Small-Scale Fortification: Innovative Technology for the Developing World
Approximately two billion people are micronutrient deficient because of lack of access to centrally processed foods. Project Healthy Children hopes to develop low-cost technology to fortify foods for these vulnerable populations that has broad compatibility with different mill models allowing the devise to be manufactured and distributed locally and globally.
About You
Section 1: About You
First Name
david
Last Name
dodson
Country
United States, XX
Section 2: About Your Organization
Is your initiative connected to an established organization?
Yes
Organization Name
Project Healthy Children (PHC)
Organization Website
Organization Phone
617-244-1663
Organization Address
130 Rumford Ave Suite #116 Newton, MA
Organization Country
United States, XX
Is your organization a
Non‐profit/NGO/citizen sector organization
How long has this organization been operating?
More than 5 years
Your idea
Name Your Project
Small-Scale Fortification: Innovative Technology for the Developing World
Describe your Social Enterprise
Approximately two billion people are micronutrient deficient because of lack of access to centrally processed foods. Project Healthy Children hopes to develop low-cost technology to fortify foods for these vulnerable populations that has broad compatibility with different mill models allowing the devise to be manufactured and distributed locally and globally.
Country your work focuses on
Nepal, XX
Innovation
What makes your innovation unique?
Historically, small-scale fortification efforts have been limited by expense and imprecision, preventing the most vulnerable populations from accessing the benefits of additional vitamins and minerals added to staple food products. For example, a micronutrient fortification device currently being piloted in Nepal costs over $900USD and requires daily, manual monitoring. The innovation: a simple device for small-scale electric millers to weigh and proportionately dispense nutrients into grain that is affordable, effective and accurate. Based on existing work with Stanford University, PHC believes a device can be developed for as little as $100USD that uses a unique design sensitive to the millers’ established daily routine and is conveniently added to the milling process.
Do you have a patent for this idea?
No
Impact
This Entry is about (Issues)
Tell us about the social impact of your innovation. Please include both numbers and stories as evidence of this impact
Impact of the devise: The device has proven successful in proportionally dispensing micronutrients into a cereal and legume mixture by weighing the amount of cereal/legumes before it is released into the mill and releasing a specified amount of premix into the mixture in weight-driven intervals. This device also includes a low-cost microprocessor that collects weight and dose release timing data so that the accuracy of doses can be monitored and includes simple elements designed for ease of manufacture and repair.
Impact of small-scale fortification: Through a partnership with PHC, the Micronutrient Initiative, and a local NGO in Nepal, small-scale fortification technology in flour mills has proven effective in reaching vulnerable populations. Aiming to reach a total of 22,000 people in 4,000 rural households, this project will work to reduce iron deficiency anemia, reported to be one of the most serious public health problems in Nepal: 67% in women and 78% in children under five in rural areas. Technical viability of the project has demonstrated wide acceptance by the community with consist use by millers allowing locally grown and fortified products to become a delivery vehicle for essential vitamins and minerals for hard-to-reach and most at risk populations previously excluded from large-scale mill production.
Problem: Describe the primary problem(s) that your innovation is addressing
Micronutrient malnutrition is one of the most debilitating issues facing the developing world and a serious issue in Nepal: only 63% of Nepalese households consume adequately iodized salt leaving 274,000 newborns unprotected against iodine deficiency and 48% of pre-school age children are anemic.
Food fortification has been endorsed by the 2008 Copenhagen Consensus as one of the most cost-effective approaches to addressing micronutrient malnutrition. Effective mass fortification strategies, however, miss those with limited access to centrally processed foods; population groups who are usually most at risk for such deficiencies. Limitations preventing small-scale fortification efforts from being widely implemented include equipment costs, premix availability, local buy-in, and product monitoring.
Through the design of an innovative device, limitations are addressed while reaching vulnerable populations most at risk.
Actions: Describe the steps that you are taking to make your innovation a success. Include a description of the business model. What might prevent that success?
1. PHC is working with Stanford University to design and implement affordable and convenient new technology for use in small-scale, rural mills serving populations without access to centrally processed foods.
2. PHC and Stanford University have designed of a comprehensive business model to ensure efficient project implementation and the feasibility of global scale-up.
3. Collaboration by PHC and Stanford University with an in-country implementing partner has been established in order to gain a comprehensive understanding of the context in which the device will be used and the population it will serve. Insight provided by the in-country partner will ensure the project is designed to address local needs and limitations, and will play a key role in community engagement and long-term project sustainability.
