Every day in the outskirts of Nairobi, a queue of people forms, all holding containers of different sizes. One by one, they feed coins into a milk dispensing operation, buying only as much as they need, and can afford.
For some, it’s just a cup’s worth, to make porridge for their child. The business – Maziwa King – enables people without fridges, or enough money for a litre of milk, to buy just enough for that day.
Most of the world’s poorest people rely on markets for their food. The International Finance Corporation estimates that the 4.5 billion people at the base of the economic pyramid spend $2.3tn a year on food and beverages. The problem is that most of them don’t have access to nutritious, affordable foods.
The result is that 65 million children under five years of age are stunted, 52 million are wasted, and 2 billion people are deficient in key vitamins and minerals.
The Sun Business Network, convened by the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) and the World Food Programme (WFP), aims to change that. Its member companies are trying to mobilise enterprise-based nutrition interventions around the world, and last week, ahead of the ICN2 conference in Rome, the 52 companies who have already made commitments came together to discuss progress and challenges.
ICN2 is the first major nutrition conference for 22 years, and it comes ahead of the launch of the post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals with their proposed aim to “by 2030 end all forms of malnutrition”.
This is a big task. How will it be done? One of the big challenges at the moment, according to Marc Van Ameringen, executive director of GAIN, is that not everyone is yet convinced that the private sector has a valid role to play in eradicating malnutrition.
“The private sector is a key player. Nutrition is driven by markets, and overseas development assistance, even if it increases by five times, isn’t going to be enough, so we need to look at how to engage the private sector in a much better way.”
GAIN’s work over the past 12 years on large-scale food fortification has reached almost 900m people. Maize, flour and cooking oil fortification has reduced vitamin A, iron and folic acid deficiencies, and working with private sector producers has been an important part of making that happen.
Even so, resistance to private sector interventions persists, and is often rooted in concerns around the marketing of breastmilk substitutes or unhealthy foods. Those issues are certainly valid, but according to Van Ameringen, they mustn’t stand in the way of building healthy partnerships.
“Trust is a big issue, so we need to focus on partnerships that add value and do no harm. We have to identify the sweet spots where there’s a real opportunity to engage.”
Some major food companies are taking the initiative themselves. Ajinomoto, a Japanese food corporation, has been running a pilot in Ghana developing Koko Plus, a sachet of amino acids to be added to koko, the traditional porridge used as a weaning food.
“The porridge on its own isn’t nutritionally sufficient,” explains Yasuhiko Toride, director of nutrition improvement projects. “This sachet costs about $0.10, and mothers can add it to the porridge at home to improve the nutrients.”
Ajinomoto plans to scale up the project in 2015. Meanwhile, in Indonesia, the major food company Indofood (whose director, Axton Salim, joined the Sun Business Network Advisory Group as co-chair earlier this year) has also committed to reducing stunting and micronutrient deficiencies by 5% among mothers and children aged 6-24 months by 2015, by providing more high-quality fortified products.
But what about all the smaller, local enterprises in developing countries? These form the backbone of the food economy, particularly in Africa. For every Maziwa King, there are thousands of other enterprises that could play a part too.
In Cote d’Ivoire, for example, GAIN has supported PKL, a local producer of high-quality, fortififed supplementary cereals. Cheaper than global brands, the cereals have made nutritious food accessible to poorer consumers.
According to its chief executive, Marie Konaté, companies like hers need more support.
“PKL is the first Ivorian company to successfully introduce these cereals to the local market. But how can I convince other companies to be members of the Sun Business Network? We need donors to identify and communicate sources of financing and co-investment for small and medium enterprises.”
Some of the more established local enterprises – like PKL – might play a convening role. Meanwhile, the Sun Business Network also recognises that fostering nutrition-sensitive business initiatives depends on many stakeholders.
“Ending all forms of malnutrition by 2030 will require more support for multisector partnerships and coordination between countries, the private sector, civil society and donors to scale up these efforts,” says Feike Sijbesma, chief executive of Royal DSM and co-chair of the Sun Business Network’s advisory group.
“Our ambition for 2015 is to reach 99 partner companies to support the Sun movement towards the goal of achieving zero hunger.”
One way of doing that will be to highlight different entry points for the private sector. Adolescent girls, for example, are an important target because early marriage and motherhood is a factor in perpetuating stunting, when young mothers are themselves malnourished.
“There are so many entry points,” says Van Ameringen. “And if we are to get this movement to scale, we need to start talking about a new paradigm that includes business as a key partner.”
ICN2 and the SDGs will hopefully add momentum to the process. Ertharin Cousin, executive director of the WFP, is positive about achieving zero malnutrition.
“It’s time to stop the discussion of why, and move on to how,” she says.
“We’ve never had as much support as we have today for ending stunting in our lifetime. We can’t turn back now.”
Content on this page is paid for and provided by GAIN sponsor of the Guardian Global Development Professional Network.
