About
GAIN

"The Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) is an independent not-for-profit foundation based in Geneva, Switzerland. GAIN was formed at the UN General Assembly, in 2002 to address and combat malnutrition and works by building alliances with all stakeholders, including governments, food industry, development partners and research and academia to promote the consumption of safe and nutritious foods by all people, particularly the most vulnerable,

GAIN started operations in India in 2006, and partners with governments at the state and central level, industry partners and technical bodies in advancing our food and nutrition programmatic work. More recently, our largest footprint is in scaling up fortification of edible oil, milk and wheat flour in close collaboration with FSSAI, development partners such as Tata Trusts and others, and state level implementing agencies and industry and technical bodies. The staple food fortification program is expanding across 18 states and Union Territories. GAIN has also set up production units for fortified blended food for ICDS beneficiaries in Bihar and Karnataka; a nutrition project for tea garden workers in Assam and Tamil Nadu; a project on community management of severe acute malnutrition in Rajasthan; and a state level research on determinants of anaemia in Uttar Pradesh."

Geneva, Switzerland; in India: New Delhi

a. Maternal health and Child care (for e.g. Maternal and child micro-nutrient/ dietary supplementation/ Food fortification for children, women and general population/ Iron Folic Acid supplementation/ Vitamin A supplementation);c. Disease management (for e.g. de-worming and diarrhea control/ treatment of Severe Acute Malnutrition/ reduction in stunting/ nutrition interventions in emergencies);e. Maternal health (for e.g. Reproductive and health services to improve birth spacing, nutrition for pregnant and lactating women);h. Education and awareness (for e.g. Classroom education, women empowerment, early child development, child protection, mid-day meals, awareness campaigns for malaria, AIDS, tuberculosis etc.);j. Rigorous evaluations/ horizontal and vertical coordination/ accountability incentives regulation, legislation

i. Andhra Pradesh;iii. Assam;iv. Bihar;vi. Delhi NCR;viii. Gujarat;ix. Haryana;x. Himachal Pradesh;xiii. Karnataka;xiv. Kerala;xv. Madhya Pradesh;xvi. Maharashtra;xxi. Odisha;xxii. Punjab;xxiii. Rajasthan;xxv. Tamil Nadu;xxvi. Telangana;xxviii. Uttar Pradesh

All districts in the states. Chandigarh in Punjab.

"The LSFF initiative is being implemented with the objective to improve the nutrition status of the Indian population, with an estimated reach of approximately 600 million beneficiaries through fortification of wheat flour, edible oil and milk with micronutrients to national standards.
The outcomes of the project are to be quantified based on the following measurable components:
a) Number of industries fortifying edible oil, milk and wheat flour
b) Tonnage of each commodity (edible oil, milk and wheat flour) fortified
c) Number of beneficiaries reached by at least one fortified staple
The components mentioned above are measured monthly, while a review of all states is done quarterly to track progress and strategize in case of challenges.
The LSFF project will ensure availability of fortified edible oil, milk and wheat-flour in 18 states through open market channels: oil producers and retail channels, milk federations and dairies, and roller flour mills; and through social protection schemes such as ICDS and MDM."

Other

This is technical support to industry, state governments and FSSAI, funded by international donors and delivered by local non-profit implementing agencies

"The project implementation follows a two-pronged approach, wherein capacity building of industry partners on adequate and appropriate fortification is implemented simultaneously with policy advocacy and government engagement initiatives. This balance of influence and delivery is necessary to ensure an enabling environment for industries to begin and continue fortifying their products to maintain an adequate supply matching market demand as well as procurement needs of the public funded programs such as MDM and ICDS.
Activities undertaken include sensitization, training and capacity building workshops for industry players; state and zone level consultations with different government departments such as Food and Civil Supplies, Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), State FDAs, Women and Child Development, Human and Resource Development and Ministry of Health and Family Welfare."

Approximately 600 million people to be reached with at least one fortified staple by 2021.

