The Girls' Iron Folate Tablet Supplementation
An Integrated School-Based Nutrition and Health Intervention
Highlights
Ghana launched its Girls’ Iron Folate Tablet Supplement (GIFTS) programme – the first of its kind in the Africa sub-Sahara region – in October 2017 across four regions described to be Phase 1 locations: Brong-Ahafo, Northern, Upper East and Volta.
In order to assess the programme impact, performance and nutritional status of in-school adolescent girls, The US Center for Disease Control conducted an evaluation over the 2017/18 academic year in 60 schools from two of the Phase 1 regions: Northern and Volta.
The results found that the roll-out of the GIFTS programme was associated with a 26 percent reduction in anaemia prevalence within the academic year. Additionally, the results also showed that the knowledge on IFA, anemia, GITFS Programme and healthy lifestyles had increased among survey participants
The GIFTS evaluation was led by Ghana Health Service, Ghana Education Service, UNICEF Ghana Country Office, Emory University Global Health Institute, and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and with funding support for the evaluation and the implementation of the GIFTS Programme provided by KOICA, Canada and CDC.
