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In Laos, a local agri-food value chain to combat malnutrition
- Completed project
The NutriLao program brought together the Institute for Research and Development (and the social enterprise Maï Savanh Lao to combat malnutrition, which particularly affects women and children in Laos. FID funding made it possible to optimise the nutritional and safety qualities, as well as the production, of a new Nutritious and Healthy Bar, developed from local agro-ecological food resources through an approach bringing together populations, companies and research.
Project led by:
Context
According to UNICEF, approximately 9% of Lao children under the age of five suffer from severe acute malnutrition, and over a third from chronic malnutrition.
Situations of malnutrition are often chronic as they are related to structural causes such as poor access to food of adequate nutritional value or inappropriate feeding practices. They have consequences for children's cognitive development, adult capacities, morbidity and mortality in the population, as well as for the development and economic health of the state.
Innovation
IRD combined a partnership approach between populations, companies and research with an agro-ecological approach to develop a Nutritious and Healthy Bar (NHB) based in particular on Sacha Inchi, a plant grown in Laos and exploited under the fair trade label by the social enterprise Maï Savanh Lao.
The program built on successful projects in Cambodia, where the “Nutrix” Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food has been adopted by organizations including UNICEF and the Ministry of Health (Borg et al. 2020, Sigh et al. 2018), and in Vietnam, where the “HEBI” Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food has achieved a success rate of 94.7% (Phuong et al. 2014). On this basis, NutriLao developed a bar designed to improve the nutritional status of children and women of reproductive age, and to prevent malnutrition rather than treat severe cases.
FID's support focused on improving the composition of the NHB to adapt it to the preferences of the targeted vulnerable populations, and on raising awareness of the need for a diversified and sustainable diet.
The project relied on an all-female production team at Maï Savanh Lao and primarily targeted women of reproductive age, whose micronutrient needs are highest, particularly during pregnancy and breastfeeding.
Results and lessons learned
The project enabled Maï Savanh Lao, a small artisanal production unit, to become a fully operational industrial unit with a capacity of 25,000 bars per day. Drawing on research, this social enterprise tested 27 recipes to develop five formulations of nutritious and healthy bars (NHBs) rooted in local dietary practices and Laos's agro-ecological resources (Sacha Inchi, mung beans, puffed rice). This approach enabled an inclusive development process involving researchers, the private sector and communities.
Tested among children aged 2 to 16 and their mothers, the five NHBs were well received, with overall liking scores ranging from 3.7 to 4.1 out of 5. More than 500,000 bars, marketed under the name Nyim Van, have since been distributed, notably in schools across several provinces. An efficacy study followed 312 women of reproductive age for four months, half of whom received a bar fortified with vitamins and minerals. Anaemia, which was highly prevalent at baseline, progressed similarly in both groups: the study found no evidence of an impact of the fortified bar on this indicator. However, the bar had a protective effect on zinc status, with 17.5% of women deficient at the end of the study compared with 28.2% in the control group – an important result for women of reproductive age, whose zinc requirements increase during pregnancy and breastfeeding.
This pilot phase thus demonstrated the capacity to produce locally, on an industrial scale, a fortified food adapted to consumers' tastes, building on an agri-food production and distribution system that is unique in Laos.
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