Launching new hygiene, nutrition and agricultural products in complex markets

Sometimes private companies need a little nudge to design and launch products that can change lives. Hystra has been working with several teams from the Gates Foundation – Nutrition, Innovation Introduction, Maternal and Child Health, Water Sanitation & Hygiene, Agricultural Development – to identify and analyse innovative business models, and build and manage programmes, helping design and launch new nutrition and hygiene products targeting lower-income consumers as well a refine the Foundation's role in various domains.

Maternal health: Between 2020 and 2024, Hystra supported the Rural Support Network of Pakistan (RSPN) to launch and execute a market test in rural Pakistan, aiming to improve access and uptake of maternal nutrition products, with support from the Gates Foundation. Recognizing the limits of institutional approaches to sustainably provide beneficial goods and services in rural areas, the market test goal was to design a sustainable road-to-market for nutrition supplements via women-led last-mile commercial channels. The first product commercialized was a food supplement (Balanced Energy Protein), targeting undernourished Pregnant and Lactating Women (PLWs), providing essential micro- and macronutrients and a high caloric intake, to improve their nutritional status and decrease the risk of adverse outcomes for infants in low-income and food-insecure contexts. Within 18 months of launch, women sales agents were reaching an average conversion rate of 53% among local PLW. This single-product based model then evolved into a distribution model of 20+ health, nutrition, and hygiene products (including Multiple Micronutrient Supplements), that is now replicated by other programs in Pakistan.

Chris Kirby, Senior Strategy Officer at the Foundation, said: “The various projects we have worked on together have helped shape our thinking on maternal nutrition (manufacturing and delivery) but also on economic inclusion. In all, the collective insights provided by the Hystra grants and contracts have been influential on a range of teams.”

Nutrition: Bouillon cube is one of the rare food products to be consumed daily by over 90% of the population in West Africa. In early 2019, the Foundation launched a program involving industry partners, research institutes and NGOs with the aim to develop voluntary and mandatory standards for bouillon fortification focusing on key micronutrients. As part of this program, between 2022 and 2024, we analyzed the economics of fortified bouillon cubes – and helped ensure the voice of private producers of bouillon cubes was heard. In 2024, based on the data shared by the program, the Nigerian government created a new industrial standard for bouillon, which includes a provision for adding vital micronutrients on a voluntary basis. Based on this program and other fortification efforts, Hystra published a report on “Large scale food fortification: The business case for food processors”, shedding light on the real costs of fortification for food processors as well as incentives that can help overcome those and help improve compliance rates to mandatory fortification standards.

Azita Tajaddini, Senior Program Officer at the Foundation, said: “Your professionalism, knowledge and flexibility helped clarify aspects of commercialization needed for our larger project.”

Menstrual health: Hystra conducted several in-depth research pieces for the Gates Foundation on commercial solutions to menstrual health, the business case for reusable solutions as well as the synergies between menstrual health and family planning programs. These helped inform the Gates Foundation strategy on menstrual health and led Hystra to advise the Sanitation and Hygiene Fund as well as individual companies providing affordable menstrual health solutions in low-income markets.
Francesca Mazzola, Senior Program Officer at the Foundation, said: “Hystra's report on the MH market was incredibly helpful to us and the broader field of MH. It helped really highlight where there are opportunities to move the space.”

Agriculture: Hystra designed and moderated a workshop for the Gates and NovoNordisk Foundations on the R&D requirements to improve biofertilizer adoption across the globe.
As per Charlotte Schöller, Senior Scientific Manager, Innovation, Novo Nordisk Foundation: “Hystra’s key strenghts are its ability to structure complex information and learn on the fly. The facilitation of the workshop and the structuring of the outcome into a useful report was was extremely professional.”

Further, Hystra supported the Gates Foundation in understanding business models in small scale irrigation for Sub-Saharan Africa. Marcella McClatchey, Senior Program Officer at the Gates Foundation, said: “The analysis helped us understand the state of the small-scale irrigation sector in sub-Saharan Africa, and identify a few areas where we could make investments to advance the development of the sector.”