Ladidi Kuluwa Bako-Aiyegbusi

When nearly half of the children under five who die in your country do so because of malnutrition, standard food programs just won’t do. That’s why Ladidi Kuluwa Bako-Aiyegbusi, director-head of the nutrition department of the Nigerian Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, turned to a combination of partners. Working with Nigeria’s Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control as well as companies in the private sector, she oversees an innovative program that takes a common staple of many Nigerian kitchens—bouillon cubes—and fortifies them with micronutrients to nourish children even if they can’t always get enough to eat. The cubes are boosted with everything from iron, vitamin B12, and folic acid to zinc. Even if families can’t afford protein and fresh vegetables, they can afford the much less expensive bouillon, and Bako-Aiyegbusi hopes to see rates of malnutrition, stunting, and developmental disorders related to malnutrition start to decline.