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5. LOW COST: HIGH RETURN INVESTMENT

The case for investment in micronutrient interventions is convincing. Impressive results have been produced in a range of countries and settings, each with unique needs and challenges. Micronutrient interventions save and transform individual lives. As such, they produce national economic gains due to savings in health-care costs, maximization of investments in education, and increased economic activity. Added to these are the resulting intergenerational benefits of improved health, intellect and productivity.

The Copenhagen Consensus Agrees

The Copenhagen Consensus is a formidable intellectual resource in the search for solutions to the global challenges of the new millennium. It commissions and reviews research to identify the most cost-effective solutions to the world’s biggest challenges.

The goal of the Copenhagen Consensus was to set priorities among a series of proposals for confronting 10 great global challenges: air pollution, conflicts, diseases, education, global warming, malnutrition and hunger, sanitation and water, subsidies and trade barriers, terrorism, women and development.

In May of 2008, a panel of eight of the world’s most distinguished economists (including five Nobel laureates), was invited to consider these issues. The panel was asked to address the 10 challenge areas and to answer the question:

What would be the best ways of advancing global welfare, and particularly the welfare of the developing countries, illustrated by supposing that an additional US$ 75 billion of resources were at their disposal over a four-year initial period?

The panel determined that vitamin A and zinc supplementation for children provided the very best return on investment in global development. Micronutrient fortification – in the form of salt iodization and flour fortification – ranked third out of a list of more than 30 options. Biofortification ranked a close fifth.

Globally, an annual investment of US$ 60 million in vitamin A and zinc supplementation combined would yield benefits of more than US$ 1 billion per year, with every dollar spent generating benefits of more than US$ 17. Every dollar spent on salt iodization and flour fortification would result in benefits of more than US$ 9.

The research presented to the panel demonstrated that an annual investment in micronutrient programming of US$ 1.2 billion over five years would result in annual benefits of US$ 15.3 billion, representing better health, fewer deaths and increased future earnings.