CGI Commitment Progress update - 2010

Commitment Name: Securing Children's Right to Growth and Development through Good Food Everyday

Commitment Summery:

To secure every child’s right to growth and development through good food everyday in line with the Britannia corporate credo of ‘Eat Healthy, Think Better’. To aid the cause of children’s nutrition by a combination of product line-fortification, partnering with like-minded organizations, driving awareness and advocacy, and building a sustainable business model that delivers reach and effectiveness.

Through this commitment, Britannia will develop value-fortified products in key lines of existing food products and explore launch of new categories targeting at-risk segments of India, especially children. Britannia will widen its partner base to address fundamental issues faced in the area of children’s nutrition so as to be able to develop new and sustainable solutions. With nutrition familiarity and knowledge at a very nascent stage in India, this program is committed to driving awareness and to catalyzing advocacy through activation.

Desctiption of Activities:

Milestones Achieved

Fortification of Product Lines
Launch of Tiger Banana variant with Iron Fortification, Jan 2008
Relaunch of staple Britannia Breads with Vitamin Fortification, Jan 2008
Largest Power Brand Tiger launched with Iron-Fortification, Apr 2008
Vitamin-Mineral Fortification of the second largest power brand Mariegold biscuits (July 2009)
Launch of Actimind (Nov 2009) a dairy product with Iodine, B Vitamins & Taurine fortification
Close to 60% of Britannia’s portfolio is now fortified.

Awareness and Advocacy
Building Iron Awareness in at-risk populations through Mass Media Communication, July 2008 (ongoing)
School level Interactive Nutrition Awareness programs, Nov 2008 (ongoing)
Regular Advocacy Articles in Indian media on Nutrition and Health Issues, and possible solutions, March 2007 (ongoing)
GAIN Business Alliance Partnership, May 2008 (continued)
World Bank Institute Case Study Series and International Forum, Sep 2007 (continued)
Launch of Britannia Nutrition Foundation with a National seminar on Nutrition, Oct 2009
International Micronutrient Workshop Participation, All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), India’s premier medical institute, Oct 2009

On ground Activation through School Feeding Program and Partnerships
Supply of Specialized Iron-Fortified Tiger Biscuits as supplement in the school feeding program
Naandi – GAIN partnership, Hyderabad, March 2007 to Dec 2008
Navjyoti Foundation, Delhi, Dec 2008 (ongoing)
Continued Supply of customized biscuits to UNWFP, Jan 2007 – date
World Food Day School Contests with UNWFP, Oct 2009

(Detailed Description of Activities)

1. Fortification of Product Lines: Tiger, Breads, Milk Bikis and MarieGold
Britannia went ahead to fortify with Iron its largest power brand Tiger in April 2008. Iron in children’s diet is critical for both physical and mental development. It is also well known that in India close to two-thirds of children suffer from Iron Deficiency. Biscuits are enjoyed by children across the country and therefore make for ideal fortification and effective delivery. The challenge was for the R & D team to get the product sensorial right; it took us close to 16 trials to manage costs, sensorial and iron-effectiveness. The team ensured that the costs of fortification were addressed through system efficiencies in handling costs and were not passed on to the consumer in the form of pricing.

Today, fortified products including Tiger Iron Zor, MarieGold, Milk Bikis & staples like Bread sell close to 3.5 billion units annually and constitute 60% of Britannia bakery volumes. Britannia reaches over 40% of Indian households and likely to have touched 88 million households, 75 million children, 60 million women since the CGI commitment.

2. Removal of Trans Fats from Britannia products: One of the key health initiatives which Britannia has undertaken is “removal of trans fats”. Close to 8500 tonnes of transfat have been removed from Britannia products, making 99% of the portfolio transfat free.

3. Supplementing School Feeding Programs: The partnership between Britannia, GAIN and Naandi Foundation supplemented the school feeding program with specially fortified Tiger Iron Biscuits in Hyderabad. Britannia is engaged in a similar partnership with the Navjyoti Foundation to supplement biscuits in their remedial schools. The prevalence of anemia in the study group was 50.3%, with the dietary intake of iron less than 50% RDA. The Pilot study done with the Navjyoti program has the following results:

• Significant Improvement in hemoglobin ( Mean Hb went up from 9.48 g/dl to 12.63 gm / dl )
• Improvement of storage iron (mean serum ferritin up from 27.46 ng/ml to 43.21ng/ml)

4. Supply of customized biscuits to UNWFP: Over 26700 metric tonnes of customized biscuits have been supplied from Jan 2008 to the UNWFP for Afghanistan, Angola, and Iran etc.

