Essential nutrients: The world’s best investment.

In 2008, a panel of world-class economists assembled by the Copenhagen Consensus analyzed forty solutions to ten of the world's greatest global development challenges. The result? The panel ranked micronutrient supplementation for undernourished children the #1 priority.

The global picture.

Essential nutrients have an enormously high cost to benefit ratio. In 2008 it was estimated that $60 million a year could provide vitamin A and zinc to 80% of the world’s then 147 million vitamin A deficient children. Every dollar spent on supplementation creates benefits worth more than 17 dollars. Better health, fewer deaths and increased future earnings add up to benefits of more than $1 billion yearly.

Why supplementation?

Food-based approaches are difficult to implement on a global scale. Micronutrient programs are an affordable and successful intervention that helps children break the cycle of poverty now.

How can you help?

Our cost to reach one child with two doses of vitamin A during their most vulnerable years (ages 6-59 months) is approximately $0.25 cents per year. Two doses per year can alleviate vitamin A deficiency (VAD) in children under five, a solution proven to reduce overall child mortality by about 24% in at-risk populations. Join us in our effort to reach at-risk children worldwide with essential nutrients.

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Copenhagen Consensus 2008 Results.

Global priorities ranked by cost and benefit.