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Notes
PRESS CONFERENCE BY GLOBAL ALLIANCE FOR IMPROVED NUTRITION
(GAIN)
Notes provided by UN Department of
Public Information
9 May 2002
The launch of a new alliance of public and private
sector partners -- the Global Alliance for Improved
Nutrition (GAIN) -- was announced at a Headquarters
press conference today. GAIN seeks to leverage cost-effective
food fortification initiatives to improve health, cognitive
development and productivity in developing nations.
GAIN, according to press materials distributed at
the press conference, will support developing countries
in the implementation of locally developed food fortification
programmes designed to help eliminate the devastating
and often deadly effects of vitamin and mineral deficiencies
known as micronutrient deficiency. Funds available for
the first year will be between $20 and $25 million,
with more than $70 million committed over five years,
including $50 million from the Bill & Melinda Gates
Foundation, and initial contributions of $8 million
from the United States Agency for International Development
(USAID), $5.5 million (CDN) from the Micronutrient Initiative,
an international centre based in Ottawa, Canada and
$500,000 (CDN) from the Canadian International Development
Agency.
Carol Bellamy, Executive Director of the United Nations
Children's Fund (UNICEF) introduced the participants:
Bill Gates, co-founder of the Bill and Melinda Gates
Foundation; President Levy Mwanawasa (Zambia), President
Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga (Sir Lanka), Deputy
Prime Minister John Manley (Canada), John Pepper, Chairman
of the Board of Procter & Gamble, and Rolf Carriere,
Executive Director of GAIN.
Ms. Bellamy said that good nutrition, both before
and after birth, was essential to helping children's
bodies and brains develop properly. That was why the
launch of GAIN was such an important event. There had
been some past successes in the fight against malnutrition,
but deficiencies in vitamins or minerals, or what was
called "micronutrient deficiencies" were still
common in developing countries.
Adding vitamins and minerals to staple foods like
flour and milk had been a common practice in the industrialized
world for decades, she said. The initiative being announced
today was exciting, because that would bring the benefits
that the industrialized world had enjoyed for some time
to the developing world much sooner than had been thought.
A small amount of iodine in a child's diet could make
an enormous difference in that child's capacity to learn,
she explained. Lack of iodine caused mental retardation
in children, and was the leading cause of mental retardation
among children in the developing world. In 1990, only
about 12 per cent of the salt consumed in the developing
world was iodized, whereas today that figure was greater
than 70 per cent.
Mr. Gates, co-founder of the Bill & Melinda Gates
Foundation, said he was proud to be a partner in that
public/private initiative aimed at harnessing the skills
and resources needed to address the "crying needs"
of the world's children with respect to vitamin and
mineral deficiencies.
He added that once the systems were in place to get
the micronutrients into the basic food chain, the actual
cost of sustaining that was extremely low, while the
benefits to the children were "quite phenomenal".
There had been great success with iodized salt, which
helped children achieve their educational potential.
In other areas involving vitamin A and folic acid, among
others, however, "we are falling short for literally
billions of children".
Micronutrients made a huge difference, he said. With
measles, for example, proper levels of vitamin A support
reduced the mortality rate by more than 30 per cent,
which meant a savings of hundreds of thousands of lives.
Everyone involved in GAIN believed in advancing the
virtuous cycle –- healthier children led to better
education and economic investment, and overall stronger
societies. There were a few interventions that were
so clear cut, such as the addition of micronutrients
and vaccinations, it was a shame the world had not put
the resources behind them. Now was a great time to address
them.
Mr. Pepper said that Procter & Gamble was delighted
to be part of the initiative. The future was children
and what was owed them was health, education and security.
Ten million children each year were dying from malnutrition
and other preventable diseases, but that figure did
not address the point of those who were living, but
had lacked mental alertness because of iron deficiency.
He said the technology was available to bring iodine
and vitamin A into a variety of foods at an extremely
low cost. The question about how much progress would
be made in the next five to 10 years was a question
of will, of focus and organization. Proctor & Gamble
had already had 20 years in that field, which would
be strengthened by the coming together of governments
and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
President Mwanawasa welcomed the launch of GAIN for
Zambia, especially since deficiencies of vitamin A,
iron and iodine were the most prevalent cause of malnutrition
in Africa. Iron deficiencies had led to high levels
of anaemia among the female population in his country,
with estimates of 38 per cent of non-pregnant women
afflicted and 47 per cent for pregnant women, and had
contributed to maternal and infant mortalities.
He said that severe cases of anaemia had also continued
to hamper the mental and physical development of children
in Zambia, resulting in a large number of them being
stunted in their growth or mentally retarded. Vitamin
A deficiency had exposed both mothers and their newborns
to a greater risk of common ailments and led to irreversible
blindness in some cases in Zambia.
