In support of the updated Every Woman Every Child Global Strategy for Women's, Children's and Adolescents' Health (2016-2030). BASF will undertake the following:
Continuous support in Sub-Sahara Africa region
In March 2019, BASF co-hosted a Food Fortification Workshop in Madagascar with World Food Program. The multi stakeholder workshop hosted more than 20 participants from both the public and private sectors of the health and nutrition industry, international aid organizations and research institutions; and facilitated meaningful dialogue on the nutrition security, the challenges and opportunities of staple food fortification. The workshop has shared food fortification best practices, international experience and governance, identified possible multi-sector collaboration and partnerships and jointly developed a road map for food industries in Madagascar to participate in food fortification programs.
Workforce Nutrition Initiative
In 2018, BASF conducted a Vitamin D study among internal teams and the results show that 60%-70% of employees have a Vitamin D deficiency. Following the study, BASF partnered with Captagel, supplement manufacturer driven by innovation, to design a supplement formulation containing vitamin D, C and B12 for specifically employees. The workforce nutrition initiative aims to improve employees’ Vitamin D deficiency level and build stronger immune systems in the winter period due to limited sunlight. BASF also plays an active role in seeking for partners from private sector to join the initiative and improve workforce nutrition on a greater scale globally.
Food Innovation Cluster
The Food Innovation Cluster (FIC), a BASF Starting Venture’s project launched in 2018, addresses challenges from field to fork such as crop protection, human nutrition, animal nutrition and public health. It has taken off successfully with workshop activities in Nigeria, Kenya and Ethiopia.
The success of this project has led to strategy 2.0 of the venture where it takes on a new name, the ‘Food Innovation Systems Accelerator (FISA)’ with a renewed focus on countries and challenges that call for our unqualified attention.
Taking a multi-stakeholder approach as well, FISA aims to enhance global welfare and sustainable development through on partnerships and engagements. The solutions offered through FISA include crop protection products, public health solutions, animal nutrition premixes, aflatoxin mitigation, food fortification, sustainable packaging etc. Additionally, some of the key in-kind contributions of BASF include Test Kits for semiquantitative analysis of Vitamin A, the micronutrient lab in Lagos, Nigeria and Professional Farmer Kits.