Yes

Private state partnership

a) Indian Institute of Health Management and Research (IIHMR University)
b) Centre for Community Economics and Development Consultants Society (CECOEDECON)
c) Karnataka Health Promotion Trust (KHPT)
d) Roller Flour Millers Federation of India (RFMFI)
e) Confederation of Indian Industries (CII-FACE)

Yes

Edible Oil, Wheat-Flour and Milk production landscape for project states. This was a landscape for all project states with the objective to locate and select industry players to engage with on fortification

The project is ongoing

Yes

We will interface with more states and industries desirous of fortifying edible oil, wheat-flour and milk for open market and for their ICDS and MDM programs. Collaboration will be sought with organizations committed to scale and with an execution focus in project states.

"The project is live in 18 states at present and we have started receiving data from industries fortifying their products and the tonnage fortified from 6 states. As the project gains momentum, data from all 18 states will get aggregated at regular frequency. The progress achieved under the project as on 31 July 2018 is given below: Fortified Edible Oil Reach*
Total industry partners fortifying edible oil: 139
Fortified Tonnage (MT/annum):1,995,594
Persons reached in millions**:221,732,667
**Based on 25 g edible oil consumption per day per person as per Consumer Expenditure Survey 2011-12
* GAIN’s Food Fortification Project in India
Fortified Milk Reach*
Organisations Fortified milk production (Thousand Litre Per Day)
Delhi Milk Scheme, Delhi 100
Prabhat Dairy, Maharashtra 350
VITA, Haryana 110
VERKA, Punjab 230
PARAM Dairy, Uttar Pradesh 15
SARAS Dairy, Rajasthan 1500
Total Fortified Milk Production 2305
Total No of Beneficiaries** 11,525,000
*GAIN’s FOOD FORTIFICATION PROJECT IN INDIA
**Based on 200 g edible oil consumption per day per person as per Consumer Expenditure Survey 2011-12
Fortified Wheat Flour Reach through Limited Initiatives (2012-15):
Fortified tonnage** through open market channels in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Odisha (MT/month) : 40,000
Through PDS, Rajasthan (MT/month) : 74,000
Beneficiaries reached (in millions) :18,739,726
**Based on 200 g wheat flour consumption per day per person as per Consumer Expenditure Survey 2011-12
* GAIN‚ Food Fortification Project in India"

The LSFF initiative is intentionally designed for scale. As mentioned, we are operational in 18 states and are open to add more states as we move ahead subject to resource availability.

Case studies are under implementation.

"The challenges we face are listed below:
1. Technical challenges:
a) Lack of SOPs for testing the added micronutrients in edible oil, milk and wheat flour
b) Limited number of NABL accredited laboratories available for conducting quantitative tests of added micronutrients in edible oil, milk and wheat flour
c) Lack of non-sophisticated and reliable qualitative test method for milk
2. Other Challenges:
a) Volatility in premix prices globally and in India
3. Slow uptake at state level in adopting fortified edible oil and wheat-flour in MDM and ICDS programs despite this being mandated by Government of India in 2017."

Partnering with implementing agencies that have state level connectivity and technical and program staff in the field is critical to success.
A targeted approach to engage with national, state and district level large and medium staple food producing enterprises works best. The project’s approach has been to focus at the national level through engaging with national and multinational brands along with FSSAI and other development partners. The state level engagement has been targeted based on information and data provided by our project specific landscape study.
The project has so far focussed on technical aspects related to supply of fortified staple foods i.e. edible oil, milk and wheat flour; there is inadequate effort on raising awareness on the goodness of fortified food and health benefits resulting from its consumption amongst consumers.

The food industry is enthusiastic about participating in making available nutritionally enhanced fortified foods on a voluntary basis given the minimum additional cost involved. No subsidies related to premix have either been offered or asked for.

"Consumption of fortified, edible oil, milk and wheat flour at a population level will contribute towards reducing the negative impact of micronutrient deficiencies amongst the Indian population, and more particularly vulnerable groups. This approach must be complementary to raising awareness and creating an enabling environment for making a diversified diet more available, affordable and desirable to the population at large. Improving the nutritional status of the Indian population will necessitate partnering across government, private sector, development agencies, academia and most importantly the consumers.
-Tarun Vij
Country Director
GAIN"