Background

Micronutrient deficiency, especially vitamin A, iron, and zinc, remains a major global concern, affecting more than 2 billion people globally. Supply chain disruptions due to climate induced disasters, conflict, and the COVID-19 pandemic are resulting in increased cost of healthy diets, leaving more people with reduced access to nutritious foods and prone to disease, even death. No single silver-bullet strategy will comprehensively address this problem, but a combination of many. Supplementation, dietary diversification, fortification, and biofortification are so far the most widely used and documented strategies to address micronutrient deficiency at scale.

Industrial fortification has been in use for more than 8 decades now and is legislated in more than 80 countries. On the contrary, the scaling of biofortification started just over a decade ago, and as of 2023, biofortified crop varieties were being grown in more than 30 countries globally, while at least 24 countries had included biofortification in their policies. In 2022, the African Union heads of state endorsed biofortification and fortification as key interventions to address micronutrient deficiency. In India, the national government recently declared that all pearl millet varieties that will be released must meet the iron content level of iron pearl millet varieties endorsed by HarvestPlus, and the production of Zinc Wheat seed increased from just under 6,000 MT in 2021 to more than 24,000 MT in 2023, demonstrating the rapid scaling of biofortified varieties.

In Pakistan, zinc wheat seed production increased from 3600MT in 2019 to more than 90,000 MT in 2023 with one variety, Akbar 2019, becoming the most popular variety in Punjab, the main wheat producing province of Pakistan. Similar trends have been documented for Vitamin A Maize in Nigeria while iron bean varieties are the predominant improved varieties in Rwanda and Zimbabwe.

Fortification coverage studies have revealed the advantages and disadvantages of industrially fortified foods, with compliance and coverage being the major challenges. Several publications have pitched biofortification as potentially suitable for reaching the hard-to-reach populations, usually in remote smallholder farming areas, but the issue of standards in processed foods has also featured as a potential challenge.

HarvestPlus, a program of the International Food Policy Research Institute, is seeking to understand the geography specific comparative advantages of biofortification and fortification in 4 low-middle income countries (LMICs), Nigeria, India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan. The purpose of this call for proposals is to seek the services of a short-term experienced senior data analyst, to carry out an in-depth review and analysis of the geography specific comparative advantages of biofortification and fortification.

Specific Deliverables

The overall purpose of this consultancy is to carry out a systematic in-depth review of existing published and grey literature on biofortification and fortification, analyze it, and prepare a publishable report on the comparative advantages of biofortification and fortification.

Tasks

• Develop a framework for systematically reviewing the existing published and grey literature on biofortification and fortification
• Carry out targeted and systematic data mining to create clean datasets for biofortification and fortification using multiple public datasets including the HCES, etc.
• Carry out descriptive analysis using econometric methods to establish patterns and relationships to demonstrate the comparative advantages of biofortification and fortification
• Model the potential impact of the two technologies under different adoption and geospatial scenarios for the three countries with comparable (HCES) data

Deliverables

• A framework for carrying out a systematic review of biofortification and fortification
• Clean datasets of biofortification and fortification for the 3 countries
• A PowerPoint slide deck to be used to present the findings to HarvestPlus by the consultant
• A publishable report summarizing the geography-specific comparative advantages of fortification and biofortification

Required Skills and Experience

• Master’s degree in Economics, Agricultural Economics, Statistics, Data Analytics, or closely related fields; a PhD is an added advantage
• At least 5 years of hands-on experience working with large datasets in the field of Nutrition, Agriculture, or Public Health, LMICs
• Knowledge and experience working in or with large datasets from India, Nigeria, Bangladesh, and Pakistan will be desirable
• Availability to perform the assignment between March and April 2024
• Excellent writing and verbal communication skills in English; skills in Hindu and Urdu are a plus

To Apply

Please submit your technical and financial proposal, CV with 3 recent client references for similar work, on the IFPRI website by March 8, 2024. If any questions you may email k.foley@cgiar.org.