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Home » Country focus » Kenya

Kenya

While the prevalence rates for wasting and underweight have declined over the past three decades, the stunting rate has increased to over a third (35%).

Social value of nutrition in Kenya blog

March 17, 2016 - Leave a Comment

Our project partner African Population Health Research Center is working on a study looking at home based nutritional counselling interventions in urban poor settings in Nairobi, Kenya and asks whether there is a social return on investing in these initiatives? They have a blog where the progress of the initiative and its impacts are regularly recorded and updated.

Determining the relationship between agrobiodiversity and nutrition in Kenya

June 1, 2015 - Leave a Comment

 

Agrobiodiversity and dietary diversity for improved nutritional status of mother-infant diets in Rongai sub-county, Kenya [Read more…]

Is there a social return on investment in nutritional counselling interventions?

May 31, 2015 - Leave a Comment

Our project partner African Population Health Research Center is working on a study looking at home based nutritional counselling interventions in urban poor settings in Nairobi, Kenya and asks whether there is a social return on investing in these initiatives?

Project Summary

In Kenya poor infant and young child feeding practices and high level of malnutrition have been documented, particularly among the urban poor. Breastfeeding for the first six months without giving any food or fluids as recommended by the World Health Organization is quasi inexistent among the urban poor while almost half of the urban poor children are too short for their age (reflective of chronic malnutrition). To provide new evidence on promoting better nutritional health in children, the African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC) in collaboration with the Unit of Nutrition and Dietetics and the Unit of Community Health Services, Ministry of Health, Kenya conducted a study with a home based nutritional counselling intervention of mothers by community health workers. The research component of the study aimed at testing how successful it would be to promote better infant feeding practices and to improve child nutritional and health outcomes in two Nairobi slums, Kenya. The study selected about 1000 pregnant women and followed them past delivery until their children were about one year of age. The study acted as a pilot study for the Baby Friendly Community Initiative (BFCI), a global initiative proposed to be started in Kenya at the national level by the Kenyan government, and aimed to inform its scale-up.

Social Return on Investment (SROI)
The study proposed here, will assess the Social Return on Investment (SROI) of the home-based nutritional counselling intervention. SROI is a method that measures the impact of an intervention in a participatory way. It measures change in ways that are relevant to the people that experience or contribute to it. Monetary values are used to represent the changes created including social, environmental and economic outcomes. The study will involve interviews and group discussions with people who directly benefited from the intervention called stakeholders. These include mothers, other household members (e.g. father), community members including health care workers, community leaders, other key actors in child health and survival including government officers and officers from other implementing organizations. Resources needed to carry out the intervention will be identified during the interviews and group discussions. The next step will be to ask the stakeholders about the achieved results of the project according to them. These effects will include both the positive and the negative. Valuation, also known as monetisation will be used to translate social or environmental effects into monetary values. At the end of process, the SROI ratio will be calculated by comparing the investments (inputs) and the financial, social and environmental returns (outcomes and impact of an intervention) as follows: SROI ratio = Total (adjusted) value of results / Total value of inputs.

Our findings
The study will explain the value of the intervention from the stakeholder point of view, which will contribute to evaluation of the real value of the intervention. This is useful in scaling up the intervention with regard to the proposed national BFCI program in Kenya. The findings will be used to inform the planning of future programming by increasing the value the intervention created in the community and society. The proposed research will also contribute to the ongoing research (e.g. in Bangladesh and Ethiopia by Transform Nutrition) in recognizing the wider benefits of a nutritional intervention in the community, society and thus not limiting the evaluation to only economic terms. Therefore, in line with Transform Nutrition’s goal, the study will address a wider goal of informing on prioritisation, implementation and scaling-up of nutrition specific interventions. Study findings will be disseminated widely to policy/decision makers and implementers in Kenya, Eastern Africa and beyond to ensure use of the evidence to inform decisions/policies and practice. As a result, it is expected that effective implementation of the BFCI in Kenya and possibly other Eastern African countries will lead to improved maternal and child with regard to the proposed national BFCI program in Kenya. The findings will be used to inform the planning of future programming by increasing the value the intervention created in the community and society. The proposed research will also contribute to the ongoing research (e.g. in Bangladesh and Ethiopia by Transform Nutrition) in recognizing the wider benefits of a nutritional intervention in the community, society and thus not limiting the evaluation to only economic terms. Therefore, in line with Transform Nutrition’s goal, the study will address a wider goal of informing on prioritisation, implementation and scaling-up of nutrition specific interventions. Study findings will be disseminated widely to policy/decision makers and implementers in Kenya, Eastern Africa and beyond to ensure use of the evidence to inform decisions/policies and practice. As a result, it is expected that effective implementation of the BFCI in Kenya and possibly other Eastern African countries will lead to improved maternal and child nutritional and health outcomes.

