Excellencies, Minister Longde Wang, members of the scientific community, representatives of Danone, members of the international community, Ladies and Gentleman. As a South African, it is a great pleasure for me to welcome you all to my country. As the Chairman of the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition, GAIN, it is an honour to be given the opportunity to address such a prestigious audience of nutritionists, food experts, business and consumer leaders.

When I was approached at the World Summit for Sustainable Development in Johannesburg in 2002 and asked about chairing the new international Board of Directors for GAIN, I knew very little about micronutrient deficiency. Frankly, with so many needs facing South Africa in its reconstruction programme, the last thing I wanted was to sit on another committee. However, two years on, I now find myself at the forefront of a compelling campaign against deficiencies of vitamins and minerals like iron, folic acid, vitamin A, iodine and zinc.

THE CHALLENGE

I am sure you are all well aware of the terrible impact that vitamin and mineral deficiencies have on so many lives round the world. In Africa: 350 million women and children suffer from deficiencies in iron, vitamin A and folic acid; iodine deficiency lowers average intellectual capacity by 10-15 %; every year 600,000 children under 5 suffer preventable death due to vitamin A deficiency; every year 16,000 women die of anemia. Two million African newborns are at high risk of death as a consequence of maternal anemia. Loss of productivity due to iron deficiency anemia alone is $1.5 billion annually here in Africa.

THE TECHNICAL SOLUTIONS

The good news is, as many of you know, that there are already simple cost-effective strategies that can efficiently eliminate this terrible scourge  of vitamin and mineral deficiency. The eminent scientist, Professor  David Barker, being honoured here tonight has made an outstanding contribution to our understanding of foetal under-nutrition as the origin of many chronic diseases in adults, and more of the latest research on all aspects of nutrition will be presented at the IUNS this week.
 
GAIN’S GOAL

Gains goal: reaching 700 million people, through a ‘new way’ of doing development
You may have seen on GAIN’s recent literature the phrase ‘a new way of doing development’. That’s what we and others in the GAIN Alliance are seeking, a new means of achieving results, by 2007 – five years on from when we started in 2002. Our target is to reach 700 million people who are currently ‘at-risk’ of vitamin and mineral deficiency, with some form of adequately fortified food at prices they can afford, and for that fortified food to make a significant improvement in their nutritional status. And it must be sustainable.

GAIN’S WAY: THREE-WAY PARTNERSHIP
The way the GAIN alliance has chosen to do this is through partnership between different types of stakeholders – a three-way partnership of public-sector organisations, together with private sector groups and businesses, and civil society organizations, like consumer associations. Some may consider partnership to be an already overused concept, but we in the GAIN Alliance believe it is the only possible framework to make properly fortified food affordable and accessible to the poor. Because for food fortification the three different types of stakeholders each have their own critical, and unique role to play:

• the public sector (government) is needed for standard setting and quality control, to monitor what is happening, and measure the results of the process to ensure that the impact of fortification is adequate and the necessary nutritional improvements are being achieved
• the private sector (business) is needed to undertake the fortification process, get the fortified product out to the consumers at affordable prices, and turn this into a successful business opportunity, so that sustainability is assured.
• the civil society organisations’ support is integral to creating understanding among
consumers of the importance of fortified foods so that they go out and buy the products for themselves, and to play an important ‘watchdog’ role Our role in GAIN is to facilitate efforts to put this key idea into practice, and drive those efforts forward to produce the results that all of us want.

KEY LESSONS LEARNED

GAIN has been fully operational for just a little over two years now and we have learned several lessons, which I want to share with you. Three-way partnership of this sort, this ‘co-creation’ of a new way of doing development requires:
• A joint vision of where we want to go – what we want to achieve, by when and for whom, together with a shared set of values and principles.
• Dialogue - the sort of open and frank dialogue which builds trust and understanding, confidence in and respect for each other. From this trust and understanding comes the possibility of real innovation in the solution of seemingly intractable problems.
• And the joint solutions must be local – grounded in the realities of the lives of the people we want to reach. It cannot be ‘one size fits all’.
• And these solutions must be truly joint solutions – conceived, designed and tested together, using the complementary strengths from the three sectors. No sector can be omitted, and all sectors must be included from the outset.
• Risk-taking is another key component - and not confined to only one sector or two. All sectors have to be prepared to take on the risks, and take them on together, supporting each other, even in the event of failure – because that allows the possibility of trying again.
• And the final component, is that all sectors have to appreciate that out of failure, can come joint learning that enhances understanding and increases the chances of success in the future.

TRANSFORMATION

What does this all add up to? It adds up to nothing short of a total transformation in the way we all do business – whether the business of government, or in the private sector or within civil society. This sort of partnership requires, for example, the transformation of the public health community’s attitude towards the food industry. It requires the private sector to transform its ideas about the consumer movement and start understanding their concerns. Civil society groups need to accept the unique role that food producers could play in bringing the benefits of new scientific knowledge to very poor people. This requires a transformation in all our mindsets about who we talk to, and the structures and processes we need to get this dialogue going. Genuine partnership of the kind I have elaborated here will change existing power relationships, giving more power to the people who have little at present, those 700 million people we plan to reach in the next few years.

I don’t claim that any of this is easy – in fact, I can tell you from experience that it is difficult, very difficult. But it’s possible, and I believe it’s the only way to go.