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How can nutrition labelling support large-scale food fortification?

What is the problem? Malnutrition in all its forms – including nutritional deficiencies – is a leading cause of death and disability globally. Food fortification is a proven and cost-effective intervention to address nutritional deficiencies. Large-scale food fortification (LSFF) is the practice of adding minerals or vitamins to commonly consumed foods i.e., staple foods such as salt, flours, oil, and rice during industrial processing to increase their nutritional value and deliver potential health benefits to populations.  Nutrition labelling has the potential to help achieve public health goals by improving the transparency around food product contents, including the contents of fortified foods. What did we do? The George Institute for Global Health was commissioned by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to study how nutrition labelling regulations act as a barrier or an enabler to fortification programs in Ethiopia, Indonesia, Kenya, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philipp

2025 FoodSwitch State of the Food Supply Report: Planetary Health Edition

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Food governance

Program overview Law is a powerful tool to promote public health. Yet despite Australia’s leadership in areas like tobacco control and road safety, law remains underused as a tool to promote healthy and sustainable population diets. The Food Governance Program seeks to change this. Our aim is to improve dietary intake at scale by monitoring the global food supply, assessing food policy impacts, and strategically strengthening food policies and regulations to promote health and sustainability. Program objectives Monitor and evaluate the performance of existing food policies and regulations by leveraging the Institute’s FoodSwitch dataset Analyse regulatory innovation worldwide to develop recommendations on best-practice food regulation Work closely with UN agencies, national and state governments, public health and consumer organisations and academic collaborators to translate evidence into effective law and policy change. View projects

Food is Medicine Program

Program overview The Nutrition Science Team at The George Institute for Global Health are leading an innovative research initiative centred on food-based interventions, known as ‘Food is Medicine’. ‘Food is Medicine’ programs aim to treat diet-related diseases and reduce food insecurity by providing people with the nutritious foods they need – prescribed just like medicine. These programs often include nutrition education and are subsidised by healthcare systems as part of treatment. Depending on a person’s medical needs and preferences, they may receive: Medically tailored meals, or Produce prescriptions (e.g., fresh fruits and vegetables) Australians do not eat enough fruits and vegetables with only 5% eating the recommended amount. And access to nutritious foods is a challenge faced by up to one in four low income Australian households who experience food insecurity. These challenges are major contributors to Australia’s growing burden of

Using pregnancy to improve women’s lifelong health

By utilising a life-course approach to the prevention of non-communicable diseases, when women are screened during pregnancy. The physiological changes in a woman’s body during pregnancy to support fetal growth and wellbeing and prepare for labour and birth have been compared to a nine-month marathon that finishes with a sprint. For some women, this pregnancy “stress test” will result in medical complications of pregnancy, such as gestational diabetes (“GDM”, affecting approximately 1 in 7 pregnancies globally), high blood pressure disorders (affecting up to 1 in 10 pregnancies globally) and anaemia (10-40%). Existing mental and physical health conditions may also worsen. The course of a woman’s pregnancy also gives a window into a woman’s future health, as the effect of pregnancy complications on mother and child do not end with the pregnancy. For example, after hypertensive pregnancy there is at least doubled risk of cardiovascular disease (beginning within 5-10 years of

Improve outcomes for women specific conditions globally

Globally efforts to improve women’s health largely focus on maternal health, overlooking women’s health needs beyond pregnancy and childbirth. The weight given to the maternal health outcome neglects the full range of women’s health. Diseases that affect women are substantially under-studied and under resourced. Gynaecological cancers and conditions like endometriosis, uterine fibroids, poly cystic syndrome, and cervical cancers might have been better understood if they also affected men. Since these are women-specific health issues that affect a woman’s quality of life across her lifespan, there has been little investment, particularly in low-and middle-income countries, to improve early diagnosis and treatment. For example, approximately 180 women globally with endometriosis remain undiagnosed and suffer from its symptoms like pain and infertility for almost seven years before getting diagnosed. Hence, more research and concerted action is needed to improve women’s health and to ensure tha

