UAE-funded food programme in Afghanistan adds iodine to salt to reduce deaths

A large-scale Food Fortification Programme in Afghanistan, funded by the UAE's Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan Foundation (KBZF) and implemented by the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN), is providing iodine to 29 salt factories in Afghanistan in an effort to reduce deaths and disabilities associated with nutritional deficiencies, particularly among women and children.

29 factories across Afghanistan produce around 130,000 tonnes of salt per year which need to be purified and mixed with iodine.

The international partnership, which also involves the World Food Programme (WFP), will reach approximately 15 to 18 million Afghans, mainly children, women and pregnant women, with nutritionally fortified wheat flour, vegetable oil and ghee. The project is expected to complete by the end of 2015.

The partnership aims to reduce the prevalence of vitamin and mineral deficiencies among the general population and vulnerable groups such as children under five and women of reproductive age, through a project supporting the Government's Nutrition Action Framework to address malnutrition. The goal of the project is to increase the amount of vitamins and minerals in people's daily diets and to reduce disabilities related to insufficient nutrients by 30 percent.

GAIN is providing financial support and technical expertise to produce the fortified foods, monitor their quality, create demand and develop technical guidelines for fortification.

Towards this end, GAIN office in Kabul is holding a series of meetings with government representatives and food producers and conducting training workshops on stable foods like flour wheat, vegetable oil, ghee, and iodised salt.

GAIN Kabul office, late last year, met representatives of nine ministries and government-related entities and Afghan Iodised Salt Producers Association (AISPA) and briefed them on the progress of the salt iodisation programme.

Afghan Minister of Public Health Suraya Dalil expressed her profound thanks for Khalifa Foundation, affirming that the UAE is a key donor to Afghanistan's socio-economic development.

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