KFI NewsLetter/Februari 2011/Volume 1/Section 1
Greetings from the Chairman
Prof. Soekirman “It is my pleasure to provide you with the latest KFI newsletter in which you will find information about our main activities and achievements of the past year. We have gone through a very exciting period and witnessed a number of significant developments – all of which leading us closer to the goal of decreasing malnutrition in Indonesia.
Perhaps most importantly, on the occasion of the National Nutrition Day this January, we officially launched our Vitamin A Fortification Project in cooperation with the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN). There was intensive media coverage as we celebrated this event and participated in a Dialogue on Nutrition with public and private stakeholders as well as civil society.
GAIN and KFI have been working together to promote vitamin A fortification since October 2010. It is worth noting that our cooperation with GAIN has been made possible with substantial support from the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH who assisted us in the formulation of a proposal on expanding cooking oil fortification to a national program by the year 2015.
Congratulating KFI and the Ministry of Health on their joint initiative, Marc van Ameringen, Executive Director of GAIN, stated that the new project intends to make an “important contribution to the health of the Indonesians”. Health Minister Endang Rahayu Sedyaningsih stressed that “malnutrition is still a serious problem threatening Indonesian children” and added that “the government will carry out food enrichment and supplementation as part of their preventive measures in tackling malnutrition” (quoted in: Jakarta Post, 26 January 2011).
At this, we can expect 2011 to bring a lot of important issues to the national debate on food fortification in Indonesia. Among others, we anticipate that fortification will become mandatory and that all cooking oil distributed in this country will be fortified with vitamin A.
We would like to thank all international partners who supported us during the past year and are looking forward to continued and good cooperation in the future, with the goal and the hope of preventing malnutrition in the entire Indonesian population.”
KFI got closer to the goal of decreasing malnutrition
Cooking oil fortification is expected to become mandatory in 2011/2012
Launching of the fortification project on the National Nutrition Day
Prof. Soekirman (Em.), Bogor Agriculture University (IPB), Chairman of KFI
