Charity

​entrepreneurship.

​Fortify Health is a ​micronutrient fortification initiative in its early stages, that aims to meet GiveWell’s rigorous standards for effective charities. Preliminary research led us to prioritize iron and folic acid fortification. Our guiding principles shape our intervention to be:

• Evidence-based
• Highly cost-effective
• Scalable
• Feasible
• Unlikely to exist without our efforts

The potential impact of this initiative led us to believe that our attempt is worthwhile. We are reviewing our efforts at regular intervals, and we are committed to being responsive to the indications of our evaluations and the advice of our advisory board. If you have any feedback or ideas on how we could improve our approach, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

Why fortification?
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GiveWell’s “Charities we’d like to see” article includes micronutrient fortification and supplementation. Furthermore, a thorough review of GiveWell’s suggestions and others conducted by Charity Science identified iron and folic acid fortification among the top five opportunities for EA charity entrepreneurship. You can read their conclusions on iron and folic acid here, including links to key effectiveness literature. 

​Fortification of iron and folic acid, such as in wheat flour, rice and other staple foods, has been shown to have various significant health benefits, including reduction of long-term and chronic illnesses, improved cognitive development, reduction of iron deficiency anemia, and a decrease in fatal and debilitating neural tube defects.
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​We believe this initiative is a good investment of our time. Experts in the field, including GiveWell, 80,000 Hours, and Charity Science, think that charity entrepreneurship is an effective way to make a difference in the world. You can see a detailed model of the estimated impact here.