Centre for Sex and Gender Equity in Health and Medicine

The health of women and girls, people with variations in sex characteristics (intersex people) and trans and gender-diverse people has been understudied in health and medical research. An almost exclusive focus on male cells, male animals and men in health and medical research has led to poorer health outcomes and evidence gaps for women, intersex people, and trans and gender-diverse people, and inefficient health spending. Women’s health research often focuses only on their sexual, reproductive, and maternal health rather than the leading causes of death and disability for women. Research on intersex and gender-diverse people is even less developed and availability of health data remains a challenge. For some health conditions, we also have very little information on men and boys, given the conditions occur predominantly in women. The Centre for Sex and Gender Equity in Health and Medicine is addressing these inequities through world-class research, advocacy for policy change, and capacity building

Harnessing AI to improve women’s health

The George Institute's Women’s Health Program aims to improve the health of women and girls around the world by adopting a life course and equity approach. We are a global group of researchers, clinicians, policy and advocacy specialists, and communications specialists who are passionate about improving the lives and health of women and girls through conducting high-quality, innovative and cutting-edge research. AI and women’s health Artificial intelligence is changing our world with exciting potential to improve women’s health. Some examples include improved diagnosis, prediction of future disease, clinical decision support, health worker training and continuous supportive supervision, and rapid evidence synthesis. However, AI also brings challenges, with the risk of entrenching biases for groups underrepresented in large datasets used to train AI models, the risk of hallucinations, a changing regulatory environment, concerns around the energy required, and safety concerns for use

Contact us

Have questions or want to connect with our team? Reach out to us today. With offices in Australia, India, China and the UK, we offer global expertise with a local perspective, ensuring we understand and address the unique needs of your community. OfficesMediaCareers Offices Sydney, Australia Level 8, Health Translation Hub, 55 Botany Street, Randwick,NSW 2031 +61 2 8052 4300 info@georgeinstitute.org.au Need our delivery instructions? New Delhi, India 308, Third Floor, Elegance Tower, Plot No. 8, Jasola District Centre,New Delhi, 110025 +91 11 415 880 91-93 info@georgeinstitute.org.in Hyderabad, India Shangrilla Plaza # 401, Banjara Hills, Road No 2, Hyderabad, 500034,Telangana +91 40 49959780 info@georgeinstitute.org.in London, UK 58 Wood LaneLondon W12 7RZ info@georgeinstitute.org.uk Beijing, China Office 729, 7/F Metropolis Tower, No.

Study finds peer-support model benefits mental health of transgender persons

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Professor Pallab K. Maulik

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Pallab leads Research department at The George Institute for Global Health, India. He trained as a psychiatrist at All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, received training in public health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, as well as Johns Hopkins School of Public Health where he pursued his Masters and Doctoral training, respectively.

Professor Maulik has worked with the World Health Organisation (WHO), Geneva on Project Atlas and other mental health programs, and clinically as a psychiatrist in India and Australia. He has worked for more than 25 years in global mental health and has research network across multiple countries and institutions where he is affiliated with and with whom he collaborates on many projects.  

His particular research interests include social determinants of health, especially mental health services, mental disorders, international mental health, and intellectual disability. He is a Principal Investigator or co-investigator on many large mental health projects in India and abroad. He primarily focuses on delivering affordable and accessible mental health care for disadvantaged and marginalized communities in India, while using technology-enabled solutions to enable the health system to function more efficiently. He also leads a significant programme of work on stigma related to mental health. He was an Intermediate Career Wellcome Trust/DBT India Alliance Fellow from 2014-19 and currently is a Senior Fellow of the Wellcome Trust/DBT India Alliance.

Dr Y.K. Sandhya

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Sandhya received her doctoral degree in Social Medicine and Community Health from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. Her work with The George Institute's mental health programme involves assessing the effectiveness of technology-enabled delivery of mental health care by primary healthcare workers for depression, suicide and stress among adolescents in urban slum communities in Delhi and Vijayawada.

Her research interest includes developing a gendered understanding and analysis of mental health issues in India. Prior to joining The George Institute, Sandhya was at SAHAYOG as the Assistant Coordinator.