A multi-million shilling project seeks to provide enhanced complementary foods for weaning children in rural Kenya to halt stunted growth and mortality.
The project funded by the Canadian government to the tune of Sh22.4 million seeks to introduce social entrepreneurship in providing access to foods rich in protein.
Malnutrition is to blame for unacceptable high rates of stunted growth and mortality among children, especially in Africa. It causes poor brain development resulting in a waste of human capital and underdevelopment in many societies but many mothers in rural Africa are unaware of the importance of protein-rich foods.
This is against the backdrop of distribution bottlenecks, which make protein sources either unavailable or too expensive in rural Africa.
The project dubbed ‘A Mile for the Brain’ aims to address the deficient distribution of complementary food and provide access to protein-rich enhanced complementary food to mothers in rural Kenya by using innovative social enterprise approaches centered around women groups.
Existing women’s groups will receive entrepreneurship training and will be taught about these foods. The groups will package and sell the foods in their communities.
By selling smaller and thus affordable packages of food, these groups will offer it at lower prices hence making it accessible to those who need it most.
Ideally, the women will engage in door-to-door marketing of the complementary foods, informing mothers of the importance of introducing complementary foods that are nutritious and high in protein. The women selling these products can use part of the returns to invest more food for resale.
“When stunting strikes children in the first years of their lives, it not only inhibits their body’s growth, but also their minds, and their potential to fully contribute to their country’s economy,” observes Florence Mwarania, the projects’ principle investigator. She adds: “When the children grow the nation grows.”
The grant, which is provided under the Grand Challenges Canada Project, will ensure that through innovation, barriers that inhibit access to high quality, complementary foods in Africa are overcome.
“The expected result is children who will be vibrant and later in life be part of a productive labour force,” Mwarania says.
Co-investigator Damaris Odeny says: “These funds will help address a crucial window of opportunity in the first 1,000 days of a child’s life. Increasing access to complementary foods by improving distribution networks has enormous impact on strengthening human capital.”
