VITAMIN

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VITAMIN MINERAL DEFICIENCY

• A devastating force threatens the lives of
  billions

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• Vitamin and Mineral Deficiency prevents more than
  two billion people from achieving their full
  intellectual and physical potential
• It imposes a heavy toll on national economies
  and on health care systems
• It condemns billions of people to lives lived in
  poverty

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A bigger problem, a greater challenge

• Threat larger than ever imagined
• What weve learned is the tip of the iceberg
• Even moderate and invisible levels of deficiency
  is devastating

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A Global Summary

• Iodine deficiency lowers the intellectual
  capacity of nations by as much as 10-15
  percentage points
• Iron deficiency impairs the mental development of
  40-60 of the developing worlds children
• Vitamin A deficiency impairs the immune systems
  of 40 of the developing worlds children

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A Global Summary

• Every Year
• Iodine deficiency causes 18 million babies to be
  born with mental impairment
• Iron deficiency causes the unnecessary deaths of
  60,000 women
• Folate deficiency causes approximately 200,000
  preventable birth defects
• Nations unnecessarily lose more than 2 of their
  gross national products

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In COUNTRY NAME

• Here insert specific damage statements and
  protection summaries from the DAR and other
  sources that are specific to your country and
  region

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The cost of the deficiency is hugeThe cost of
the solution is miniscule

• Billions of dollars are lost every year in lost
  productivity, medical care and care for disabled
  individuals
• Fortifying wheat flour in the 75 most needy
  countries would cost 4 cents per person. The
  return on this investment alone would be close
  to half a billion dollars

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VM Deficiency and the UN Development Goals

• Controlling Vitamin and Mineral Deficiency lies
  at the heart of development. It directly feeds
  into the Millennium Development Goals
• Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
• Reduce child mortality
• Improve maternal health
• Develop a global partnership for development

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VM Deficiency and the UN Development Goals

• Controlling Vitamin and Mineral Deficiency lies
  at the heart of development. It directly feeds
  into the Millennium Development Goals
• Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
• By controlling vitamin and mineral deficiency,
  nations around the world will have the potential
  to increase Gross Domestic products by 2 to 3
• The link between anemia and iodine deficiency and
  productivity is very well established

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VM Deficiency and the UN Development Goals

• Controlling Vitamin and Mineral Deficiency lies
  at the heart of development. It directly feeds
  into the Millennium Development Goals
• Reduce child mortality
• By ending vitamin A deficiency, more than one
  million child deaths can be averted every year
• Vitamin A deficiency is known to be a significant
  contributing factor to child mortality
• Vitamin A deficiency compromises the immune
  systems of approximately 40 of the developing
  worlds children

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VM Deficiency and the UN Development Goals

• Controlling Vitamin and Mineral Deficiency lies
  at the heart of development. It directly feeds
  into the Millennium Development Goals
• Improve maternal health
• By controlling anemia in women, 50,000 maternal
  deaths can be averted every year
• Severe anemia in pregnancy is known to contribute
  to increasing maternal death rates and to
  compromising the outcomes of pregnancy

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VM Deficiency and the UN Development Goals

• Controlling Vitamin and Mineral Deficiency lies
  at the heart of development. It directly feeds
  into the Millennium Development Goals
• Develop a global partnership for development
• Ending vitamin and mineral deficiency lies at the
  heart of development. The best hope for sustained
  progress resides in the idea of national
  alliances to press for, plan, implement and
  monitor specific national solutions
• Such alliances are most effective when they
  represent the range of those who have experience,
  authority and means to put particular solutions
  into effect on a national scale

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VM Deficiency and the UN Development Goals

• These goals will not be achieved, and the impact
  of VM Deficiency will not be significantly
  reduced, without a more ambitious, visionary, and
  systematic commitment to deploy known solutions
  on the same scale as the known problems.

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VM Deficiency and the Copenhagen Consensus

• In the recent Copenhagen Consensus Project, a
  panel of distinguished economists were asked to
  select a set of top priorities for investment in
  areas representing the ten greatest global
  challenges in development
• Investing in vitamin and mineral programming
  ranked second on their priority list
• Only stopping the spread of HIV/AIDS was a
  higher priority

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Solutions

• Vitamin and mineral deficiency represents a much
  greater problem than was imagined even a decade
  ago
• For once the world is confronted by a problem for
  which there are available and affordable
  solutions

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Solutions

• Fortification
• Supplementation
• Education
• Disease control

Combined, these methods have brought vitamin and
mineral deficiency under control in developed
countries. It is time now to deploy these
solutions for the benefit of developing nations.
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Solutions