Inadequate iodine in food consumed by Zambians in some
parts of the country continued to have devastating effects
on pregnant women and young children, he said. Among
the common problems were goiter and retarded mental
and physical growth. His Government was aware of the
negative effects of micronutrient deficiencies on the
well-being of its population, especially women and children.
He said his Government had embarked on a number of
programmes to address those deficiencies, which had
led to an increase of vitamin A supplementation up to
89 per cent for children under five years of age. It
also continued to fortify sugar with vitamin A through
a programme that was reaching two thirds of the Zambian
households. The Government was also promoting the addition
of iodine to salt.
Deputy Prime Minister Manley of Canada said the world
community had come to understand increasingly that proper
nutrition had an enormous impact on the lives, health
and well-being of the children and their parents. Vitamin
A had been proven to reduce child mortality rates by
as much as 23 per cent in Asian and African countries.
The simple function of adding iodine to common table
salt increased IQ by an average of 13 points, while
adding iron to flour could increase a woman's chance
of surviving childbirth by as much as 20 per cent.
He said that millions of individuals worldwide were
still at risk of death and disability each year because
they did not have access to adequate vitamins and minerals,
which was taken for granted by most in the developed
world. GAIN was a new partnership working to give children
the opportunity to have the best possible start in life.
That Alliance was based on the important progress made
in the struggle against malnutrition during the 1990's.
It was encouraging to see that 91 million newborn children
were now protected against cerebral lesions by iodized
salt, and that countries were taking measures to protect
their children, he said. The devastating consequences
had been recognized and awareness had been raised that
those vital micronutrient programmes cost literally
pennies per child. Two thirds of African children now
received vitamin A supplements, and millions of women
and children now had access to iron-fortified flour
in India and Northern Africa.
Despite such progress, however, much more remained
to be done. Thirty per cent of households in countries
affected by malnutrition still did not have access to
iodized salt, he said. Half of the children at risk
of death from vitamin A deficiency did not receive supplements.
That was why GAIN, with its focus on food fortification
and innovative partnership, was very important.
With 2 billion individuals suffering from micronutrient
deficiencies worldwide, the power of public, private
and civic organizations must be harnessed to reach those
who were most vulnerable, he said. Canada had committed
itself to an initial contribution of $500,000 (CDN).
GAIN sought to help countries develop their own solutions
to micronutrient deficiencies.
President Chandrika of Sri Lanka joined the others
in urging the success of that promising initiative.
A correspondent asked Mr. Pepper what other ways Procter
& Gamble might help GAIN, in addition to adding
nutrients to food. He said that Procter & Gamble
would start with technology and the combination it had
developed of adding iron/iodine/vitamin A/folic acid
and zinc to foods in a way that kept those ingredients
stable, while eliminating their often negative taste.
Procter & Gamble had gained some experience with
that in an orange juice drink in both the Philippines
and Venezuela.
He explained that beyond its placement in its own brand,
the company would be working to see how an adaptation
of that technology could be brought into other foodstuffs
that would allow it to enter into the diet of different
countries in a most natural way. That might be in bread
or soup, or rice. That work was still under way and
would very much depend on the individual local country
identifying the diet that would be most compatible with
micronutrient additions. Procter & Gamble could
also contribute its communications and partnership skills.
Was there a contribution that Microsoft could make
to GAIN? another correspondent asked. Mr. Gates said
that to the degree that software was needed and used,
Microsoft would be glad to provide that. "The Foundation
is kicking this off with a significant financial commitment,"
and there were seven other Governments, including Canada,
which were initial contributors. He hoped many others
would join.
Another correspondent, noting that Mr. Gates' Foundation
had contributed $50 million to GAIN, asked what he hoped
to achieve? Mr. Gates said that the benefits of GAIN's
activities would be measured in terms of lives saved
and lives improved. The goal was to help the countries
get going so that the local suppliers of the very inexpensive
foodstuffs could, as part of the normal process, bring
micronutrients into such staple foods as maize and rice.
In two or three years, he hoped to be able to assess
whether the financial and technological resources had
led to achievement of those goals.
Of all the initiatives involving children, why had
Canada chosen GAIN, in particular? another correspondent
asked of that country's Deputy Prime Minister. Mr. Manley
said that built on work Canada had been doing and had
been an area of focus in its overseas assistance programmes.
There had been some notable success, but there was a
huge need that was still untouched. GAIN created the
potential for much more effective distribution of micronutrient-enhanced
foods.
Replying to a question about the financial gain for
Procter & Gamble from the initiative and what his
response would be to criticism that the company just
wanted to sell more of its product, Mr. Pepper said
the criticism did not worry him; what counted was what
it did. The company had expected financial benefit,
since it was creating a brand called "nutra start".
The success of nutra start would generate funds for
continued research and the development of new micronutrients,
he said. While the company had to be financially successful,
the first part of its purpose statement was about improving
the lives of the world's consumers. That was not just
a bunch of words, he added.
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