National Micronutrients Strategy, 2018-2025.

The National Micronutrient Strategy 2017-2025 is a sectoral document that is a part of the government's commitment to coordinate the universal call to scale up nutrition actions, taking into account that micronutrient deficiencies remain a serious public health problem in Sudan. The overall goal of the Strategy is to reduce the prevalence of micronutrient deficiency disorders (in particular iron, iodine, vitamin A, and zinc) and enhance the consumption of diverse nutritious and fortified foods throughout the country. It represents the governmental document that guides the micronutrient plans at the national level, state level, as well as at bilateral, national, and non-governmental organizations, and could be used as a tool of communication with stakeholders and as a foundation to combat micronutrient deficiencies in Sudan with optimum impact on the target population. This Strategy has 4 main sub-strategies: (1) fortification, a long-term, cost-effective approach that involves adding essential vitamins and minerals to staple foods like salt and flour. This can be done through general food fortification by the industry or home fortification using multiple micronutrient powders. Success relies on setting and monitoring national standards and launching public education campaigns; (2) supplementation, a short-term strategy, particularly for severely deficient populations, focusing on delivering single or multiple micronutrient supplements to vulnerable groups such as children, pregnant women, and the elderly. Key actions include scaling up twice-yearly vitamin A supplementation, expanding iron and folic acid supplementation, and ensuring a sufficient supply of zinc for diarrhea management; (3) dietary diversification which involves changing eating habits to include more micronutrient-rich foods through education programs and initiatives like home and school gardening; and (4) other complementary public health measures, necessary to combat deficiencies by controlling infections, improving sanitation and water quality, and promoting better childcare and maternal education. Each sub-strategy has an action plan map that outlines the steps needed for scaling up a harmonized implementation.
To address the aforementioned nutrition deficiencies, the following 4 objectives were developed (1) create an enabling political environment with strong national leadership and a shared multi-stakeholder platform. This partnership will jointly take responsibility for enhancing micronutrient legislation, effective policies, and information monitoring and evaluation systems; (2) scale up proven nutrition interventions, such as food fortification, to improve the micronutrient status of the target population; (3) implement micronutrient-sensitive sectoral strategies by improving the coverage of micronutrient supplementation and promoting the consumption of micronutrient-rich foods and dietary diversification; (4) build capacity for emergency preparedness related to nutrition and micronutrient deficiencies.
To implement the Strategy and achieve the targets, 5 main actions are required, these are (1) create a supportive environment for the implementation of comprehensive food and nutrition policies; (2) include all required effective health interventions with an impact on nutrition in national nutrition plans; (3) stimulate development policies and programs outside the health sector that recognize and include nutrition; (4) provide sufficient human and financial resources for the implementation of nutrition interventions; (5) monitor and evaluate the implementation of policies and programs.