Update on call for proposals in eastern Africa

December 11, 2014 -

Colin Crowley/Save the Children

Colin Crowley/Save the Children

Transform Nutrition joined forces in October 2014 with the Agriculture for Nutrition and Health program of the CGIAR to release a call for “ideas notes” on a range of themes for four countries in eastern Africa: Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda and Tanzania. These outline proposals were for studies of up to 24 months duration which will add to the evidence base on nutrition-relevant policy and action in Eastern Africa. [Read more…]

Call for research concept notes in Eastern Africa

October 6, 2014 -

Transform Nutrition are inviting outline proposals for studies of up to 24 months duration which will add to the evidence base on nutrition-relevant policy and action in Eastern Africa. Deadline is 21 November for short concept notes. See here for further information

Transform Nutrition in the news

March 4, 2013 -

David Njagi

David Njagi

An article which mentions Transform Nutrition in about a new initiative in communal agriculture in Kenya  to help unite communities that might otherwise be divided. Kenya: Women-Led Farm Initiative Aims For Peace, Prosperity

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Colin Crowley/Save the Children
Colin Crowley/Save the Children
While the prevalence rates for wasting and underweight have declined over the past three decades, the stunting rate has increased to over a third (35%).

Undernutrition situation in Kenya

In Kenya, almost a third of the population (10 million people) are chronically food insecure. The country’s food and nutrition insecurity is often attributed to the performance of the agricultural sector. However, recent growth in the sector has not led to full food security for the country. In fact, in the last 30 years, per capita food availability has declined by more than 10%. Acute and chronic undernutrition and micronutrient deficiencies primarily affect pregnant and lactating women and children under five years of age. Although the Kenya under five mortality rate declined significantly between 2003 and 2009, it has increased in recent years. Undernutrition remains a significant contributing factor to child mortality. 7% of children under five are wasted and 16% are underweight. The prevalence rates for wasting and underweight have declined over the past three decades. However, the stunting rate has increased to over a third (35%) representing 2.1 million children. Figure showing deteriorating rates of stunting in Kenya Almost half (46%) of children aged between 18 and 23 months are stunted while children under six months are 11%. Mothers with a low body- mass-index tend to have children with higher stunting levels, while mothers with longer birth intervals reduce the likelihood of their children being stunted. The UNICEF table shows the trends of undernutrition in Kenya from 1993 to 2008 according to the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey.

Policy

Vision 2030, the long-term development blueprint, aims to transform Kenya into a globally competitive and prosperous nation with a high quality of life by 2030. Achievement assumes a healthy and productive human capital, nurtured by good nourishment from infancy into adulthood, in tandem with proper disease control, good hygiene and sanitation, and caring practices. The estimated cost of stunting to Kenya’s economy in 2010 was over US$1 billion. Over 20 years it would result in the deaths of 700,000 people. Unless addressed undernutrition poses the biggest threat to Vision 2030. More imminently it poses a threat to meeting the Millennium Development Goal 1 on child survival. Recent investments into agriculture, water and sanitation, social protection and health systems have not had an impact on the nutrition status. These programmes have not been sufficiently targeted to improving the nutrition status. At national level, policies do not reflect the multi-faceted causes of malnutrition. Nutrition is barely referenced in most food security and related development policies and programmes. In the government’s Vision 2030, nutrition is conspicuously absent. Even the current health ministry strategy, relegates malnutrition to a sub-target under the twelfth priority of the second strategic thrust health. Kenya is also a signatory to several international conventions on hunger and malnutrition but this is has not been translated into tangible results.

Opportunities for influence

However, recent developments are encouraging. The new Kenya Constitution recognises the right quality and quantity of food as a basic right for children. Policies need to be aligned to this so that ministries of agriculture, education and irrigation and water are more nutrition sensitive. The National Nutrition Action Plan is currently being finalised. It defines cost-effective and high impact activities, and includes a strategic focus on increasing the demand and use of research to influence policy and practice. Its success is hinged on a wholesale allocation of financial, human and operational resources. Read the Kenya Situation Analysis (PDF) prepared for Transform Nutrition.

Stakeholder mapping

The Kenya stakeholder workshop took place in Nairobi, November 2012 and included participants from the Kenya Government, national NGOs and civil society organizations, international NGOs and bilateral and international donors and agencies. Organised by Save the Children, Kenya and the University of Nairobi, partners plotted the principal actors in the nutrition policy environment, drawing links to show their perceptions of the main funding and advice links. See the Stakeholder Mapping Report Kenya (PDF).  

News on this country

Update on call for proposals in eastern Africa
Call for research concept notes in Eastern Africa
Transform Nutrition in the news

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Transform Nutrition is a consortium of five international research and development partners funded by the UK Department for International Development. Using research-based evidence we aim to inspire effective action to address undernutrition.
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