We support the government and other partners to deliver micronutrient supplements, adequately fortified staple foods and improved health and nutrition services, with a particular focus on women, children and girls. Some key highlights from this year include:

• Nutrition International signed a memorandum of understanding with the Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education and we are collaborating to implement the WIFAS and nutrition education program in over 2,000 schools in 10 districts, reaching thousands of adolescents.
• We contributed to the development and distribution of the National Vitamin A Plus Campaign (NVAC) Management Guidelines to government facilities nationwide. Subsequently, an NVAC e-learning platform was launched to build the capacity of key personnel, reducing the need for in-person training and its related costs.
• Nutrition International district coordinators visited 3,153 new mothers in their homes and trained 2,671 field functionaries on data reporting and nutrition counselling to support maternal and newborn health and nutrition programming.

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Ethiopia is grappling with its worst food crisis in decades due to prolonged drought, ongoing conflict and soaring food prices. We are collaborating with the government and other partners to implement impactful nutrition initiatives to improve the nutritional status of adolescent girls, women and newborns, and infants and young children. Some key highlights from this year include:

• We developed capacity-building training materials at the regional, zonal and woreda levels on gender-transformative adolescent nutrition programming. Key themes of the training included, nutrition education, WIFAS, gender equality basics, menstrual health and hygiene, among others.
• 300,000 pregnant women attended at least one antenatal care visit within areas covered by Nutrition International, while 285,000 pregnant women in Nutrition International-supported woredas, received 90 or more iron and folic acid tablets.
• In Nutrition International-supported areas, the Vitamin A Next Schedule Tracking Tool was piloted to improve data quality and allow health extension workers to track and identify children who are due for their next dose or those who missed their age-appropriate dose.

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In India, essential health and nutrition services began to resume as COVID-19 cases declined. We continued to work alongside government ministries and partners to provide key nutrition interventions to address the country’s nutrition challenges and improve the health of the entire population, especially women, girls and children. Some key highlights from this year include:

• Nutrition International signed a memorandum of understanding with the Department of Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs in Telangana for technical assistance to introduce and scale up fortified rice in the state.
• Our delivery support reached an additional 1,400,000 million in-school and out-of-school adolescent girls with the recommended dose of WIFAS.
• We are conducting two implementation research projects in selected districts to improve the awareness, consumption and adherence of iron and folic acid and calcium supplementation during pregnancy and postpartum and to demonstrate a model for improved nutrition services across the first 1,000 days.

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We work closely with the government to ensure that nutrition policies are properly enforced and support nutrition interventions to improve the nutritional status of the population. Some key highlights from this year include:

• Our advocacy efforts alongside technical and financial support led to the Ministry of Health incorporating a national serum retinol assessment into the Indonesia National Health Survey 2023, providing the first data on vitamin A deficiency in preschool-aged children since 1992.
• 189,000,000 additional people had access to adequately fortified wheat flour as a result of Nutrition International’s support.
• In an effort to promote adolescent nutrition, Nutrition International hosted a hybrid event in West Java province that saw over one million school-going adolescent girls simultaneously consume one iron and folic acid tablet.

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Working alongside both national and county governments, we aim to strengthen policies and secure increased resources for nutrition programming with the goal of ensuring equitable access to essential nutrition, particularly for women, girls and children. Some key highlights from this year include:

• Nutrition International hosted the inaugural Cross County Learning Forum on Domestic Resource Mobilization for Nutrition and Health in Kenya, where 12 country governors signed a declaration to reinforce their joint commitment to ending malnutrition.
• 2,050 facility health care workers and 11,800 community health volunteers were sensitized on diarrhoea treatment with zinc and low-osmolarity oral rehydration salts.
• We provided technical expertise and financial support to develop the Adolescent Nutrition Advocacy Strategy for the East Central and Southern Africa Health Community. The strategy aims to reduce anaemia, increase programming and advance advocacy efforts for adolescent nutrition.

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Working in collaboration with our partners, we support the government to deliver quality nutrition programs and ensure they are available for those who need them. Some key highlights from this year include:

• We partnered with the Society for Women Development and Empowerment in Nigeria to conduct a sex- and gender-based analysis to reveal the barriers and enablers of maternal and child health programs in six target states.
• More than 90,000 bottles of multiple micronutrient supplementation (MMS) procured to support distribution to more than 45,000 pregnant women through MMS implementation research in Bauchi State.
• 93,396 caregivers reached with information on prevention and management of childhood diarrhoea at the community level.

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Pakistan faces a severe malnutrition crisis, exacerbated by the 2022 floods that devastated a third of the country. As a key partner to the government and other global partners, we remain committed to improving child, adolescent and maternal malnutrition indicators through our nutrition programs. Some key highlights from this year include:

• Nutrition International conducted multiple micronutrient supplementation (MMS) implementation research in Swabi district, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to inform the scale up of MMS for pregnant women, ultimately enhancing health outcomes for women and their babies.
• 15,800 safe delivery kits and 2,000 hygiene kits donated to the provincial governments to ensure safe deliveries by skilled birth attendants amidst the devastating floods.
• Nutrition International’s technical assistance led to the enactment of mandatory food fortification legislation in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

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We work with governments and partners to improve women’s and children’s nutrition in Senegal and the high-burden countries of the Sahel. Some key highlights from this year include:

• Nutrition International convened a three-day regional technical meeting, attended by more than 100 delegated from 16 countries, that focused on what is needed to achieve high coverage of vitamin A supplementation delivered through routine primary healthcare systems.
• 740,107 adolescents were reached with a behaviour change intervention digital campaign on adolescent nutrition.
• We provided technical and financial assistance to the Ministry of Health for the development, implementation and progress review of 46 micro-plans and a regional salt quality control plan for effective and efficient quality control of iodized salt.

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We supported the government to operationalize the country’s National Multisectoral Nutrition Action Plans to ensure the right nutrition gets to those in need, particularly women, adolescent girls and children. Some key highlights from this year include:

• We conducted an assessment of the health system’s preparedness to integrate vitamin A supplementation into routine primary health care contact points — findings and recommendations have been submitted to the Ministry of Health for endorsement.
• We supported the procurement of five modern iodization machines for local production and donated them to five salt producing councils to improve iodization capacity and boost commitment for iodine fortification.
• Nutrition International provided technical guidance to the Tanzania Food and Nutrition Centre (TFNC) toward finalizing the roadmap for executing the National Accelerated Action and Investment Agenda in Adolescent Health and Well-being and sensitized TFNC officials to understand the importance of prioritizing adolescent nutrition.

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