Tag: Catholic Relief Services

Micronutrient Forum Conference: Vitamins and Minerals in the Changing Environment

October 8, 2026    Nutrition specialists gathering in Accra last week returned to a recurring challenge: how to translate evidence on preventing malnutrition into policies and programs that reach people at scale.   Several thousand nutrition and aid specialists participated in person and online in the Micronutrient Forum’s 7th Global Conference, held in Accra, Ghana, from September 28 to October 1.     With the theme “Nutrition at the Frontiers of a Changing Environment,” the conference brought together research, policy, and program experience across nutrition, food systems, climate, and development.

Presentations examined climate-resilient, nutrient-rich crop varieties; improvements in food storage and processing; and innovative financing. Across these topics, speakers emphasized the importance of political leadership, sustained investment, and coordination.

Presenter Ziauddin Hyder reflected on the event:

“Ending malnutrition requires more than isolated projects. It demands strong political leadership, sustainable domestic financing, and coordinated action across sectors. Bangladesh is committed to transforming this vision into action by integrating nutrition into primary health care and ensuring that multisectoral investments converge to improve maternal and child nutrition.”

Participants included Action Against Hunger, World Vision, Catholic Relief Services, the Hunger Project, GAIN, Population Action International, AGRA, iDE, UNICEF, IFPRI, FAO, WFP and the Ghanaian Government.  Private sector participants included BioAnalyt Gmbh, Hexagon Nutrition, and Particles for Humanity.  A number of presentations were by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) or IFPRI. The Government of Ghana, the African Union (AU), and the African Development Bank (AfDB) were major participants as well.

Dr. Saskia Osendarp, who is Executive Director of the Micronutrient Forum, called on the international community to not only take stock of progress but also translate evidence into actionable recommendations for research, policy, and programs, while building on and celebrating African leadership in nutrition.

Presentations covered a wide range of recent progress in battling malnutrition, spanning climate change, behavior change, processed foods, testing for deficiencies, fortification, nutrient supplements and funding.

FORTIFICATION

A widely echoed takeaway from the forum was the growing body of evidence on what works: across diverse contexts, food fortification emerged as one of the most cost-effective and impactful public health interventions, especially when implemented with mandatory legislation.

The Food Fortification Initiative presented a systematic review about the effectiveness of large-scale food fortification across 10 fortification vehicles, plus reviews on milk fortification, fortified soy/fish sauce, the impact of mandatory folic acid fortification on neural tube defects, congenital heart defects, and clefts, folate status, methods for estimating fortified-food coverage, integration of fortification into food systems, and a new rapid spot assay for zinc in fortified grains.

The ten-person CRS delegation concluded that: “We know what works. Now is the time to scale it,” supported by abstracts from their fortification work in Madagascar, Niger, and Ghana.  CRS highlighted how its fortification programming in West Africa,  built with governments, regional institutions, the private sector, and civil society, has strengthened policy frameworks, regulatory monitoring, quality assurance, and compliance, improving access to micronutrient-rich foods “for millions of vulnerable populations.”

Gaps in Compliance:  Research from countries like Bangladesh and Nigeria revealed significant compliance gaps, particularly highlighting the disparity between branded and unbranded staple foods (like edible oil and salt). Experts noted that markets frequently fail to deliver adequately fortified foods to consumers due to these blind spots.  From Cambodia, a 2023 cross-sectional assessment of vendors in about 150 public rural primary schools, related to unhealthy school foods found that 98% of vendors said they knew the directive, and most could identify sugary and energy drinks as prohibited.  Yet, that awareness did not change what was sold.

A rapid zinc test may make food-fortification monitoring much easier.  The Food Fortification Initiative featured an abstract about developing and validating a qualitative spot assay for zinc in fortified cereals. The associated method uses xylenol orange, which produces pink or purple spots when added zinc is present in refined wheat flour or fortified white rice. Testing takes only 10–15 minutes, excluding reagent preparation.  This gives millers and inspectors a relatively inexpensive screening tool for checking whether zinc was added. It detects presence, however, rather than establishing that the food contains the legally required concentration.

