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FORTIFY HEALTH

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STARTED: Started by CE in 2017

SEED GRANT: $30,000

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Nikita Patel
Co-founder & CEO

MONEY FUNDRAISED TO DATE (Aug 2023): ~$10 million

TEAM SIZE (Aug 2023): 56

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Brendan Eappen

Co-founder & Advisor

WEBSITE: https://www.fortifyhealth.global/

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Fortify Health’s vision is a healthier world where everyone has the micronutrients they need to survive and thrive. Fortify Health prevents and reduces anemia at scale in India by fortifying wheat flour with iron, folic acid, and vitamin B12. Fortify Health collaborates with state governments and the private sector industry to ensure their programs reach diverse populations in their focus states: Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Telangana and West Bengal.

CURRENT OR PREDICTED IMPACT:

  • Open market program: Fortify Health works with millers who sell wheat flour into the open market. This support consists of technical support, financial support in the form of premix, equipment and marketing funds, and also monitoring support to ensure the quality of the final product. In June 2023, Fortify Health facilitated the fortification of over 10,000 metric tonnes of wheat flour that was sold into the open market, which we estimate led to ~1.3 million beneficiaries consuming fortified wheat flour who otherwise would not have. To date, Fortify Health has launched partnerships with 49 mills across four states in India.

  • Government and NGO partnerships: Fortify Health is also working to support fortification uptake in government safety net programs and distribution programs led by other NGOs. in conversation with Maharashtra’s state governments to support the rollout of fortified wheat flour as part of existing social safety-net programs. 

    • Maharashtra: Fortify Health is in discussions around a pilot program in government-run ashram schools in Maharashtra; this program would work to distribute fortified atta to these schools, which cater for children from marginalized communities. They expect the program will be rolled out across all four divisions under the Tribal Development Department in Maharashtra, reaching 192,000 children per day with fortified wheat flour in their school meals.

    • Feeding India Partnership: Feeding India is a non-for-profit organisation based in India that aims to eliminate hunger and improve malnutrition outcomes in India. Currently, Feeding India provides ~100,000 meals to school children across India each day. Fortify Health has recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Feeding India to work on consumer awareness of fortification, and increase the reach of fortified wheat flour to vulnerable populations.

    • Approaching new state governments: Fortify Health’s Partnerships team recently developed a new State Selection Matrix, and have shortlisted several potential promising states for outreach over the next year, with the aim of supporting fortification in a state’s safety net program. Depending on the specific state and safety net program, these opportunities could reach tens of millions of beneficiaries

COST-EFFECTIVENESS:

  • GiveWell’s most recent published evaluation of Fortify Health. More broadly, food fortification is widely-recognised as a cost-effective, safe and sustainable way to address hidden hunger without requiring changes in consumer behaviour (see Hurrell 2010, Gera 2012, Fields et al 2021, World Health Authority 2023).

SIGNIFICANT UPDATES: 

  • The team grew from 27 team members in June 2022 to 56 team members in August 2023. 

  • Between July 2022 and June 2023, 26 new mills signed a partnership with Fortify Health. As of August 2023 Fortify Health has 49 mill partners.

  • The team grew from 15 to 40 team members in 2022. 

  • In September 2022, Tony Senanayake joined Fortify Health as Chief Strategy Officer. Tony came from IDinsight and brings a background in finance, strategy, and monitoring and evaluation. They were also joined by four new directors in 2022.

  • In 2022, Fortify Health signed 13 new mill partnerships. As of January 2023 they have 32 mill partners, and 18 of those mills have launched fortification. They are working with the remaining mills towards launch, and continuously reaching out to new mills.

ACHIEVEMENTS: 

  • Fortify Health has received three GiveWell Incubation Grants, with the latest grant offering the opportunity to rapidly scale their programs: 

  • In October 2022, Fortify Health was accepted on to the The/Nudge CSI Nonprofit Incubator Program, a prestigious program for early-stage NGOs tackling key social issues in India.

  • Fortify Health has seen significant growth since receiving its most recent grant from GiveWell, in terms of internal team size and in its level of impact. We estimate that we reached approximately 1.3 million beneficiaries in the month of June 2023.

  • Winner of India Leader for Social Sector’s 2023 Pitchfest Competition in July 2023

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