For a stronger, healthier future, we must start with a solid foundation: one that enables us to grow, to learn, to contribute to our communities, develop our nations and thrive. We know that in order to build a better future, each one of us seven billion (and counting) deserves these opportunities. To achieve this, we must overcome many health and development challenges; so where to begin? We must focus on solutions that maximize limited resources through innovation, partnerships, and smart investments.
This solid foundation can be built with the smallest of building blocks—the micronutrients, vitamins, and minerals needed to nourish our children and families. As a global community, we have a great opportunity to shape nutrition-centered development solutions to give children a healthy start at life and in turn, nourish future generations of innovators.
It is proven that well-nourished children are more successful in school and are less likely to contract and die from diseases throughout their lives. As they grow, well-nourished children will be more productive, increasing their earning potential in adulthood, thus helping families break the vicious cycle of malnutrition and poverty, and furthering economic development of their nations. Nutrition has cross-sector impact on development targets for education, health, poverty alleviation, agriculture development, food security, and gender equality. Simply put, investment in nutrition is an investment in the future, and is essential to success in all areas of global development.
Building better nutrition begins early. It is vital to deliver proper nutrition and provide the right micronutrients during the 1,000-day window of opportunity during a mother's pregnancy until her child turns two years old. The negative effects of malnutrition during this critical period cannot be reversed and permanently stunt a child's intellectual and physical development. There are things we can do immediately, at a relatively low cost, to begin to make a change, including promoting exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months of a child's life; appropriate complementary feeding; ensuring adequate nutrition for women of child bearing age, as well as pregnant and lactating women; and, supporting interventions that provide optimal intake of vital micronutrients.
It is imperative that we also find new and innovative solutions. Because all sectors are involved in nutrition, there is incredible opportunity for innovation. Consider the factors that affect a child's nutritional status: her mother's health and nutrition, the support available to enable her mother to breastfeed, the types of crops available, her parents' ability to ensure that complementary foods meet her needs, her family's ability to afford nutrient-rich foods or fortified foods, and the accessibility of these products. Compounding these factors are the effects of climate change on food availability and storage, access to clean water, access to basic healthcare, and the economics behind it all. These are just a few examples.
The many influences on a child's nutrition as also mean that there are many opportunities to improve the child's nutrition. From farm to fortification, cross-sector collaboration between civil society, government, businesses, and others can create new tangible solutions and integrate nutrition improvements into broader efforts.
One way to approach solutions is to think about a food and nutrition value chain and the opportunities it presents to engage partners at different stages of production, processing, delivery, and implementation—from small-scale farmers, to food companies, to consumers. Whether it is capitalizing on existing delivery and production mechanisms to improve the availability of micronutrient-rich products or facilitating access to the tools and knowledge to fortify foods, together we can find solutions that best use limited resources.
A value chain approach in the areas of production, processing and delivery, micronutrient fortification and supplementation has led to the creation of highly successful public-private sector partnerships. Working with Sight and Life, DSM has forged partnerships with the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and USAID to support nutrition in the developing world in practical and inexpensive, yet innovative ways. With its technical expertise, DSM provides inputs for various nutrition improvement programs including staple food fortification programs run by USAID through the Feed the Future initiative; and micronutrient powder MixMe(tm) sachets delivered via WFP channels to increase daily intake of vitamins and minerals through home fortification.
By leveraging each of the partners' unique expertise and resources, we can improve the effectiveness and efficiency of nutrition interventions and scale up to the best possible impact-helping both the most vulnerable and the broader population. If we work to identify nutrition-centered inputs at each level of the value chain, we can reduce rates of malnutrition and disease, and bolster achievement in poverty reduction and food security as well.
We all have a role to play in shaping the opportunities available to integrate nutrition-centered interventions across all sectors. We can build new transformative approaches into existing systems that support the goal of better nutrition for all people globally. Building a strong future rests on our ability to lay the building blocks for a strong human foundation. In a world of seven billion people where resources are stretched and financial resources limited, nutrition is one of the smartest investments we can make to build a strong future. Proper nutrition—micronutrients, vitamins, and minerals—form the essential building blocks for our potential as humans.
Dr. Klaus Kraemer is Director of Sight and Life, a humanitarian initiative of DSM, committed to fighting hidden hunger—malnutrition caused by micronutrient (vitamin and mineral) deficiencies. Dr. Kraemer has over 25 years of experience in research and advocacy in the field of health and safety of vitamins, minerals, carotenoids, and nutraceuticals.
This article was originally published in the Diplomatic Courier's January 2012 issue.
