The Fortification Collaborative
Illustration: © Patti Dobrowolski
Supporting Coordinated, Accelerated Delivery of Food Fortification
Vitamin and mineral deficiencies quietly drive avoidable illness, deaths, and lost potential. Large-scale food fortification (LSFF) is a proven strategy to reduce deficiencies that is both affordable and scalable, and is grounded in a century of practice and modern technology. Over the last decade, efforts to scale LSFF has gained increasing global traction, with the first global food fortification summit in Arusha in 2015, and the unanimous adoption of the World Health Assembly Resolution 76.19 on food fortification.
Following on these milestones, the LSFF Partners Convening, held in 2024 in Cape Town South Africa, brought together government, civil society, researchers, industry, and development partners to discuss different approaches to maximize the impact of LSFF through strengthened delivery. Ahead of the convening, partners contributed to a Portfolio Book, profiling the work of 68 organizations, highlighting their geographic focus, programmatic activities, and technical expertise. A Collaborative Action Panel, a group of ten leaders representing different parts of the fortification community, captured the collective ambition of over 200 practitioners and organizations and synthesized them into ten evidence-based, long-term goals to steer commitments until 2030, published in the Manifesto for Accelerated Action. The final Technical Report from the LSFF Partners Convening captures the rich discussions from Cape Town and translates it into a coordination agenda that countries and partners can carry forward.
Progress Since Cape Town
In November 2025, the LSFF partners came together to document where momentum has been maintained, and where additional effort, collaboration, investment, or alignment are needed.
Nearly two years since Cape Town, and the landscape has shifted. Global funding is tighter than ever, with an estimated 40% decrease in official development assistance funding threatening hard-won progress. Food systems are undergoing transformations, with changes in production, trade, and consumption patterns influencing the availability and demand for fortified foods. This evolving landscape underscores the need for innovation alongside more targeted and sustained advocacy to keep LSFF high on political and policy agendas.
Yet, progress is visible. Regional and national coordination is strengthening, and social protection programs are now delivering fortified foods to ~2.5 million people on a regular basis. Research with Exemplars in Global Health is distilling how success happens. Private-sector engagement is broader and more structured, and cost and access bottlenecks are being tackled. Taken together, these successes signal a more coherent, delivery-oriented push by the fortification community.
Photo credit: © M. DeFreese/CIMMYT
LSFF Exemplars in Global Health
Photo credit: © CIMMYT / Alfonso Cortés
LSFF Exemplars in Global Health
Delivering Together on Large-Scale Food Fortification
The 2024 LSFF Partners Convening was a pivotal moment for the fortification community. It brought together diverse actors, generated a shared vision, and defined concrete goals for action. The Manifesto demonstrates the community’s commitment to continued collaboration and accountability. It sets out collective ambitions, evidence-based recommendations, and a shared direction to accelerate the delivery and scale-up of LSFF through to 2030, as outlined below.
These commitments belong to the entire fortification community—governments, industry, development partners, researchers, and advocates—not to any single actor. What’s needed now is disciplined follow-through, with every partner contributing to a sustained, collective effort. Success requires working together to ensure fortified foods reaches those who need it most.
Ten Recommendations from the Manifesto to Guide Commitments until 2030
For all countries with existing food fortification standards, producers of mandated foods and public sector compliance actors commit that at least 90% of mandated food vehicles will be fortified to standard. Premix suppliers and government regulators will ensure that 100% of premixes used for mandatory food fortification programs are of the quality necessary to meet relevant standards.
Governments and donors will ensure that 100% of food distributed through social assistance programs is fortified to national standards and that more modalities of assistance provide access to fortified foods.
Inclusive coalitions, including civil society and consumer partners, will help drive advocacy strategies for food fortification targeting context-specific barriers and engaging and empowering impacted communities and local champions (e.g, political leaders, journalists, private sector champions) to speak for the populations in need. We make the invisible partners visible and put humanity back in the advocacy efforts.
All sectors will ensure that large-scale food fortification will be incorporated in 100% of national food systems transformation pathways as a critical food systems action to deliver essential micronutrients.
Governments of at least 90% of low- and middle-income countries will provide tax and import duty exemptions for premix and equipment used for mandatory food fortification programs and address non-tariff barriers.
Building on the legacy of successful national food fortification alliances, country stakeholders will ensure that all countries have effective alliances, under the leadership of government, providing the essential design, oversight, monitoring, and course correction to ensure continuous improvement of fortification programs.
All regional economic communities will provide strong leadership on large-scale food fortification in the form of regional food fortification alliances. This will support regional harmonization of standards, knowledge management, and national accountability and advocacy, as well as the development of legislation and standards in countries that do not yet have these in place.
Under the leadership of national food fortification alliances, programs are reassessed and redesigned in 90% of low- and middle-income countries to better meet micronutrient needs of the most vulnerable populations. The portfolio of food vehicles will be expanded to identify a basket of fortified products that is better able to meet the micronutrient needs of all populations.
All global and national large-scale food fortification data and knowledge partners will work collaboratively to ensure that data and knowledge systems are responding to programmatic needs. Partners will improve the coherence, reliability, and trust in evidence and data, and ensure that the wealth of fortification knowledge and experience is proactively curated, disseminated, and used across fortification actors.
Partners will unleash the potential for innovation to address bottlenecks in delivery of quality food fortification programs through development of a prioritized innovation action plan based in programmatic needs across assessment, data collection. and analysis, food technology, and knowledge management
