Don’t forget the (iodized) salt

It may be small, but right at the center of the flyer for the launch of the Gates Foundation’s Goalkeepers report, you will see a saltshaker.  It forms the “I” in the word recipe.  And that’s not a coincidence, because the “I” stands for iodine, and fortifying salt with iodine and potentially other micronutrients is one of the interventions that the foundation believes is crucial to improving children’s health and development.

In the report, which tracks progress on the Sustainable Development Goals, Bill Gates reiterates the statement that if he had a magic wand, he would solve the problem of malnutrition.  That’s because some 400 million children are not getting enough nutrients to help them grow and achieve their full potential as human beings.  It’s the worst health crisis the world’s children face, and it’s being exacerbated by climate change.  No country is immune, however rich.  And the cost of not doing enough to solve the problem is $3 trillion a year in productivity lost to stunted physical and cognitive abilities.

The report sets out four main areas of action.  One of those is food fortification, including salt iodization, a public health initiative which has protected the developing brains of the world’s children through the simple, cost-effective process of iodizing household salt. The report highlights a pioneering approach in Ethiopia – adding another critical nutrient, folic acid, to iodized salt, with the potential to eliminate half of all deaths and stillbirths due to neural tube defects, up to 5,000 per year in Ethiopia.

We at IGN are very supportive of such initiatives and are working with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to further explore the potential to fortify salt with other nutrients besides iodine.  At the same time, though, we are seeking to address a worrying global trend – a recent report on iodine deficiency in Europe by IGN and WHO showed that iodine intake through salt iodization is affected by dietary and lifestyle changes. We fear that trend is also being reflected in the rest of the world. So with UNICEF as well as the Gates Foundation, we support countries, including through the development of tools that these countries can use to assess the problem of iodine deficiency and take action to make sure that it does not re-emerge, including the use of iodized salt in certain processed food staples such as bread.

It takes some 20 years to reap the rewards of investing in children’s nutrition – the time it takes them to grow to adulthood.  Every year we don’t make that investment condemns more children to a life of less potential and their countries to greater economic loss. This report clearly lays out the cost of inaction, but also sets a course for the future, through the newly established Child Nutrition Fund, which will help establish a new financing mechanism designed to bring these innovative solutions to life, coordinating efforts to address child malnutrition, encouraging domestic funding, or supporting local production of the nutrient-rich foods and food supplements children need most.

We at IGN look forward to contributing.