• Fortification
• Adding essential vitamins and minerals to foods
  that are regularly consumed by a significant
  proportion of the population (such as flour,
  salt, sugar, oil and margarine)
• The cost can be as low as a few cents per person
  per year

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Solutions

• Supplementation
• Reaching out to vulnerable groups (particularly
  children and women of childbearing age) with
  vitamin and mineral supplements in the form of
  tablets, capsules and syrups
• The cost can be as low as a few cents per person
  per year

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Solutions

• Education and food based approaches
• Informing communities about the kinds of foods
  that can increase the intake and absorption of
  vitamins and minerals

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Solutions

• Disease control
• Controlling diseases like malaria, measles,
  diarrhea, and parasitic infections can also help
  the body to absorb and retain essential vitamins
  and minerals

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A decade of progress

• Prevalence of iodine deficiency halved
• Close to 70 of the worlds households have
  access to iodized salt
• Severe vitamin A deficiency largely controlled
• Close to 70 of the developing worlds children
  receive vitamin A supplements
• Fortification movement gaining momentum
• 40 countries now have food fortification programs
• Recognition of the VM Deficiency problem is
  growing

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Current State of Progress in INSERT COUNTRY NAME
HERE

• Here outline progress to date made in your
  country towards ending vitamin and mineral
  deficiency

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A job less than half done

• Despite the achievements, few nations have moved
  decisively to end vitamin and mineral deficiency
• Action has often lacked the ambition and vision
  necessary to control vitamin and mineral
  deficiency across entire populations
• If the goals accepted by the international
  community are to be achieved, action against
  vitamin and mineral deficiency needs to move on
  to a new level

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A job less than half done

• Despite the achievements of the past decade, one
  million children still die needlessly every year
• Reaching 60 or 70 of children is not good
  enough. Stopping here will result in VM
  Deficiency becoming a problem only for the poor
  and will make it significantly more difficult to
  commit more resources to end it

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• To end vitamin and mineral deficiency,
  governments, industry, UN agencies,
  non-governmental agencies and media need to shed
  the old thinking
• Integrated national-level policies need to be
  developed that reach out to whole populations to
  protect them against the consequences of vitamin
  and mineral deficiency

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• Use this section to outline specific actions that
  can be taken nationally towards ending vitamin
  and mineral deficiency in your country Add a
  few country-specific slides if necessary.
• Use and customize the next slides to create a
  specific call for action by specific sectors in
  your country.

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Everyone can join the effortTools do exist to
initiate policy dialogue

• Vitamin and Mineral Deficiency A Global Progress
  Report
• Damage Assessment Reports for 80 developing
  nations
• A Challenge to the Worlds Food companies
• A Guide to Media Professionals
• Other resources are available at
• www.micronutrient.org
• www.unicef.org

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How the tools can be used

• By national authorities to review existing
  activities to reach the agreed upon goals (UNGASS
  and MDGs)
• By national authorities including civil, civic
  and educational to review current understandings,
  and make adjustments to assure wide public and
  consumer understanding of the solution
• By the food industry, nationally, which can
  develop market and distribute low cost fortified
  food products and supplements
• By communication outlets in public, private
  media, cultural media, scientific and other
  journals. The effort here is not just to repeat
  whats in the DAR documents, but to institute
  investigative reporting and analysis nationally

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How the tools can be used

• By UN agencies in their annual reviews of
  development cooperation with governments
• By bilateral and multilateral aid agencies in
  their annual reviews of development cooperation
  with governments
• By national non-governmental organizations in
  their development cooperation within the country,
  and
• By international NGOs in their development
  cooperation plans

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What Private food companies can do

• Food companies have played an historic role in
  controlling vitamin and mineral deficiencies in
  industrialized countries
• It is now a matter of urgency that the benefits
  of food fortification be extended to the
  developing nations
• Food companies can use and share their technical
  expertise with those in developing nations
• Food companies can apply their production,
  distribution and marketing skills to make
  fortified foods widely available and affordable
  in developing countries

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How governments can help

• Governments can
• Help build public demand for fortified foods
  through health and education services
• Assist with start-up financing and product
  development
• Endorse approved food products
• Allow distribution of certain fortified foods
  through schools, hospitals and clinics
• Reduce duties on imported vitamins and minerals
  or on essential machinery used for fortification
• Legislate in support of food fortification

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• Controlling vitamin and mineral deficiency is an
  affordable opportunity to improve the lives of
  two billion people and strengthen the pulse of
  economic development.