Grants and Contributions

Nutrition International (NI) was created by Canada over 30 years ago and has grown into a successful international development institution specializing in women’s, adolescents’, and children’s nutrition. This grant, valued at up to $360.6 million over six years (2025-2031), supports the organization’s new $1 billion Investment Case 2025-2031 (IC2), while improving the survival, health, and well-being of people, especially women, newborns, children, and adolescent girls in low- and middle-income countries. Fully funded, the Investment Case is expected to reach up to 800 million people with nutrition interventions, prevent 50 million cases of anemia, and save up to 750,000 children’s lives. Support to NI is a critical component of Canada’s leadership role in global nutrition and poverty reduction programming, and the delivery of Canada’s Feminist International Assistance Policy (FIAP) priority to improve gender-sensitive nutrition for the poorest and most marginalized. Under IC2, NI aims to: 1) scale up proven, high-impact nutrition interventions and approaches; 2) strengthen the evidence base for new interventions and approaches to scaling up nutrition; and 3) generate more nutrition investment and impact.

This project aims to support the Government of the Philippines’ efforts to address stunting among children under the age of 5 (CU5) by improving local health system governance and service delivery. Specifically, the project seeks to help build the capacity of select local governments to plan and implement a multisectoral program for nutrition, focusing on the first 1000 days of life, in line with the Philippine Plan of Action for Nutrition 2023 to 2028. Project activities include: (1) training health service providers to improve provision of nutrition information and services (e.g. iron folic acid supplementation, antenatal care, exclusive breastfeeding, complementary feeding, zinc complements, among others); (2) raising awareness in communities to promote equal caregiving responsibilities among parents, and improve feeding practices for CU5; (3) advocating for the integration of nutrition interventions in key programs such as cash transfer program and food supplementation initiatives of the national government; (4) building the capacity of local government officials and health service providers to better track and report on nutrition interventions across relevant sectors and programs (e.g. food security, education, social welfare); and (5) engaging civil society and women’s rights organizations in nutrition planning and monitoring at the municipal level. This initiative reaches approximately 140,000 individuals, particularly pregnant women and CU5 in select provinces in the Philippines.

Nutrition International is Global Affairs Canada’s largest implementing partner in global nutrition programming and is the leading organization in micronutrient supplementation worldwide. Canada is the founding and principal donor to NI, providing on average $50 million annually in recent years, and almost $900 million since its creation in 1992. Given this longstanding partnership, a summative evaluation exercise was conceptualized in order to assess Nutrition International’s programming under three grants funded by GAC and covering a 9-year timeframe. The purpose of this summative evaluation is threefold: i) inform quality improvements to the design and delivery of NI’s nutrition programmes and policies; ii) inform GAC and other donors’ nutrition programming and decision-making; and iii) demonstrate accountability of NI’s program results Canadian and global stakeholders.

This project seeks to increase the equality, agency and well-being of adolescents in the rural and remote region of Tabora to exercise their sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) and nutrition rights. The Building Rights for Improved Girls’ Health in Tanzania (BRIGHT) project focuses particularly on empowering girls who are young, in-and-out of school or pregnant. Project activities include: (1) utilizing nutrition-specific interventions, including iron and folic acid supplementation, as an entry point to provide young or pregnant girls with equitable, gender-responsive and adolescent-friendly sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), nutrition and sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) protection services; (2) using youth-centered, feminist and rights-based interventions to empower girls of different age groups to respond to the distinct barriers faced by young adolescent girls (10-14 years of age), out-of-school older adolescents (17-19 years of age), nomadic and pastoral communities and hard to reach vulnerable populations such as pregnant adolescents; (3) building agency and empowering adolescents (10-19 years of age) to exercise their sexual and reproductive health and nutrition rights; (4) promoting a pandemic-responsive and resilient health system by improving health systems and infrastructure; (5) supporting and delivering an integrated package of SRHR and nutrition services, including family planning/contraception; gender-based violence prevention and response services, adolescent-friendly antenatal, postnatal and post-abortion care, and nutrition support and counseling; (6) promoting gender equality and income generation and entrepreneurial skills for girls and life skills training to support out-of-school older adolescent girls; (7) strengthening gender-responsive and adolescent-friendly governance and accountability systems and structures; and (8) increasing adolescent participation in community-based accountability platforms and redistributing the burden of unpaid care by addressing deeply entrenched social norms.

The project aims to directly reach 244,400 girls and 225,600 boys 10 to 19 years of age (comprising 80% of in-school adolescents and 50% of out-of-school adolescents in Tabora); 596,300 adults (comprising 50% of adults in Tabora and including community, religious and traditional leaders, parents and caregivers of adolescents, service providers and key policy and lawmakers). The project also aims to reach 31,000 pregnant adolescent girls with nutrition counselling and support and 127,000 adolescent girls with contraceptives, to avert 4,000 to 6,000 cases of anaemia among pregnant girls, 75,000 unintended pregnancies and 17,000 unsafe abortions, all of which currently contribute to maternal mortality and poor birth outcomes.

This project seeks to positively transform gender relations to improve the health of women and adolescent girls in Senegal, particularly their nutrition and reproductive health (RH). The project targets 200,000 pregnant/nursing women and 600,000 adolescent girls in the 5 regions most affected by gender inequalities and malnutrition, and worsened by the impact of the pandemic: Kaffrine, Kédougou, Kolda, Sédhiou and Tambacounda.

Project activities include the following: (1) offering professional development in the field of women’s nutrition; (2) developing a strategy to attract women and adolescent girls and build their capacity in positions of leadership, collective action and advocacy on health matters (nutrition and RH); (3) conducting communication and awareness raising activities to help women and girls better understand their rights and needs when it comes to nutrition, RH and gender equality; (4) providing entrepreneurship training to build women’s capacity to manage and ensure the sustainability of micro-, small and medium enterprises that promote nutrition; (5) providing technical assistance to institutionalize gender equality in 12 ministries that contribute to people’s good nutritional status, with the goal of improving service quality; and (6) supporting communities to ensure influential people are engaged in promoting the equitable sharing of power and responsibilities between women and men with regard to health (nutrition and RH).

It is implemented by World Vision Canada in collaboration with the Micronutrient Initiative, HarvestPlus, the Canadian Society for International Health, and the University of Toronto’s Dalla Lana School of Public Health.