Micronutrient Forum 2026
A delegation from our nutrition and research teams will be in Accra for a central platform for evidence and advocacy to improve micronutrient health. We are bringing five accepted abstracts on supplementation delivery, coverage at scale, and how cost-effectiveness models should treat adherence.
01 · Our work
Millions of children and pregnant women go without the vitamins and nutrients they need to thrive. Equal Vitamin Access delivers proven nutrition programs — iron and folic acid supplements for school-aged children, adolescents and under-5s, prenatal supplements for pregnant women, and nutrient supplements for infants and toddlers — to address anemia and malnutrition where they hit hardest.
Iron and folic acid
Anemia prevention for and adolescents, delivered by teachers and health workers inside systems that already exist. India, Malawi, Nigeria.
MMS
Prenatal vitamins for pregnant women at government antenatal clinics, with the dispensing schedule — not the product — as the thing we change.
SQ-LNS
Nutrient supplements for children under two, targeted to the highest-burden wards, with health worker training and delivery support behind them.
02 · Nigeria
In the first half of 2026, Nigeria treated nearly 500,000 children for severe acute malnutrition across six northern states — 28% more than the same period last year in the northeast.
The treatment ward is where this becomes visible. An under-nourished mother is where it starts. We work both ends through government systems: prenatal vitamins at antenatal care, and nutrient supplements targeted to the highest-burden wards for children under two.
MMS in Nigeria
Nearly half of pregnant Nigerian women are anemic, and multiple micronutrient supplementation is treated as a product and compliance problem. Our pilot across 90 government antenatal clinics tested the schedule instead: a woman’s full 180-tablet course at her first visit, in place of a 30-day refill. Doses consumed rose 52%.
SQ-LNS in Nigeria
Nigeria’s government has committed $30 million to nutrient supplements for children under two — more than 650,000 cartons, six months of supplementation for three million children. Where those cartons go decides how much they do. Targeted to the highest-burden wards, with health worker training and delivery support behind them, we estimate an additional 3,000 lives saved.
03 · Anemia prevention at scale
Anemia is the world’s most widespread nutritional deficiency and among the cheapest to prevent. The obstacle is delivery.
In five Indian states, full-dose iron and folic acid coverage of school-age children more than doubled to 65% — 26 million children reached, at under $100 per healthy year of life gained. In Malawi, teachers hand out the same tablet weekly in 15 districts. In Nigeria, we are testing it inside antenatal care.
Recent insights
Insights · Malawi
Insights · India
Photo Story · India
04 · The delegation
Find us at our sessions and posters, or set up a conversation while we are on the ground.
05 · Accepted abstracts
From April 2024, a multiple micronutrient supplementation pilot across 90 antenatal care sites in Oyo state and FCT compared baseline iron and folic acid distribution against pilot data. Daily doses consumed rose from 72 to 117, driven by distributing 180-day supplies upfront rather than 30-day courses; total iron consumption stayed similar given MMS’s lower iron content. The pilot also compared point-of-care hemoglobin testing devices against reinforced training on anemia testing and treatment protocols.
Most cost-effectiveness models apply a coverage threshold of total doses consumed, so an individual receives either all or none of the modeled benefit. We set out a theoretical and empirical basis for benefit accruing from the very first dose and decreasing marginally with each next one, then compared binary-threshold models against the new adherence function. Binary thresholds dramatically underestimate program impact — relevant to any supplementation program whose benefit accumulates with continued supplementation.
What works and what gets in the way when a weekly tablet is handed out by teachers at district scale, and how we have addressed those constraints to keep scaling.
Coverage increases from baseline to endline in our original five states, delivered through program technical assistance, with a focus on cost-effectiveness results and the role of private schools.
Small-quantity lipid-based nutrient supplements (SQ-LNS) are proven to drastically reduce child stunting and mortality, yet their high product costs have historically limited their cost-effectiveness and scale in global health. The problem isn’t whether the intervention works, but how to deliver it where it matters most. Evidence Action’s abstract addresses this delivery gap by using model-based geostatistics to identify the most vulnerable communities in Nigeria down to the local ward level.
If you fund, run, or study micronutrient programs, we would like to compare notes in Accra — on what it takes to move coverage inside government systems, and on how impact should be modeled when adherence is partial.