GAIN’s contributions included Svenja Jungjohann’s presentations on discrepancies between market assessments and household exposure in Bangladesh, and compliance gaps in branded and unbranded oil and salt in Bangladesh and Nigeria. Annette Mongina Nyangaresi presented implementation research about digital fortification-quality systems.

Latin America has been a historic pioneer in large-scale food fortification (vitamin A–fortified sugar in Guatemala, near-universal salt iodization, wheat flour fortification in 18 countries.  Rice fortification (already mandatory in Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Panama, and being developed in the Dominican Republic, Brazil and Colombia) was flagged as an underused frontier.

SUPPLEMENTS FOR A WIDE RANGE OF VITAMINS AND MINERALS

There was a heavy push for expanding distribution of “multiple micronutrient supplements” (MMS) for pregnant women, with  48 countries now exploring or implementing it, noting that women prefer a full 180-day supply, which supports adherence.   Vitamin Angels, profiled earlier in Hunger Notes, presented about scaling up multiple micronutrient supplements, and Ghana’s phased rollout of Multiple Micronutrient Supplements (MMS) focused on evidence building and system preparedness.

Participants noted that supplement packaging is a sensitive part of nutritional efficacy: repackaging can reduce vitamin potency.

A poster looked at the effect of nutrition education on multiple micronutrient supplementation knowledge, attitudes, and practices among pregnant women in Abuja, Nigeria.  In selected antenatal clinics, structured nutrition education produced large gains: about 89% reached a good knowledge score and 81.6% a positive attitude toward use of multiple micronutrient inputs.

One session moderated by Jian Yan and Parul Christian of Johns Hopkins, addressed dose-response trials in undernourished women. A supplement’s nominal nutrient content does not by itself establish whether it corrects deficiency. Dose-response research seeks amounts that achieve adequate status without excessive exposure.

UNDERSTANDING MICRONUTRIENT DEFICIENCIES

UC Davis and Cambridge experts underscored that half the world has inadequate intake of at least one micronutrient, and biological stressors amplify these gaps.  Sight and Life  presented about anemia among women, noting that anemia is the #1 global cause of lost DALYs for adolescents 10–19,  University researchers emphasized that blood loss, infections, and genetic conditions are major contributors to anemia—often overshadowing simple iron deficiency narratives.  This has implications for screening, treatment protocols, and national anemia strategies.

Dr. Parmi Suchdev presented about “Micronutrients, inflammation, and life-course vulnerability,” explaining how systemic inflammation can change or obscure bio-markers of nutrient deficiencies.

CHILD NUTRITION

The Child Health and Mortality Prevention Surveillance (CHAMPS) team presented key research highlighting maternal health and life-course vulnerabilities: Malnutrition is the main underlying cause in older children. It was the most frequent underlying cause among infants and children (20.8%), with sepsis and pneumonia more often the final event. An earlier analysis found malnutrition causal or significant in 39.5% of these deaths, 89.1% of which also had an infectious cause.

World Vision presented about father-to-father support groups which helped exclusive breastfeeding increase from 64.8% to 94.7%, while women meeting minimum dietary diversity increased from 11.2% to 54.9%.  WV also presented about strengthening RUTF supply chains for continuity of care of child wasting, with West Africa as their example.

CLIMATE CHANGE IMPACTS

University scholars presented evidence that climate change is reducing the micronutrient content of staple crops.   Crop science experts showed that rising CO₂ levels and erratic rainfall patterns lower iron, zinc, and protein density in cereals.  At the same time, rapid dietary transitions in African cities are reducing micronutrient diversity, increasing reliance on processed foods, and stressing traditional food systems.

The AGRA Regional Director, Sunil Dahiya:  “Higher carbon dioxide levels reduce the zinc and iron in staples like rice and wheat. The bowl looks the same, but there is less nutrition in it.  ….The crop is changing.”

DATA AND LEARNING

Discussions emphasized the urgent need to improve the timeliness, availability, and sourcing of data feeding into the Global Fortification Data Exchange (GFDx) to help policymakers track scaling progress in real-time.

