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GiveWell recommends grant to Nutrition International to support vitamin A supplementation
This grant recommendation highlights Nutrition International’s approach to scale up low-cost, high-impact actions that do the greatest good.
Posted on June 22, 2022
Ottawa, CANADA – GiveWell has recommended a grant to expand Nutrition International’s vitamin A supplementation (VAS) program. GiveWell is a non-profit organization that, since 2007, has been dedicated to finding outstanding giving opportunities and recommending programs and organizations that can deliver the highest impact.
GiveWell’s grant recommendation comes after the completion of its rigorous evaluation of Nutrition International’s VAS program, which involved extensive research through independent evaluations, budget reviews, and cost-effectiveness modelling. GiveWell is focused on funding the best opportunities they’re able to find to save or improve lives the most per dollar and has only granted to a relatively small number of organizations.
Nutrition International has been a global leader in vitamin A for 30 years, supporting governments to integrate VAS into existing health platforms, setting the manufacturing standards for vitamin A capsules, and securing 80% of the world’s needed vitamin A supply – more than 10 billion capsules since 1997. As the current host and chair of the Global Alliance for Vitamin A, Nutrition International is also spearheading the promotion of vitamin A research and thought leadership to accelerate progress on child survival and reduce the consequences of vitamin A deficiency worldwide.
VAS is cost-effective when delivered with high quality and in areas with high child mortality rates. VAS reduces the risk of preventable child deaths by strengthening the immune systems of children under five suffering from vitamin A deficiency – a serious public health issue in more than 60 countries around the world. In addition to increasing children’s capacity to fight diseases like measles and diarrhoea, vitamin A also works to prevent blindness and hearing loss. At least 12% of child deaths can be prevented when vitamin A supplements are provided every four to six months to children 6-59 months of age.
This grant will allow Nutrition International to expand its vitamin A programming to more high-burden, high-need countries. The first grant GiveWell has recommended for Nutrition International is US$8.95 million from Open Philanthropy to support biannual VAS campaigns in Chad for three years, ensuring that as many as 2.5 million children between six months and five years of age remain fully protected.
The grant was previously announced by GiveWell in May.
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