4. The design team will have a field-ready device ready in September 2010.
Results: Describe the expected results of these actions over the next three years. Please address each year separately, if possible
The long-term results of these actions are expected to:
1. Produce a device that allows for effective, affordable, and sustainable production of a fortified product at small, local mills that is nutritionally adequate for the target population.
2. Produce a device that has a simple design, low cost, and broad compatibility with different mill models allowing the devise to be manufactured and distributed globally with the potential of reaching a market size of over one billion at risk individuals.
3. Reduce the prevalence of micronutrient deficiencies in the target population resulting in decreased rates of maternal and infant mortality, childhood blindness, infection, diarrhea, mental retardation, and lead to increased energy, school attendance, worker productivity and economic development.
Small-scale fortification promises to be one of the most significant break-through technologies in reaching rural and most at-risk populations.
How many people will your project serve annually?
1001‐10,000
What is the average monthly household income in your target community, in US Dollars?
Less than $50
Does your innovation seek to have an impact on public policy?
Yes
If your innovation seeks to impact public policy, how?
Although this project does not seek to have immediate impact on public policy, if the devise is successful and there is a positive impact on the reduction on micronutrient deficiencies, then there could be increased awareness at the policy level regarding the need for a more comprehensive strategy to address micronutrient deficiencies. As a result, the project could lead to the creation of public policy around the need for fortification at the national level.
Sustainability
What stage is your Social Enterprise in?
Operating for less than a year
Does your organization have a board of directors or an advisory board?
Yes
Does your organization have a non monetary partnerships with NGOs?
Yes
Does your organization have a non monetary partnerships with businesses?
No
Does your organization have a non monetary partnerships with government?
Yes
Please tell us more about how partnerships could be critical to the success of your Social Enterprise
Partnering with an NGO working in the community where the device will be used and among the population it will serve will be critical for appropriate tailoring of the innovation and acceptance of the fortified product. Such an operational collaboration will allow for the sharing of information regarding markets and bottom line incentives relevant for other local millers who may wish to adopt the technology and can enable the innovation to be part of a greater national effort to track and improve the target population’s nutritional status.
We would like to learn more about how your initiative is financially supported. Please explain your business plan/revenue model
An initial pilot project in Nepal demonstrated technical viability, wide acceptance by the community, and consist use of the device by millers allowing locally grown and fortified products to become a delivery vehicle for vitamins and minerals for hard-to-reach and most at risk populations previously excluded from large-scale mill production. These hard-to-reach consumers in Nepal have already shown willingness to pay a small percentage more for fortified foods. This minimally additional payment works to cover production costs making way for the project’s sustainable revenue component.
The Story
What was the defining moment that led you to this innovation?
PHC began in 2000 in response to the enormous gap between the health care systems in the United States and elsewhere. Interested in looking at sustainable preventative health care strategies, PHC’s founders learned that micronutrient health was the basic building block on which rests everything from a child’s ability to resist HIV to a country’s ability to migrate from economic dependency to independence. Yet the most vulnerable people would never see vitamins and minerals in their lifetime, no matter what happened. Few health initiatives, such supplementation and nutrition programming would be able to reach them. The solution became clear: a strategy that would reach these most at-risk populations and provide them with the benefits of critically missing vitamins and minerals that other populations had access to. Making this solution a reality would have an enormous impact.
Food fortification, which exists in the United States through the cereal we eat and the salt we season our food with, is the least expensive most reliable method for improving micronutrient health. For the cost of between $0.02-0.80 per person per year, funded not by charity but with the day-to-day purchasing of basic commodities, it is within a country’s power to prevent a child from becoming blind, a mother from hemorrhaging to death during childbirth, or a baby being born with a debilitating birth defect.
Six years later, building on successful work in Central America, PHC’s mission became designing and implementing comprehensive micronutrient strategies in seven developing countries covering a total population of seventy million people over a seven-year period. Upon completion, PHC’s work will lead to a profound impact in areas such as: HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, diarrhea, measles, blindness, birth defects, death during childbirth, and mental retardation.
Tell us about the person—the social innovator—behind this idea.
David Dodson founded PHC with his wife in 2000 while he was pursuing his career as an entrepreneur. As an entrepreneur he held the positions of CEO or Chairman of five companies and has served on the board of directors of thirteen businesses. In 2007 Mr. Dodson made the decision to devote his full time efforts to managing PHC. He holds a BA in economics from Stanford University and an MBA from Stanford University and formally worked with McKinsey & Company.
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Email from Changemakers
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Comments
Hi David,
Your innovation is a great product for developing countries. Are there any plans in the future to reach out to the population who can't even afford the non-fortified items?
Apart from Nepal, are you planning to use this method elsewhere?
Thanks!
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