The persistently high prevalence of anaemia, particularly in young children and pregnant women in low- and middle-income countries, is a global health concern. About 40 percent of all children aged 6–59 months, 37 percent of pregnant women, and 30 percent of women 15–49 years of age have anaemia globally. To accelerate progress in reducing anaemia, support in improving sustainable and equitable coverage of effective interventions that address all forms of anaemia is urgently needed. The World Health Organization (WHO) recently launched a comprehensive framework for action to accelerate anaemia reduction, recommending five key action areas to improve implementation and coverage of interventions that address context-specific causes and risk factors of anaemia.

WHO, in close collaboration with UNICEF, also hosts the Anaemia Action Alliance which brings together stakeholders across disciplines, sectors, and geographies to support comprehensive multi-sectoral anaemia reduction plans, address data and evidence gaps, and harness global guidance and country experiences. This webinar highlighted key elements of the WHO comprehensive framework for action, described the vision, mission, and activities of the Anaemia Action Alliance, presented ongoing efforts of Alliance partners to contribute to anaemia reduction, and described how additional partners can join the Alliance. Find out more about the Anaemia Action Alliance, and how your organization can participate.

Webinar Recording

Webinar Resources:

• Access the slide deck (PDF, 2.18 MB)

Speakers:

• Maria Elena Jefferds, is a lead epidemiologist and team lead of the International Micronutrient Malnutrition Prevention and Control Program (IMMPaCt) in the Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity and Obesity at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. She and the IMMPaCt team are actively engaged with partners on effectiveness studies, national micronutrient surveys, and strengthening nutrition surveillance systems in multiple countries in Africa, Asia and Central America. 
• Francesco Branca is the director of the Department of Nutrition and Food Safety at the World Health Organization (WHO). While in this role, WHO has developed a nutrition strategy, established a new nutrition guideline development process and developed a Comprehensive Implementation Plan on Maternal, Infant and Young Child Nutrition with six global targets. 
• Victor Aguayo is the director of nutrition and child development at UNICEF. He brings 30 years of policy, program, management, and humanitarian experience in maternal and child nutrition in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and globally. His work is guided by the belief that hunger and malnutrition are a violation of children’s rights. 
• Lisa Rogers is a technical officer in the Department of Nutrition and Food Safety at the WHO. She focuses much of her time on micronutrients and anaemia, coordinating the development of guidance on effective nutrition actions and the assessment of micronutrient status.  
• Andreas Hasman is a nutrition specialist at UNICEF in New York, a position he has occupied since 2019. Previously, Dr. Hasman worked as a Health Specialist at the UNICEF Regional Office for South Asia, Kathmandu, Nepal. Dr. Hasman has over 15 years of experience in delivery, monitoring, and analysis. 
• Denish Moorthy serves as a senior technical advisor at USAID Advancing Nutrition and manages the micronutrient portfolio. His areas of expertise include micronutrient reduction programs including fortification and supplementation, systematic reviews and meta-analyses in health and nutrition, monitoring and evaluation of interventions, teaching/training in research methods, health systems strengthening, nutrigenomics, and thyroid disorders.
• Mandana Arabi is the vice-president of Global Technical Services and chief technical advisor at Nutrition International. Mandana oversees the technical quality of Nutrition International’s programming in 10 countries, and leads a global team of experts to address the most challenging gaps in evidence and practice in order to improve nutrition, especially for vulnerable populations and those most in need, including adolescent girls, women, and young children. 
• Lynnette Neufeld is the director of Food and Nutrition Division of FAO. She is passionate about improving the generation and utilization of evidence in program design and delivery. Dr. Neufeld is the president of the International Union of Nutrition Scientists, the past-chair of the Micronutrient Forum Steering Committee, and a former board member of the American Society of Nutrition.
• Tanuja Rastogi is the director of advocacy and communications at the Micronutrient Forum. She has 20+ years of experience in the UN, U.S. government, civil society, and academia. Prior to the Forum, she covered global nutrition policy and advocacy issues at the World Food Programme and the DC-based NGO Bread for the World. Tanuja entered the policy arena as a Science Diplomacy Fellow at the U.S. State Deptartment and has a nutrition doctorate from the Harvard School of Public Health. She began her career working on diet-chronic disease epidemiology in inner city hospitals in India and is committed to driving evidence-based nutrition agendas.
• Kajali Paintal Goswami is a health specialist at the World Bank’s Health Population and Nutrition Unit. As a part of the global engagement team, she provides analytical, advisory, and operational support to countries on health emergency preparedness and response, health systems strengthening, and on nutrition policy and financing. She also works closely with the agriculture sector on repurposing agricultural policies for nutrition, cost of diets and on food security and crisis response.  
• Omar Dary works in the Nutrition Division of the Office of Health, Infectious Diseases and Nutrition of the Bureau for Global Health in USAID. During the last 25 years, he has provided technical assistance to more than 40 countries in the areas of micronutrient interventions, nutrition surveys, and links between agriculture, food science and nutrition.
• Daniel Raiten has spent the majority of his career at the interface between research and translation to support evidence informed practice, programs and policies in food safety and nutrition. He has served as the Program Director for Nutrition at the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development/NIH since 2009 where he is responsible for the portfolio of grants and related activities to support and advance the MCH nutrition agenda in the US and globally. He is a recipient of the DHHS Secretary’s Award, 5 NIH Director’s Awards, and was elected as a Fellow of the American Society for Nutrition in 2020.