The Nutrition in City Ecosystems (NICE) Project emphasized south-south learning between Asian and African cities, showcasing how urban areas can lead in addressing micronutrient deficiencies.

Action Against Hunger, PAI, CORE Group, FP2030, HMHB, and SUN’s Civil Society Network co-convened an October 2 follow-up gathering on linking nutrition, family planning, and maternal and child health.

Overall, the conference reinforced the need for a unified, evidence-based agenda linking nutrition directly to improved child health outcomes and survival rates.

Overall, the conference reinforced the need for a unified, evidence-based agenda linking nutrition directly to improved child health outcomes and survival rates.

FURTHER INFORMATION

In the future, presentations will be available at:  https://mnfconference.org/

The program is seen at:  https://booklet.kenes.com/export/mnf26

See also:  https://www.myjoyonline.com/measure-food-systems-progress-not-only-by-productivity-but-also-ability-to-deliver-healthy-diets-agra/

GAIN’s poster presentations and side event about business:  https://www.gainhealth.org/events/micronutrient-forum-7th-global-conference-mnf#gain-participation

AGRA’s presentation:  https://youtu.be/4SjNVlZyjb8

Food Fortification Initiative:  https://ffinetwork.org/micronutrient-forum-7th-global-conference/

IFPRI:  https://www.ifpri.org/event/ifpri-micronutrient-forum-7th-global-conference/

– Edited by Steven Hansch of the World Hunger Education Service

U.S. Food Aid (Part 8): Nawiri in Arid Lands of Kenya

July 24, 2026    This is the eighth Hunger Notes article about Food for Peace programs to help inform the public and USDA about lessons learned during past decades about the design and evolution of US food aid, intended to inform USDA which has an outstanding request for information.

Nawiri was the most recent Food for Peace program for Kenya, with about $200 million to different NGOs, led by two groups, Catholic Relief Services and Mercy Corps, covering drought-prone arid lands with mixed pastoral and agricultural economies.  The CRS consortium included Caritas, Tufts University, IBTCI, Concern, Village Enterprise and Kenyatta University and worked in Isiola and Marsabit counties, while Mercy Corps worked in Samburu and Turkana counties, with Research Triangle Institute, AVSI, Viamo, Caritas and the African Population and Health Research Center.  Together these teams  reached some 550,000 people.

Program metrics showed that Nawiri achieved substantial positive impacts but the benefits were often uneven, context-dependent, and constrained by severe environmental shocks.   The implementing agencies found that acute (wasting) malnutrition varies significantly between neighboring wards, across different seasons, and over time, meaning that generalized regional approaches are often ineffective.  Also, screening methods like mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC) and weight-for-height z-scores (WHZ) behave differently across seasons, sex, and age groups.  Relying solely on MUAC can delay the identification of malnourished children; employing both metrics is necessary to accurately capture different characteristics and stages of malnutrition.  Not surprisingly, they found that dry climate correlated with worse malnutrition.

NGO evidence generally showed that where their interventions were concentrated, malnutrition measurably fell.   During the period of study, wasting malnutrition declined by over 20% in target areas, though it increased 40% in Turkana. Furthermore, longitudinal studies noted that stunting (long-term malnutrition) increased significantly over time for the sample as a whole, particularly in Laisamis.

Increased systematic screening and referral of malnourished children to health posts were an important reason for those declines seen in wasting.  In the  Turkana, Nawiri equipped 210 community health volunteers in 4 communities with dosage carts, pneumonia beads, and malaria test kits.  Concern piloted an integrated health intervention that added malaria, pneumonia and diarrhea case management with existing integrated-management of acute malnutrition.

Some 57 water systems were rehabilitated, important in a dry lands, and Nawiri fostered 35 local “Water Use Associations” for ongoing improvements for tanks, pipes and water points.  Crops were expanded with irrigation: sorghum, maize, watermelon, green grams, fodder. A 7 km canal was desilted.

