Countries
- Bangladesh
- Ethiopia
- India
- Uganda
- Nigeria
Workforce Nutrition
GAIN’s Workforce Nutrition programme aims to improve the nutrition of workers and farmers in low- and middle-income countries and communities.
The programme focuses on improving access to, and demand for, healthier diets through workplaces (e.g., garment factories) or supply chains (e.g. tea estates, smallholder maize farmers). As co-convenor of the global Workforce Nutrition Alliance, GAIN brings together experts and thought leaders, provides employers with tools and resources, and curates data on best practices.
About this programme
GAIN’s Workforce Nutrition programme focuses on improving access to and demand for healthier diets using existing business structures as entry points (workplaces or supply chains). Recognising that most people spend one-third of their adult lives at work, and consume at least one daily meal at the workplace, underscores the important role employers and buyers in supply chains can play in improving workers’ diets. Ideally workforce nutrition is integrated in a broader approach to worker well-being featuring living wages, gender empowerment and the promotion of healthy lifestyles.
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The programme builds on evidence showing employers also benefit from effective workforce nutrition programmes. With the help of our partners, we have piloted, scaled, and evaluated nutrition interventions for workers in agricultural and industrial supply chains since 2013. Furthermore, we've developed a four-pillar framework for a successful evidence-based programme which includes: access to healthy food, breastfeeding support, nutrition related health checks with follow up dietary counselling, and nutrition education. Workforce Nutrition, being a sector agnostic programme, can be implemented at any workplace including tea estates (India, Kenya, Malawi), smallholder maize and rice farming communities (Nigeria), and garment factories (Bangladesh, Ethiopia).
Our mission is to increase everyone's access to healthy meals. Yet, as with all health-related interventions, promoting nutrition in the workplace requires identifying and addressing a variety of sociocultural factors. One of our latest working papers identifies gender as an essential factor to be considered in workforce nutrition interventions.
To consolidate learning and knowledge dissemination across various actors in this space and to scale up the actions required for transformational shifts in workplace environments globally, GAIN has partnered with the Consumer Goods Forum to establish the Workforce Nutrition Alliance. This alliance is committed to improving the access to and knowledge and awareness of healthy diets to over 3 million employees within member organisations and supply chains by 2025. Learn more about Workforce Nutrition Alliance.
Target groups
- Farmers and workers
- Women
- Households
- Supply chain workers
Reach
+850,000
GAIN’s Workforce Nutrition programme has reached more than 850,000 workers, smallholder farmers and their families.
GAIN began its workforce nutrition activities in 2013 with programmes in tea and gherkins in India and Indonesia, and among sectors whose labour workforces are dominated by women. Since then, we have worked with partners designing and/or implementing programmes in the tea sector (India, Kenya, Malawi and Tanzania), cocoa sector (Ghana), garment sector (Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Pakistan), and in a variety of industry sectors (Mozambique, Indonesia).
Under the COVID-19 pandemic we have also been working with partners in India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Kenya and Mozambique to deliver emergency food aid grants to employers of 50,000 vulnerable workers in the food supply chain, to keep food markets working.
The Workforce Nutrition Alliance (WNA) and its partners together achieved outstanding results in 2021, the Year of Action for Nutrition. Commitments made by companies covered workers and farmers along the supply chain.
3,000,000
Our aim is to reach three million workers, smallholder farmers, supply chain workers and their families by the end of 2025.
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Bärbel Weiligmann
Senior Advisor, Workforce Nutrition