Fortify Health began in 2017 as a question: How can we fill a gap to cost effectively improve public health at scale? In searching for the answer to this question, Fortify Health’s founders looked at the burden of anaemia globally and the evidence around programmes that tackle anaemia. We were particularly struck not only by the depth of the anaemia issue in India, but also by the evidence, scalability and cost-effectiveness of one particular solution to address anaemia: wheat flour fortification. Thanks to existing, rigorous evidence on fortification and many conversations with experts in the nutrition field, we decided that wheat flour fortification in India was a clear, important starting point as the answer to our initial question.
In 2018 Fortify Health secured its first Incubation Grant of $300,000 from GiveWell and hired a dedicated team in India. We set up our two flagship programmes to enable wheat flour fortification at-scale, starting in Maharashtra and West Bengal, and received a follow-up grant from GiveWell of ~$1 million in 2019, allowing us to expand our programmes to Madhya Pradesh. Each of our flagship programmes focused, and still focuses, on a different public channel: a) supporting mills to fortify wheat flour for the open market, and b) collaborating with state governments and quasi-governmental organisations to fortify the wheat flour they provide to their beneficiaries. Between 2018 and 2021, in spite of challenges posed by the pandemic, we were able to demonstrate proof of concept of our programmes.
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In 2022, Fortify Health received an ~$8.2 million grant from GiveWell to support scaling up of our flagship programmes. This led to the second phase of Fortify Health’s journey, as the team focused on developing the foundations for scale. This involved hiring department leads for each of the programmatic areas (open market, partnerships and M&E) and putting systems and processes in places that would support rapid growth.
At present (late 2023), our team is mobilising for the next phase of Fortify Health’s scale up. We currently have partnerships with more than 50 mills and a team of more than 50 people, working in 6 states: Maharashtra, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, and Delhi NCR. We’ve also signed implementation partnerships with Feeding India and Food Fortification Initiative, with the aim of amplifying our impact. We’ve signed academic partnerships with with the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi and CFTRI, to generate evidence about food fortification at scale.
Over the next two years, our strategy is to drive impact through scale. By the end of this period, we aim to be a market maker in the states we operate in by increasing the demand for fortified wheat flour across millers, government partners and eventually beneficiaries. The aim is that over time, we will create a positive feedback loop where other organisations and stakeholders are incentivised to invest their own capital in fortifying wheat flour. This feedback loop will help drive the long-term strategic goal of fostering sustainability of the intervention.
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- Position: Quality Officer
- Terms of employment: Contract for one year, renewal by mutual agreement
- Country: India with preference for Indore (Madhya Pradesh), Bangalore (Karnataka), Hyderabad (Telangana), Delhi NCR, Maharashtra
- Salary and benefits: INR 70,787 per month
- Last Date to Apply: Sunday, March 10th, 2024 (note that applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis)
- Tentative Start Date: April 1st, 2024
About Fortify Health
Fortify Health has a vision for a healthier world where everyone has the micronutrients they need to survive and thrive. We work toward this by enabling access to micronutrient-rich wheat flour to reduce and prevent iron deficiency anaemia. We currently have operations in Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Telangana, Delhi NCR, and Karnataka in India, and plan to expand in other states in the next three years. We provide career development opportunities and a wide range of resources to support our team.
Fortify Health operates through three work streams:
- Open Market Support: We support millers to cost-neutrally fortify chakki atta in the open market
- Government Partnership Support: We work with governments in India to mainstream wheat flour fortification through social safety net programs
- Evidence Generation: We conduct monitoring and evaluation of activities to inform the public about the value of food fortification
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Position Overview
The Quality Officer positions will be hired at multiple locations in India (with up to 50% of their time including travel to other locations), ensuring the quality of fortified atta and programs as per Fortify Health guidelines. This role will collaborate with partner mills and Fortify Heath’s Program team to ensure that they fortify their flour adequately and adhere to the standards, by managing the quality assurance process of fortified atta. The Quality Officer will be required to manage communications with quality assurance staff in partner mills. They will closely work with Program and Regulatory Affairs teams at Fortify Health.
The Quality Officer will be responsible for ensuring collaborative work takes place with our partner mills. They will also have a base of knowledge about data collection, analysis, and food technology to facilitate fortification successfully in mills. They have the exciting opportunity to bring their own unique experience into this role and will be an essential part of Fortify Health’s growth.
Responsibilities and activities
- Work with the Fortify Health team, millers, and labs to ensure fortified wheat flour is correctly fortified
- Follow and refine Fortify Health’s data collection protocols for the entire lifecycle of work with partner mills
- Collect data periodically, enter it, and analyze it to give actionable insights to the program team to improve fortification operations in the mills
- Manage communication between all stakeholders involved in the quality assurance process
- Manage Fortify Health’s internal regulatory monitoring, with guidance from the line manager
- Support the M&E/Quality team to improve our long-term M&E/Quality strategy and related research aims
- Plan and conduct fieldwork to understand the uptake of fortified atta at all levels of the supply chain
- Consolidate monitoring the quality data and prepare periodic reports for internal use, sharing with external stakeholders like mill partners and funders, ensuring an appropriate level of anonymity and data sharing ethics
- Innovate and design mechanisms for fortification data collection and representation
- Support exploration of future opportunities for study design and execution
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Requirements
- Experience/background in food technology and/or milling technology, (experience in fortification is a plus).
- Bachelors or higher degree in food technology, milling engineering, public health, or a related field
- Enthusiasm about our opportunity to improve people’s lives through fortification
- Strong organizational skills, with the ability to oversee the quality assurance process from mill to lab
- Inclusive, clear, and strong verbal and written communication skills, from managing relationships between various stakeholders to relaying important quality assurance findings in an accessible way
- Strong creative problem-solving skills, with the ability to efficiently learn and execute best practices where they exist and to innovate where they do not
- Excellent teamwork skills
- Confidence, humility, and diligence
- Excellent attention to both detail and results
- Proven ability to lead professional interpersonal relationships with empathy
- Willingness to travel up to 50% of working days
- Willingness to relocate to the regions where Fortify Health is implementing its program
- Fluency in Hindi, professional fluency in English
Desirable attributes
- Experience working with remote team members
- Experience working independently
- Relevant experience in the NGO field environment
- Enthusiasm about our opportunity to improve people’s lives
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