Royal DSM and World Vision, a global development organisation, have announced an ambitious partnership to nourish the world's most vulnerable children.
By 2016, the DSM-World Vision partnership aims to contribute to the reduction of the 165 million children under-five across the globe who are stunted. The collaboration will see both organisations jointly leverage their expertise, resources and reach in order to address undernutrition - the root cause of stunting and one-third of preventable child deaths.
The partnership between DSM and World Vision will focus on fortifying staple foods like maize, wheat and rice with essential micronutrients. Food fortification has been recognised by economists and health experts as one of the safest and most cost-effective ways to improve the nutrition of whole populations, said DSM.
"As the world's leading producer of vitamins and other micronutrients we have a clear responsibility to help solve the globe's most solvable problem: hidden hunger,” said Royal DSM's managing board member Stephan Tanda. “Our partnership with World Vision will help provide nourishment to millions of vulnerable children. We will begin our work together in Tanzania, where we will fortify flour and build local capacity and understanding to provide genuinely sustainable solutions."
The flagship of the partnership is the Miller's Pride project in Tanzania's Dar es Salaam. This programme will fortify maize flour with essential micronutrients, reaching a population of millions. In addition to the fortification, DSM and World Vision will work with the millers to build business expertise, improve food safety and increase markets and profits for the millers.
Without adequate nutrition in the 1,000 days between a woman's pregnancy and her child's second birthday, the damage to that child's physical and mental development is largely irreversible, according to DSM. Currently. one-third of children under-five in developing countries suffer stunting.
"We believe our unique partnership with DSM will save lives, while improving children's educational achievement and future earning potential," said World Vision international president Kevin Jenkins. "Evidence shows nutrition is the best investment we can make to achieve lasting progress in global health and development."
The partnership will also see the organisations working to ensure nutrition for mothers and children is high on the agenda of global decision makers.
"As an organisation working with vulnerable children in nearly 100 countries, we have learned poverty is complicated, but proper nutrition is a master-key that unlocks many of the chains," continued Jenkins. "As the world strives to define targets to follow the Millennium Development Goals, we, DSM and our partners in the Scaling Up Nutrition movement are emphasizing that well-nourished children are more robust, do better at school, earn higher incomes and raise healthier children of their own."