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Building New Models to Nourish 7 Billion
January 21, 2012
For a stronger, healthier future, we must start with a solid foundation: one that enables us to grow, to learn, to contribute to our communities, develop our nations and thrive. We know that in order to build a better future, each one of us seven billion (and counting) deserves these opportunities. To achieve this, we must overcome many health and development challenges; so where to begin? We must focus on solutions that maximize limited resources through innovation, partnerships, and smart investments.
This solid foundation can be built with the smallest of building blocks—the micronutrients, vitamins, and minerals needed to nourish our children and families. As a global community, we have a great opportunity to shape nutrition-centered development solutions to give children a healthy start at life and in turn, nourish future generations of innovators.
It is proven that well-nourished children are more successful in school and are less likely to contract and die from diseases throughout their lives. As they grow, well-nourished children will be more productive, increasing their earning potential in adulthood, thus helping families break the vicious cycle of malnutrition and poverty, and furthering economic development of their nations. Nutrition has cross-sector impact on development targets for education, health, poverty alleviation, agriculture development, food security, and gender equality. Simply put, investment in nutrition is an investment in the future, and is essential to success in all areas of global development.
Building better nutrition begins early. It is vital to deliver proper nutrition and provide the right micronutrients during the 1,000-day window of opportunity during a mother's pregnancy until her child turns two years old. The negative effects of malnutrition during this critical period cannot be reversed and permanently stunt a child's intellectual and physical development. There are things we can do immediately, at a relatively low cost, to begin to make a change, including promoting exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months of a child's life; appropriate complementary feeding; ensuring adequate nutrition for women of child bearing age, as well as pregnant and lactating women; and, supporting interventions that provide optimal intake of vital micronutrients.
It is imperative that we also find new and innovative solutions. Because all sectors are involved in nutrition, there is incredible opportunity for innovation. Consider the factors that affect a child's nutritional status: her mother's health and nutrition, the support available to enable her mother to breastfeed, the types of crops available, her parents' ability to ensure that complementary foods meet her needs, her family's ability to afford nutrient-rich foods or fortified foods, and the accessibility of these products. Compounding these factors are the effects of climate change on food availability and storage, access to clean water, access to basic healthcare, and the economics behind it all. These are just a few examples.
The many influences on a child's nutrition as also mean that there are many opportunities to improve the child's nutrition. From farm to fortification, cross-sector collaboration between civil society, government, businesses, and others can create new tangible solutions and integrate nutrition improvements into broader efforts.
One way to approach solutions is to think about a food and nutrition value chain and the opportunities it presents to engage partners at different stages of production, processing, delivery, and implementation—from small-scale farmers, to food companies, to consumers. Whether it is capitalizing on existing delivery and production mechanisms to improve the availability of micronutrient-rich products or facilitating access to the tools and knowledge to fortify foods, together we can find solutions that best use limited resources.
A value chain approach in the areas of production, processing and delivery, micronutrient fortification and supplementation has led to the creation of highly successful public-private sector partnerships. Working with Sight and Life, DSM has forged partnerships with the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and USAID to support nutrition in the developing world in practical and inexpensive, yet innovative ways. With its technical expertise, DSM provides inputs for various nutrition improvement programs including staple food fortification programs run by USAID through the Feed the Future initiative; and micronutrient powder MixMe(tm) sachets delivered via WFP channels to increase daily intake of vitamins and minerals through home fortification.
By leveraging each of the partners' unique expertise and resources, we can improve the effectiveness and efficiency of nutrition interventions and scale up to the best possible impact-helping both the most vulnerable and the broader population. If we work to identify nutrition-centered inputs at each level of the value chain, we can reduce rates of malnutrition and disease, and bolster achievement in poverty reduction and food security as well.
We all have a role to play in shaping the opportunities available to integrate nutrition-centered interventions across all sectors. We can build new transformative approaches into existing systems that support the goal of better nutrition for all people globally. Building a strong future rests on our ability to lay the building blocks for a strong human foundation. In a world of seven billion people where resources are stretched and financial resources limited, nutrition is one of the smartest investments we can make to build a strong future. Proper nutrition—micronutrients, vitamins, and minerals—form the essential building blocks for our potential as humans.
Dr. Klaus Kraemer is Director of Sight and Life, a humanitarian initiative of DSM, committed to fighting hidden hunger—malnutrition caused by micronutrient (vitamin and mineral) deficiencies. Dr. Kraemer has over 25 years of experience in research and advocacy in the field of health and safety of vitamins, minerals, carotenoids, and nutraceuticals.
This article was originally published in the Diplomatic Courier's January 2012 issue.
