Micronutrients

Overview
Canada's Response
Related Sites

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Overview

Micronutrients are vitamins and minerals that boost the nutritional value of food. When a daily diet does not contain adequate levels of micronutrients, the outcome can have dramatic consequences: children do not reach their full intellectual capacity, growth can be stunted, and even blindness can occur. In the worst case, a lack of essential nutrients can result in death.

More than two billion people worldwide lack minute quantities of essential nutrients to keep them healthy. In the case of intellectual stunting, it is seldom realized until it's too late. Unfortunately, the poor-especially women and children in developing countries-are the most vulnerable. For example, from data supplied by the Micronutrient Initiative:

• 2 million children may die unnecessarily each year because they lack vitamin A, zinc, or other nutrients.
• 19 million infants are born with impaired mental capacity every year due to iodine deficiency.
• 100,000 babies are born each year with preventable physical defects
• Iron deficiency undermines the health and energy of 40 percent of women in the developing world. Severe anemia kills more than 60,000 women each year, especially during childbirth.
• Vitamin and mineral deficiencies account for 10 percent of the global health burden.

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Canada's Response

For more than two decades, CIDA has been one of the leading donors in providing micronutrient supplementation to developing countries. Programming to address micronutrient deficiencies is a key aspect of the work of CIDA's Global Initiatives program. Our resources for improving nutrition target the most vulnerable groups, such as children under the age of 5, and pregnant and lactating women. This programming is managed strategically to maximize the number of people reached through proven micronutrient programs. Canada's support for micronutrient programming has saved millions from death, disease, and other complications of micronutrient deficiency. Since 2000, Canada has given an average of almost $30 million a year to the Micronutrient Initiative, a Canada-based international not-for-profit organization dedicated to eliminating vitamin and mineral deficiencies worldwide. Additional funding is also given to UNICEF and Helen Keller International (HKI) for their work in micronutrient programming.

CIDA's support delivers high-impact, evidence-based, and cost-effective interventions that support Canada's commitment to achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Micronutrient programming helps reach the health-related MDGs by reducing the prevalence of hunger (MDG 1), reducing child mortality (MDG 4), improving maternal health (MDG 5), and indirectly, helping to combat against deadly diseases such as malaria (MDG 6).

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Related Sites

• Micronutrient Initiative
• Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition
• World Health Organization (WHO)
• Standing Committee on Nutrition
• UNICEF
• Helen Keller International (HKI)
• World Bank

Related CIDA Sites

• Global Initiatives
• Health
• Malaria
• HIV/AIDS

Government of Canada

• Health Canada
• International Development Research Centre