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 According to the study "The Cost of Hunger in Africa, 2017", Mozambique loses more than 10.9% of its annual GDP, almost 62 billion Meticais (1.6 billion Dollars), due to chronic malnutrition.

With these data, one can conclude that the country fails to invest in sectors vital to its development and growth. Preventing and combating malnutrition in all its forms should be seen as a priority for all stakeholders (government, donors, development agencies, private sector, civil society, academia, among others), as it has a direct impact not only on public health, but also on the economy of the country.

Although Mozambique has registered, in the last decade, a reduction in the levels of chronic malnutrition (from 43% to 38%, in children under 5 years old, according to the IOF - Household Budget Survey, 2019/2020), for the "WHO and UNICEF, these levels observed in the population are classified as "very high" in terms of their public health importance, (IOF, 2019/2020).

To ensure greater participation of the private sector, in the eradication of malnutrition in Mozambique, GAIN has worked through a joint and differentiated approach, in supporting this sector, based on the need to raise awareness about its role in improving nutrition, through initiatives that include, among others, increasing the availability of safe and nutritious food for all, especially the most vulnerable.
In its strategies to support and engage the private sector, GAIN has implemented and continues to focus on approaches such as:

Community of Practice: a platform for engagement, capacity building, experience sharing and business promotion among food systems actors to stimulate greater access to knowledge and market linkages by micro, small and medium enterprises.

Innovation Accelerator: an initiative that creates opportunities to access technical assistance, development and investment for innovative business ideas that have the purpose of promoting nutrition.

Nutrition in the Workplace: which promotes advocacy, design, and implementation of viable business models for the introduction of nutrition programs in the workplace.

As well as the co-facilitation of the Business Network for Scaling Up Nutrition: a private sector platform that seeks on one hand, to create and stimulate synergies among its members in order to improve the business environment, whether through initiatives to improve and expand their productive capacities or by creating new market opportunities. On the other hand, the Network establishes itself as an advocacy mechanism in favour of the private sector, regarding the different factors that condition business (legislative, regulatory, among others).

As a result of 11 years of support and involvement of the private sector in the improvement of nutrition in Mozambique, highlighting 7 of the provinces with the highest rates of chronic malnutrition (Maputo, Sofala, Manica, Tete, Zambezia, Nampula and Cabo Delgado) GAIN has carried out the following actions:

• Support to more than 300 companies, in technical assistance actions for improvement in product formulation and model design and business development
• Support to more than 40 companies in the elaboration of business plans
• Support to 15 companies in the implementation of workplace nutrition programs or initiatives
• Support to more than 30 companies in direct financing to improve their capacity to produce and distribute safe and nutritious food
• More than 100 companies making individual commitments to improve nutrition
• 55 Community of Practice meetings held in 7 provinces

Due to the recognition of the impact that this model of support with the private sector generates in the business community and in the final consumer - the communities most vulnerable to chronic malnutrition, this is an approach that has been replicated in other programs.