Q&A: The need for a village and a vision to tackle micronutrient deficiencies

When it comes to tackling maternal micronutrient deficiencies, “it's going to take a vision and a village,” said Daniella Foster, global vice president and head of public affairs, science, and sustainability at Bayer.

According to research, over half of young women and adolescent girls in low- and middle-income countries have inadequate vitamin and mineral intake, as do at least half of children under the age of 5. Deficiencies in vitamin A, iron, iodine, and folate are also particularly common during pregnancy.

The consequences of this worsen over time, Foster explained. “It results in significant health consequences across the lifespan and ultimately exacerbates the cycle of poverty,” she said.

COVID-19 has only worsened the situation as poverty rates have increased worldwide. “The lack of jobs leads to even more people who are malnourished and who also don't have access to health services,” Foster said.

“[Against] this backdrop, the risk of maternal and child mortality is sharply increasing and we see that due to conditions such as maternal micronutrient deficiencies. That's also why ensuring appropriate nutrition and micronutrient intake is critical,” she added.

But this can only be done through partnerships and collective action, Foster said.

Speaking to Devex, Foster explained what collective action looks like for Bayer and shares an update on an initiative looking to close the micronutrient gap.

This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

How is Bayer working to increase access to multiple micronutrient supplementation, or MMS?

As part of our 100 million challenge — we’re expanding access to everyday health for 100 million people in underserved communities — earlier this year, we launched the Nutrient Gap Initiative with a specific focus on expanding access to vitamins and minerals for 50 million people in underserved communities.

There are a couple of ways that we're expanding access to micronutrients. One of the things we're doing is reaching up to 4 million underserved pregnant women and their babies every year with a 180-day micronutrient intervention in partnership with local NGOs as well as with Vitamin Angels. The programs are being implemented with local partners to ensure high adherence and acceptance by the population, and also to encourage the inclusion of prenatal interventions into regular, local antenatal care, and health services.

Developing these nutrition education platforms — whether it's with Vitamin Angels or other partners — to empower government health care professionals and pregnant women in underserved communities is a core part of what the Nutrient Gap is about. The idea is to be able to work with local social impact partners. We also work with social enterprises like reach52 in Kenya and the NGO Mercy Corps in Indonesia to focus on health, education, and proper nutrition during those first days of life.

Globally, Bayer has supply-chain operations in many underserved communities. How does Bayer work within those communities to bring their sustainability commitment and commercial interests together?

While we're working to achieve health for all, hunger for none — which is our bigger global ambition — it's also important for us to make an impact in the communities where our employees live and work. We're really thinking end-to-end about how we design with the underserved in mind. We're evolving not just how and where we go to market with our products — which is key to better reaching underserved consumers — but expanding the availability of our product and making it easier for people to access it. It's also about thinking about how we make it more affordable so that it's within the daily budget someone might have.

We're also creating programs that help expand access to health care for communities and help them thrive. For example, in Guatemala, as they are around the world, midwives are a trusted resource. We have a program called Mujeres 360, where we work with midwives to expand the community's understanding of women's intimate health. As part of this program, we also work with a group of women who have their own social enterprises and sell their own products to personally earn money. That's another way to make it sustainable but also to meet people where they are with the trusted, local health care communities that they work with.

Watch Vitamin Angels' impact in Guatemala: Olga's story. Via Vimeo.

How does Bayer leverage its networks worldwide to educate women on the importance of taking MMS?

We're a global leader in prenatal supplements and it's our mission to give every baby the best start in life, period full stop. We use our scale to help educate women about micronutrients in a number of ways.

The first is through partnerships. We’re working with partners to develop a nutrition literacy program geared toward health care professionals, community leaders, pregnant women, and their families. The literacy will focus on maternal nutrition, including aspects of appropriate diet, weight gain, and then how micronutrients play a critical role in ensuring optimal pregnancy outcomes.

One of the other areas that we work on is through our brand, Elevit. It has a program called Every Beginning that aims to build awareness for the importance of the role that nutrition has during the first 1,000 days of life. This is being rolled out all over the world and is geared toward education for both developing and developed countries.

The third area is relationships with health care providers. We know that HCPs have a big influence on pregnant women so we're helping to make sure they have the most current research on the topic and that they're armed with the tools and resources to educate.

Since its launch in February, what progress has the Nutrient Gap Initiative made and how can this be accelerated?

In less than a year, we've already started interventions in more than 35 countries, and we're on track to reach our goal of expanding access to MMS for up to 4 million pregnant women and children.

When I think about micronutrient deficiencies and the fact that they affect 1 in 3 people worldwide and half of all women and girls in LMICs, this really calls for collective action across sectors, including the government, NGOs, the private sector, individual companies. Organizations and governments can't take on this systemic change alone, we all need to work together. I'm a big fan of that.