5. Awareness Building Programs: Britannia has invested over 2 Mn USD into driving Iron Awareness in India through mass media campaigns targeting homemakers and mothers. Britannia also has undertaken a school level contact program, covering close to 2 mn vulnerable children in 6600 schools to provide Iron and Nutrition education in an interesting engaging manner.

6. Media and Stakeholder Advocacy: This continues to be a key area of focus for Britannia, with the organization championing the cause of the Nutrition discipline with media, industry forums like the CII (Confederate of Indian Industry), World Economic Forum discussions in India, government and regulatory organizations, NGO’s etc. Britannia has participated in several international forums like the Clinton Global Initiative ( CGI ), partnership with GAIN ( Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition ), WBI ( World Bank Institute ) to help raise awareness and support for Nutrition in Developing Countries.

7. Partnership building : Britannia actively pursues partnerships with like minded organizations interested in the cause of Children’s Nutrition – GAIN, Naandi Foundation, Navjyoti Foundation, WBI, UNWFP – are a few cases. We are seeking to broad base our partnerships through engagement with Nutrition Institutes, UN and local developmental agencies, and governmental organizations.

8. Launch of the Britannia Nutrition Foundation (BNF): Britannia announced the creation of the Britannia Nutrition Foundation through a Nutrition seminar in New Delhi on 12th Oct 2009. BNF will be an independent, autonomous, non-profit body that leverages the strengths of Britannia’s wide stakeholder network to build advocacy with stakeholders and create social awareness regarding child nutrition. We see Britannia Nutrition Foundation working proactively towards “Securing every child’s right to growth and development through catalyzing rigorous thought and innovative action about nutrition”. The scope of the BNF is advocacy and policy building, scientific knowledge building and dissemination, education and awareness creation. The Britannia Nutrition Foundation has an Advisory Board consisting of

Dr. Veena Rao

Former Secretary to Government of India with Domain Expertise on Malnutrition

Dr. Kamala Krishshaswamy

Former Director, National Institute of Nutrition

Dr. Ajai Puri

Global Nutrition Expert with former experience in Coca-Cola, Numico

Ms. Vinita Bali

MD & CEO, Britannia Industries Limited

Scientific Advisor to BNF Board

Prof Patrick Stover

Professor & Director, Division of Nutritional Sciences, Cornell University, NY

The launch seminar was well received as an event that brought together nutritionists, medical practitioners, governmental organizations, and NGO’s to discuss the issues and problems related to Malnutrition.

Implemention Period July 2007 – Present

Cost Benefit
The annual cost of feeding specially Iron-fortified biscuits per child is 1.08 USD, and for 50 mn children the total cost is approximately 5.4 Mn USD.

Since the Clinton Global Initiative's inception, CGI has strived to make partnerships a core component of CGI commitments, list of current partners who have been actively involved in the implementation of this commitment

GAIN (Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition), Naandi Foundation, Navjyoti Foundation, United Nations World Food Programme (UNWFP), World Bank Institute (WBI), Global Food Banking Network

Specific information on the types of partnerships that BNF is seeking
The multi-sectoral nature of malnutrition intensifies the challenges of aligning donors, implementing agencies and government agencies around proven interventions. We are looking at supporting partners to link Britannia Nutrition Foundation with the state government nutrition programs & nutrition programs of developmental agencies/ international developmental agencies to further spread awareness through the school nutrition education programs & advocacy/ mass media while providing fortified supplementary nutrition through food based approach As a first step, we are willing to offer fortified products for the specific age groups at zero profit

Types of partnerships that BNF is offering
We would be happy to share practices with organizations that may find it of use. These are in the areas of fortification targeting specific ages, awareness programs, media advocacy, and school contact programs. We would be keen to participate in Public Private Partnerships as a strategic and implementing partner.