BirthStrong

Empowering pregnant women with life saving nutrition

“The return on investment in nutrition is unparalleled. For every dollar spent, we gain $16 in improved health, education, and economic outcomes.”

– World Bank

BirthStrong is MNF’s flagship intervention, designed to scale access to over 915 million Multiple Micronutrient Supplements (MMS) for pregnant women. By addressing the most urgent nutritional gaps during pregnancy, BirthStrong reduces maternal anaemia, prevents low birthweight and preterm births, and lowers neonatal mortality, while supporting healthier early development for children.

Why MMS: Multiple Micronutrient Supplements (MMS) contain 15 essential nutrients tailored to the needs of pregnancy. Backed by over 20 years of clinical evidence and endorsed by WHO and UNICEF, MMS has been proven more effective than traditional iron-folic acid (IFA) supplements in improving maternal and newborn outcomes.

Key Benefits of MMS Compared to IFA:

  • 12–19% reduction in low birthweight
  • 6–16% reduction in preterm births
  • 8–11% reduction in stillbirths
  • Up to 29% reduction in infant mortality in anaemic mothers

Over 5 million additional school years gained through improved early childhood development

Systems-Level Change

BirthStrong is more than a supplement programme, it’s a platform for resilient, country-led maternal health transformation.

MNF drives systems change by:

  • Supporting local MMS manufacturing, reducing costs by up to 50%
  • Strengthening supply chains and digital monitoring systems
  • Integrating maternal nutrition into national health strategies and antenatal care guidelines
  • Generating local employment in the health, logistics, and pharmaceutical sectors

Geographic Focus

MNF will prioritise delivery in 21 crisis-affected countries, scaling up to 63 that are increasingly at risk. These are settings where maternal and newborn mortality remain critically high, and where health systems face deepening gaps due to reduced donor support:

  • Afghanistan
  • Burkina Faso
  • Cameroon
  • Central African Republic
  • Democratic Republic of Congo
  • Ethiopia
  • Haiti
  • Lebanon
  • Mali
  • Mozambique
  • Myanmar
  • Niger
  • Nigeria
  • Occupied Palestinian Territory
  • Somalia
  • South Sudan
  • Sudan
  • Syria
  • Ukraine
  • Yemen

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