Iron Advocacy Project - Global

To launch this project, 108 interviews were conducted with individuals influential in sectors affected by or able to impact iron deficiency. These sectors included public health, nutrition, early childhood development, maternal and women's health, labour, and the food and pharmaceutical industries. The interviews collected opinions on general perceptions and opinions of iron and iron programming; barriers preventing iron from being a priority on agendas of policy-makers and donors; opinions on the future focus of research and programming; success stories in iron programming and in advocacy; and recommendations on how to make iron deficiency important to those in an interviewee's field of expertise.

In response to these interviews, advocacy materials were developed in an effort to help convince people to take action to support and establish more activities addressing iron deficiency. The materials include:

• Iron Improves Life - an advocacy booklet on iron deficiency for policymakers, 2002
• Unlock Every Child's Potential, Iron Deficiency and Early Childhood - an advocacy booklet for early child development specialists, 2002
• Anemia Prevalence Map
• Early Child Development Anemia Bulletin #1
• Early Child Development Anemia Bulletin #2

Click here to access a page that enables download of these files in PDF format.

Nutrition, Health.

According to organisers, programmes to treat and reduce the problem of iron deficiency have received little support. Iron deficiency and anemia affect more than 3.5 billion people around the world. Women and children are disproportionately affected. In the developing world, 44% of women (56% of pregnant women), 53% of school-age children, 42% of preschool-age children, and 33% of men suffer from iron deficiency. The warning symptoms of iron deficiency are difficult to discern, despite the fact that the consequences are serious and include increased risk of hemorrhage and maternal death during childbirth, increased risk of fetal mortality and low birth-weight, hampered cognitive and physical development during childhood, impaired immunity to disease, and decreased physical and mental ability.

The interviews conducted prior to programme launch showed the need to focus efforts on integrating iron into the work of different sectors, not mounting only a centralised, single focus advocacy effort as had been done for other micronutrients. Organisers found that sectors that could logically accommodate iron programming and benefit most from this incorporation include early child development, education and school health programmes, women's and maternal health, and labour and industry. In the end, researchers concluded that work needs to be done at the global policy-maker/decision-maker level in order to change attitudes and increase knowledge about iron programming.