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Entreprise sociale Madagascar
© Cyril le Tourneur d'Ison / AFD
Despite advances towards food security in Africa over the past decade, ensuring a sufficient supply of healthy food for all remains a major challenge. Armed conflict has strangled supply lines, particularly in parts of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Local companies however, can sometimes pick up the slack and produce nutritious foods, particularly when they're helped to scale up their work.

In an effort to overcome the barriers to food security, from the lack of quality foods to high-priced produce, increasingly robust public-private alliances are supporting local companies specialized in the production and distribution of fortified foods.

Targeted food fortification: a winning strategy

Ad hoc food aid strategies all too often fail to deliver on their targets and have no long-term effect on improving people’s diets. A growing number of development actors however, including AFD, are now focusing on a more pragmatic and sustainable approach, providing direct financial and technical support to local companies market fortified foods. “Targeted food fortification” as it’s known, provides support for the marketing of foods rich in essential vitamins and minerals, particularly those designed for pregnant/lactating women and children aged between six months and two years.

Local economies can play a vital role in preventing malnutrition during babies’ “first 1,000 days”, starting just before conception, through pregnancy and up to the age of two years old. It’s a key period for a child’s development, and the foundations for the adult they will become. 

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But “the local capacity to produce and distribute these foods [essential for development] remains limited,” Nicolas Le Guen, AFD’s Head of Partnerships with CSOs told the Nutrition for Growth conference (link in French) held in Paris last month. “Most private initiatives fail because there is no real economic model, which is why it’s vital to develop a sustainable economic model that takes the realities of the private sector into account.”

A model that ensures the financial and operational sustainability of such initiatives. “For this strategy to work,” says Le Guen, “the quality of products, their production, distribution, and regulatory compliance require special attention. At the same time, it’s crucial to invest in research and development to continue to improve products and processes, so that we can better meet people’s nutritional needs over the long term.”   

Comprehensive technical assistance

This is precisely what French international NGO GRET is working on. In partnership with French public research institution IRD, it has been promoting public-private partnerships for years, in an effort to develop affordable local foods that meet nutritional needs.

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GRET offers comprehensive technical assistance to companies seeking to market fortified foods. It covers product development, management, the transport of production, quality control, governance, and marketing. 

Its “Health: Nutrition and Social Protection” program, which works with governments and local institutions on the implementation of social communication campaigns seeks to raise awareness of nutritional issues and promote companies that produce fortified foods.

Nutri’zaza, a successful example of the mobilization of the local private sector

Having operated in Madagascar for more than 30 years, GRET founded in 2013, the social enterprise Nutri’zaza for awareness raising of this kind, with financial support from AFD and scientific support from IRD. To address the malnutrition crisis affecting almost half of children in Madagascar, the enterprise is entirely dedicated to the production and distribution of fortified foods, including the flagship product Koba Aina, an infant flour produced locally by a company called TAF. 

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“We use three types of distribution,” says Mandresy Randriamiharisoa, Managing Director of Nutri’zaza. “The first is a conventional distribution network which serves grocery stores, wholesalers, supermarkets, and hypermarkets.” The second distribution network serves NGOs and institutions in Madagascar, and the third distribution system focuses on local communities. “It’s made up of facilities located in vulnerable neighborhoods, which we call ‘baby restaurants’. Along with this, we also have an extensive network of people who distribute the products door-to-door.”