Global Forum on Food Security and Nutrition (FSN Forum)

This member contributed to:

    • Fortifying staple foods in one of the most cost-effective interventions to tackle vitamin and mineral deficiencies, also called 'hidden hunger', and thus, contribute to sustainable development.

      In order to improve nutrition for people at the base of the pyramid, affordable nutritious foods need to become accessible. It is critical to work together in multi-stakeholder alliances: local food producers can gain expertise how to fortify their food, and public authorities can standardize food fortification levels and assess the quality of the products. Lastly, the awareness of consumers about nutrition including adequately fortified and certified foods can be strengthened best among multiple stakeholders.

      If all relevant stakeholder groups collaborate effectively, food fortification programs can contribute to an improvement in nutrition for all income groups in a sustainable and impactful way. Such local multi-stakeholder alliances are a critical need to administrate food fortification programs. Forums, such as the CFS and the UNSCN, can support such institution building by strengthening private and public actors' networks and encourage donors to support partnership interventions. Looking at the technical implementation, private sector businesses can support local food producers by using their expertise on food fortification and thus enable food producers to fortify their staple foods. This is an important contribution to a sustainable improvement of nutrition that is cost-effective and scalable.