Spotlight on the Ghana Nutrition Improvement Project – KOKO Plus
The Ghana Nutrition Improvement Project was launched in 2009 by the Ajinomoto Group to help solve the pressing issue of malnutrition in the country. In particular, the core project partners aim to improve the nutritional outcomes of an estimated 200,000 children aged 6-24 months by 2017 by providing a supplement named “KOKO Plus”. Today the project has only reached 1/10 of the target (reaching20,000 children) due to the difficulty of social business and public-private partnership. Koko, which is a traditional weaning food in Ghana, is a porridge made with fermented corn. This meal does not meet the nutritional requirements recommended by the World Health Organization and other international organizations because it is lacks in energy, protein, and micronutrients. On the other hand, KOKO Plus is nutrition supplement that contains an amino acid to be added to Koko in the cooking process to cover the nutritional deficiency of the meal. The product started to be sold in 2014, f...