Group Photo of the Workshop Participants

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), in collaboration with FAO Kenya and partners, held a training on nutrition-sensitive value chains and food systems. The goal was to provide local micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) and organizations of producers with a basic understanding of nutrition-sensitive value chains and food systems in view of developing their capacities to integrate nutrition-sensitive approaches in their business.

 With funding from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marina of Ireland (DAFM), FAO is implementing the project “Protecting the diets of the most vulnerable people as part of COVID-19 response and recovery programme” in Kenya and Malawi.

The project’s goals is  to strengthen the linkages between demand and supply of safe and nutritious locally produced food while enhancing collaboration with the private sector, due to its unique role in innovation, agility and adaptation within agri-food systems. Towards this, the project targets small-scale producer’s organizations and MSMEs, vulnerable groups and individuals and in particular women of reproductive age and children under 5 years.

Turkana County constitutes the geographical focus of the project in Kenya, where FAO is collaborating with other partners and initiatives, such as the project ‘’Refugee Agricultural Value Chains for Economic Self Reliance (RAVES)” that is funded by the IKEA Foundation. Turkana is among the poorest counties in the country with 79.4 percent of the population living below the poverty line and acute malnutrition exceeding the World Health Organization (WHO) threshold of 15 percent.

“Turkana is in the hot spot, malnutrition has increased since 2021 in most parts of the county. We need the support of our agribusinesses; they are our nutrition champions because they sell their products to our consumers. However, they need increased knowledge and capacities, especially with regard to the recommended food groups to feed children aged under 5 years’ said Fridah Ekaudu, Ministry of Nutritionist, Department of Health and Sanitation

The training workshop brought together over 30 participants, including representatives from the Health and Agriculture departments and pre-selected organizations of producers and MSMEs in promising nutritious value chain in Lodwar, Lokichar and Kakuma.

Participants were engaged in interesting presentations and discussions on importance of nutrition, nutrition sensitive value chaines and food systems, experience exchange and introduction to FAO’s SMEs and nutrition approach as a model for the development of nutrition-sensitive transformative action plans.

‘The workshop helped me understand how a small business like mine can contributes to nutrition in the community. The interaction with other participants made me also appreciate and learn how should I improve the nutrition quality of our vegetable and the importance of knowing the needs of other actors in the value chain’ said Bahati Musaba who is running a business specialize in dried vegetables.

Participants shared interesting experiences on nutrition-sensitive practices and had a fruitful exchange on ways to improve their businesses by combining business management with nutritional priorities. Through group activities, the participants discussed business-to-business collaboration to develop profitable nutrition-sensitive transformative action plans.

Abrahm Hamkiprobo from the Department of Agriculture in Turkana County said that ‘The nutritional situation in Turkana is not good, so partners like FAO are key to improving the situation. This programme will help build the capacity of producers, processors and trainers in the county for a better nutritious food to the consumers.’

Prior to the workshop, FAO conducted a learning needs assessment targeting producers and MSMEs in view of identifying key training areas, and organizing one-to-one mentoring and coaching activities.

In addition, the project will develop two investment cases with the objective to increase the availability and accessibility to nutritious foods for the most vulnerable population. These investment cases together with other lessons learned and identified best practices will be the starting point for fostering multi-stakeholder dialogue between, FAO, policy makers and other stakeholders, to promote preventive strategies against malnutrition and move forward with the Global Action Plan on child wasting.

For more Information Contact 

Manuel Anta

Project Coordinator

ESN Division

Email:[email protected]