“The primary pathway between water insecurity and malnutrition in the arid lands of Kenya is women’s time burden collecting water to meet the minimum drinking and hygiene needs of the household. Water collection is performed exclusively by women and girls and remains one of the pervasively gender inequitable elements of pastoral life. Nawiri aims to address the role of water system functionality through borehole rehabilitation.”

The project found that traditional pastoralist strategic mobility and social institutions (like sharing milk, food, and childcare) are the frontline of disaster response and foundational to community resilience.  Nawiri helped establish retail shops (dukas) in remote areas to stock better varieties of nutritious foods, bringing vibrant markets to communities that previously had to travel up to 7 kilometers for basic goods.  Nawiri promoted livestock health and livestock disease surveillance.

Applying the graduation model, some 500 households in 14 villages graduated with Village Enterprise assistance.  In The Isiolo pilot (600 households) launched 204 businesses and 20 savings groups; Food Consumption Score rose from 51.3% to 83.8% in 3.5 months and children (6–23 mo) meeting minimum acceptable diet rose from 6.38% to 31.65%.

The Double-Edged Sword of Diversification: While livelihood diversification provides alternative income, it can act as a maladaptive coping mechanism if it forces women into labor-intensive, low-return activities,. The program observed that as women spent more time on business activities, time spent on childcare decreased, which in some zones led to reduced breastfeeding and higher acute malnutrition.  While the drought pushed communities to diversify away from livestock, weak local economies meant many new businesses sold the same basic goods (like sugar and flour), fast-tracking local market saturation

Under CRS, 207 teenagers graduated the “Nawiri na Ujuzi” course (tailoring, masonry, plumbing, electrical, mechanics, driving), which was jointly funded by Nawiri and the County Government of Isiolo.  CRS Deputy COP Margaret Kahiga notes all beneficiaries come from households with under-five children facing malnutrition.  In a separate area, a randomized controlled tiral conducted with the Rural Entrepreneur Access Project (REAP) in Samburu revealed a limitation to these economic benefits:  if market saturation crossed a certain tipping point (over 60% enrollment in a specific locality), the income impact for individual businesses could reduce over time as businesses competed against one another

Resilience was highly dependent on informal safety nets, asset ownership, and access to savings.   The program emphasized layered, sequenced interventions (e.g., combining water with agriculture, nutrition education, and markets) and local ownership, leading to better resilience against shocks like drought. The partner county governments agreed to sustaining gains post-closeout, including asset handovers and policy integration. The NGOs also observed a chronic deficiency in prioritizing and budgeting of government resources for nutrition, and political leaders frequently lack awareness of the importance of multisectoral nutrition approaches.

Much of Nawiri intentionally focused on formative research and theory-of-change-analysis during the first two years.  The  Feinstein International Center at Tufts University managed a longitudinal study (bimonthly surveys) in four sentinel sites.  Tufts found that few individual/household variables predict malnutrition, whereas basic structural drivers (pastoralism under pressure, climate variability, weakening customary institutions) dominate.  Mercy Corps’ review of longitudinal data found that wasting malnutrition had persistently been above 15% for three decades, without improvement.

Notably, DOGE terminated the CRS program, despite positive progress and investments, because DOGE’s simplistic word search through the fun. ding agreement found politically-offensive words, like “gender”, and “climate.”  Because Nawiri was terminated early, a full, independent endline evaluation of final impact may be incomplete.

–  Contributed by WHES board member, Steven Hansch

 

 

Roundtable on June 5 about American Foreign Assistance and Faith-Based Organizations

World Hunger Education Service (the nonprofit overseeing this Hunger Notes site), joins with Fordham University, HIAS, Lipscomb University, and George Washington University’s Milken Institute School of Public Health in organizing and convening a virtual (online) roundtable of experts on June 5, 2025, a Thursday,  to discuss how American faith-based organizations may be able to lead in the delivery of foreign aid against poverty, assisting development and providing humanitarian relief.

This will be a roundtable conversation with no panels or presentations, and is open to all faiths.

Invited organizations include operational NGOs, universities, research groups and other faith-based organizations in the United States.

