Key MINIMOD Messages

Based on the work of the MINIMOD team and collaborators to date, the following key messages summarize the project’s recommendations for countries aiming to identify more cost-effective sets of micronutrient intervention programs:

Know your problems

• Know your diets, sub-nationally
• Know your micronutrient deficiencies, sub-nationally

Define your objectives clearly and concretely

• Select one or more specific targets – e.g., reach, coverage, effective coverage, lives saved, cases of anemia avoided
• Identify key beneficiary groups, e.g., young children, or women of reproductive age
• Define your program impact pathways

Know your existing programs

• What interventions are currently being implemented (where, by whom)
• What are the impacts of each intervention (is it at full potential, what target groups are benefiting, and how much)

Know the expected benefits of alternative programs

• Know the contributions of alternative programs to reducing micronutrient deficiencies for the different target groups

Know the costs of existing and alternative programs

• Formative research, establishment and operational costs, M&E costs

Aim for efficient solutions

• Let cost-effectiveness be your guide in selecting combinations of interventions

Adopt a multi-year, sub-national framework

• Select cost-effective combinations of national and sub-national programs, and practical multi-year pathways for implementing them

Monitor your programs

• Planning, implementation, outputs, outcomes
• Establish and fund formal multi-sectoral monitoring and coordination teams to ensure results

Keep an eye on the most vulnerable

• The poor merit special attention and may warrant special nutrition programs