| This
page is background information, last updated in May
2002 and still available for reference. For the latest on
the Special Session on Children, please go to the Special
Session index.
Alliance aims to improve child nutrition
9 May 2002, NEW YORK - "In our country," said President
Levy Mwanawasa of Zambia, "up to 10 per cent of children
are mentally retarded due to iodine deficiency and 47 per
cent of women are anaemic due to lack of iron in their diets."
The lack of essential vitamins and minerals takes a horrific
and preventable toll on children's lives and abilities. A
shortage of vitamin A, for example, means children are far
more likely to die from measles. That is why countries such
as Zambia have moved strongly into food fortification.
"Two thirds of households are already using sugar that
has been fortified with vitamin A," said President Mwanawasa,
"and non-iodised salt cannot be sold to the general public."
The Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN), launched
today at the UN Special Special Session on Children, hopes
to replicate that progress in every corner of the globe. GAIN
is an alliance of public and private sector organizations,
foundations and governments that are committed to saving lives
and improving health in developing countries through the elimination
of nutritional deficiencies.
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pioneer and philanthropist Bill Gates III and UNICEF Executive
Director Carol Bellamy address a press briefing on the
launch of the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN). |
"For decades, people in industrialized countries have
avoided vitamin and mineral deficiencies because their food
has been fortified," said UNICEF Executive Director Carol
Bellamy. "Through GAIN we will be making sure that children
in developing countries have those same benefits."
"We are creating a virtual cycle," said Bill Gates,
Chairman of Microsoft Corporation and co-founder of the Bill
& Melinda Gates Foundation. "Better nutrition means
better health, which means more children survive, which means
that more women will choose to have fewer children, which
means more children will get a better education and so on."
Food giant Procter and Gamble is one of the private sector
partners in the alliance. It will be sharing its technical
expertise in food fortification. "Procter and Gamble
will share food technologies with local producers in developing
countries, so that they can use it to fortify their own food
products," said John Pepper, Chairman of the Board of
Procter and Gamble.
Which food products are chosen for fortification - whether
milk, sugar, flour, rice, maize or any other - would depend
on the country concerned. The breadth of the GAIN alliance
was critical, he said, for ensuring that the right choices
are made.
Contributors to GAIN include the Bill & Melinda Gates
Foundation ($50 million), USAID ($8 million), the Micronutrient
Initiative (CDN$3.5 million) and an additional half million
dollars from the Canadian International Development Agency.
Asked what kind of return he might expect to see on this
substantial investment, Mr. Gates replied, "We will mark
progress in lives saved and improved."
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