

DateUserLogState
Mon, 10/22/2018 - 18:38zillmerkpublishedpublished
Mon, 10/22/2018 - 16:43GINAadminNIAction edited by GINAadminNI.needs_review
Tue, 10/02/2018 - 19:08GINAadminNIAction edited by GINAadminNI.draft
Tue, 09/25/2018 - 16:06engesveenkEdited by GINAadminNI.published
Mon, 09/24/2018 - 22:54GINAadminNIEdited by GINAadminNI.delegated
Mon, 09/24/2018 - 21:17GINAadminNIEdited by GINAadminNI.delegated
Mon, 09/10/2018 - 23:05GINAadminNIEdited by GINAadminNI.delegated
Thu, 06/14/2018 - 13:40engesveenkEdited by engesveenk.delegated
Tue, 06/12/2018 - 18:00vhollaEdited by vholla.draft
Tue, 06/12/2018 - 17:59vhollaEdited by vholla.draft
Tue, 06/12/2018 - 17:58vhollaAction created by vholla.draft