Egypt Steps up Efforts to Reduce Anemia, Birth Defects

Efforts are being taken in the North African nation of Egypt to reduce birth defects and anemia being caused by deficiencies of iron and folic acid. The World Food Program (WFP), Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN), and the Egyptian government are cooperating toward this goal.

According to a press release issued by the WFP on Tuesday, GAIN intends to donate $3,000,000 to the World Food Program so that it can assist the Egyptian government in efforts to reduce such deficiencies. This will be accomplished by fortifying wheat flour, which is used to make Egypt's popular baladi bread, with iron and folic acid.

WFP and GAIN have signed a cooperation agreement with Egypt's Ministry of Social Solidarity. The Egyptian Minister of Social Solidarity was quoted as saying that the Ministry is always looking for methods which will improve Egyptians' diets and enable them to live healthy lives. The Executive Director of GAIN was quoted as thanking the Egyptian government for its involvement in the project and referring to cooperative efforts with the World Food Program as a "key to success."

The WFP will create scientific laboratories which analyze the flour to verify its quality, with assistance from government ministries, the Holding Company for Food Industries, and the National Nutrition Institute. Anemia affects a significant number of people in the most impoverished areas of Egypt, and can cause birth defects, among other harmful health effects.

The press release indicates that Egypt's government has designated $20,000,000 to the wheat flour fortification project, which is intended to last five years. The project received approval and discussion from the government's Cabinet of Ministers, executive and legislative branches, and the People's Assembly, which discussed it at length and advocated a "swift implementation" of the project.

According to the GAIN web site, the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition's mission is to use food fortification and other techniques to reduce malnutrition. It has set a target of reaching one billion people by the year 2008. It works to build alliances involving both public and private sector partners as part of its efforts.

Egypt has a relatively prosperous economy, but some poverty exists. The CIA World Factbook page on Egypt indicates that twenty percent of the population is considered below the "poverty line", and approximately ten percent is unemployed. The average life expectancy is about 71.5 years, much higher than neighboring Sudan and most other African countries, but lower than that of Libya or Saudi Arabia.

Sources:

1. World Food Program, http://www.wfp.org/english/?ModuleID=137&Key=2651
2. Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition, http://www.gainhealth.org/gain/ch/en-en/index.cfm?page=/gain/home/about_gain
3. CIA World Factbook, https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/eg.html, https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/fields/2102.html