South Asia landscape analyses

In 2019 and 2020 IGN in partnership with UNICEF, IGN carried out a series of landscape analyses on  national iodine programs in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. The review looked at the program evolution and current iodine status and salt iodization efforts. The main program domains of policy, legislation and enforcement, salt supply chain, awareness raising, monitoring, and coordination and management were examined to determine the main bottlenecks which hamper salt iodization scale and adequate population iodine status.  Suggested solutions were included, and all of this information was then shared in country workshops, which were mainly virtual at the time of COVID pandemic, which formed the basis for national action agendas that are currently being pursued to create more equitable and sustainable iodine nutrition programs.

Afghanistan

Bangladesh

Bhutan

India

Maldives

Nepal

Pakistan

Sri Lanka

Regional Report