The World Bank
Latin America and Caribbean Region |  |
Contacts:
World Bank: --Alejandra De La Paz
(809) 556-6815, Ext. 256
adelapaz@worldbank.org
Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition –Françoise Chomé
(41-79) 473-3054
fchome@gaingeneva.org
Santo Domingo, February 15, 2007 — A national food fortification program aimed at dramatically reducing the rates of iron and vitamin A deficiency in Dominican Republic women and children, as well as the number of babies being born with serious physical defects, was launched today by the Ministry of Public Health and Social Assistance and key international partners.
The Caribbean state received grant funds in the amount of US$1.88 million from the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN), for which the World Bank serves as trust agent. The GAIN grant will be part of a wider program, worth approximately US$13.45 million where producers and consumers also contribute to overall costs. “GAIN grants are awarded on a competitive basis and we congratulate the Commission on the launch of this project, which we are confident will bring significant and sustained health benefits to the people of the Dominican Republic,” said Executive Director of GAIN Marc Van Ameringen. Every year in the Dominican Republic, vitamin A deficiency is linked to an estimated 350 deaths and 400 children are born with folate deficiency causing birth defects to the brain and spinal cord known as neural tube birth defects, or ‘spina bifida’. Iron deficiency anemia greatly increases the risk of maternal death and complications during childbirth, reduces learning capacity in young children and saps energy levels, reducing worker productivity. Vitamin and mineral deficiencies are largely preventable and cause irreversible damage such as blindness and are responsible for estimated annual economic losses of 0.4 percent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Project support will enable all wheat flour milled for domestic consumption to be fortified with iron, folic acid and other B complex vitamins, and 80 percent of sugar to be fortified with vitamin A. This is expected to reduce iron anaemia rates from the current 27 percent to 20 percent in children under five and vitamin A deficiency from 22.7 to 10 percent during the project period. In addition, the number of birth defects to the brain and spinal cord is expected to decrease by 20 percent.
“Through this project fortification will become a nutritional and healthier way of processing flour and sugar in the country with the cost being absorbed by the food companies, with no or negligible increases for the consumer,” said Dr. Bautista Rojas Gómez, Minister of Public Health and Social Assistance.
The new grant supports a three-year project developed by a National Micronutrients Commission, comprising public sector, food production companies, research institutions and civil society groups. The public-private partnership project will be implemented by the Ministry of Public Health and Social Welfare. Six flour mills and seven sugar mills are participating in the project and the government plans to introduce new national laws to make fortification of wheat flour and sugar mandatory. Eighty percent of the Dominican Republic’s population of around nine million people are expected to consume fortified flour and sugar by 2007. The GAIN grant will contribute to the purchase of premix equipment, food control and regulatory systems, communication and marketing campaigns, impact studies and administration costs. Fortification of flour with iron and other micronutrients has been successful in countries such as Venezuela, the USA, UK, Canada, Sweden, and Chile. Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Ecuador, Zambia, and Vietnam are currently fortifying sugar with Vitamin A. The project will support the Dominican Republic in efforts to meet the UN Millennium Development Goals of reduced poverty, improved maternal health and reduced child mortality.
Note to Editors:
About the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) and the World Bank
GAIN aims to save lives and improve health, productivity and cognitive function by reducing nutritional deficiencies of populations at risk everywhere, primarily through the use of food fortification to alleviate vitamin and mineral deficiencies. GAIN has a key alliance-building function, bringing together public and private partners around common objectives, and also provides grants and technical expertise. A distinctive and essential feature of GAIN’s approach is its work with the private sector, applying new, innovative business models to make markets work sustainably for the benefit of those suffering from malnutrition. GAIN places a critical emphasis on performance management to ensure that the programs it delivers are making a measurable impact on target populations.
GAIN was established in 2002 and currently receives funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). At present, GAIN is supporting the work of National Fortification Alliances in fourteen countries. GAIN has set itself the target of reaching 1 billion people, with the longer term target to reach the estimated 2 billion people across the globe suffering from nutritional deficiencies.
The World Bank serves as the GAIN’s trust agent and has assumed the management and supervision of five food fortification projects that are financed by the Bank's GAIN TF Program.
For more on the Bank’s work in the area of nutrition, please visit: www.worldbank.org/lachealth
|
RSS