Becky L. Tsang, Shilpa Deshpande, Mini Varghese, Sakshi Jain, Daniel Lopez de Romaña, PhD, and Manpreet Chadha.
Maternal & Child Nutrition , e13646.

Published: June 5, 2024

Overview

Double fortified salt (DFS), fortified with iron and iodine, was introduced into social safety net programs (SSNPs) in the states of Madhya Pradesh (MP) and Gujarat, India in 2018. Following an impact evaluation in MP that showed DFS uptake exceeded 90%, a process evaluation was conducted to identify success factors, challenges and scale‐up considerations. Qualitative interviews with key stakeholders revealed that strong government support and technical assistance along the supply chain, which addressed quality issues and beneficiary acceptance, were critical to the program’s success. However, sustainability remains uncertain due to the higher cost of DFS, its limited market and the necessity for long-term, high-quality behaviour change communication campaigns.