Among the questions the roundtable will discuss are:

  •          How well do faith-based organizations blend donations from different sources (citizens, private sector corporations and foundations) to solve problems and relieve crises? Are they more localized, sustainable and cost-efficient in their assistance?
  •         In which sectors are faith-based organizations best at addressing, comparing for instance hunger, primary health care, basic education, food security, trade, industrialization, governance, marine conservation, or higher education?
  •         Looking ahead to future years, what expanded role should faith-based organizations play in executing new programs funded by the United Statessponsoring organizatons Government?

The roundtable will adhere to “Chatham House” rules in that no quote or perspective will later be attributed to any person or organization, whether in the meeting summary or by anyone attending.  Participants are asked to leave their organizational affiliations “at the door” and speak candidly, as experts, about the issues from their experiences over their careers.

This is one in a series of roundtable about the future of American foreign aid.

Interested faith-based organizations may email to:  WorldhungerEd@gmail.com, or ForeignAidRoundtable@gmail.com

Hunger in Niger

Niger is one of the countries within the Sahel region on the southern border of the great Sahara Desert in West Africa.  Niger rests directly north of Nigeria, and is home to over 24 million people.  As the country enters April which this year is the month of Ramadan, it is sobering to observe the current food security conditions in-country.

Niger is bounded by neighboring countries that suffer from Islamist attacks and recent coups. Niger’s rainy and cropping season runs from roughly May-October, and Niger it entering its lean season.  This is before the annual harvest at the end of the rains, in October/November 2022. An estimated 4.4 million Nigeriens will be food insecure between June-August 2022 (according to the Cadre Harmonise monitoring system) and the number of food insecure individuals is estimated to be roughly double the numbers seen in 2021.  These critical numbers are expected to worsen in the coming months, as the war in Ukraine has already affected world grain supplies, resulting in higher basic food prices within Niger, as well as increases in prices of, fuel and fertilizer which are expected to rise significantly in the coming months.

Malnutrition rates in Niger have not improved significantly in the last ten years and acute malnutrition remains at approximately 10% of children under the age of five.  International aid agencies have been responding, including CARE and Catholic Relief Services which are in the middle of five year food and nutrition programs, funded by USAID, in Maradi and Zinder regions, respectively.  The World Food Programme has piloted vulnerable adolescent girls with folic acid, iron and school meals, with the finding of significantly increased retention and graduation from schools.  The European Union also provides food and humanitarian assistance to Niger.

Niger also hosts over 800,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs), refugees or other uprooted people, and these populations are also food insecure.  Niger’s national cereal production for 2021 of ~3.5 million MT decreased by 40% from the previous 5-year average, food prices for its staples of millet, sorghum and maize have so far all increased by ~15% from the previous 5-year average, and are expected to further increase in the coming months as Niger’s lean season progresses. The food supply, combined with low forage supplies for livestock and continued physical insecurity due to Islamist attacks and threats all paint a very challenging picture for the Niger Government and its international partners to respond to these domestic food and physical security needs.   The nonprofit Action Contre la Faim, or Action Against Hunger in the U.S., provides nutrition, health and water in southwest and southeast Niger.

Compared to its neighbors, Niger is an island of relative stability due to successful elections last year and a relatively lower Islamist threat than the neighboring countries of Mali and Burkina Faso, though conditions can quickly change.  Niger’s continuing food security challenges are similar to hunger challenges throughout the entire Sahel region.  Climate change adds to these continuing challenges, linked to land degradation, water access, lower and inconsistent rainfall, high human fertility rates, and low literacy rates, especially for women.  Niger remains resilient, but this relatively small country and region, a continent away from Ukraine and eastern Europe, show the far-reaching global effects that current conflict will have on both rich and poor countries, especially those that rely on imported food, fuel and fertilizer to mitigate national food insecurity.

Cadre Harmonise:  https://www.ipcinfo.org/ipc-country-analysis/details-map/en/c/1152560/

https://fews.net/west-africa/niger

https://ec.europa.eu/echo/where/africa/niger_en

WFP:  https://www.ennonline.net/attachments/2928/FEX_58_Niger_p2.pdf