Scaling microbusinesses for healthy and sustainable food systems
Programs and partnerships
Lead institution(s)
Summary
Kenya must evolve its food system to reduce the burden of malnutrition and thereby improve public health and national economic growth. There is a need not only to reduce the incidence of undernutrition, but also to address the obesity and chronic illnesses associated with overnutrition.Read more
Kenya must evolve its food system to reduce the burden of malnutrition and thereby improve public health and national economic growth. There is a need not only to reduce the incidence of undernutrition, but also to address the obesity and chronic illnesses associated with overnutrition. The challenge is to make sustainable healthy foods the preferred option among consumers rather than ultra-processed, less healthy foods. This can be achieved in part by making sustainable healthy foods consistently available and affordable to all consumers, including the poorest.
This project seeks to identify the conditions that can influence microbusinesses in informal and rural contexts to contribute more to equitable food system transformation, in particular for extremely poor women, and to strengthen microbusiness owners’ household food consumption. It will examine incentives for businesses to change as well as the factors that influence demand, and how they are shaped by gender. The project will convey new knowledge on policy measures and interventions that can encourage business production, market interaction, and demand for healthy and sustainable foods. To meet its goal, the project will use a comprehensive mixed-method approach comprising systematic reviews, household surveys, qualitative interviews, value-chain analysis, natural experiments, and econometric modeling.
This project will be funded through the Catalyzing Change for Health and Sustainable Food Systems (CCHeFS) Initiative, a co-funding partnership between IDRC and the Rockefeller Foundation.
Research outputs
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This policy brief presents the findings from the Scaling Micro and Small Businesses for Healthy and Sustainable Food Systems in Kenya (SME4Nutrition) project that sought to contribute to building this evidence base.
Food markets and especially micro and small agri-food businesses (AFBs) are ubiquitous all over Kenya, and their role in shaping food access and consumption in both rural and urban contexts is pronounced. Whereas the 3rd Bungoma CIDP 2023-2027, henceforth CIDP-III, recognizes that local markets and AFBs as contributors to the local food systems, neither their significance, interface with shifting dietary patterns, nor whether and how to scale their contribution toward healthy and sustainable foods (HSFs) are not well understood nor well considered. It is important to bring these actors to the centre of multisectoral policy dialogues on leveraging their contribution to delivering affordable HSFs for improved nutrition and sustainable food systems. However, evidence gaps exist on what policies and strategies can strengthen their contribution while paying attention to the sustainability dimension of food systems. This policy brief presents the findings from the SME4Nutrition project that sought to contribute to building this evidence base.
This policy brief presents the findings from the Scaling Micro and Small Businesses for Healthy and Sustainable Food Systems in Kenya (SME4Nutrition) project that sought to contribute to building this evidence base. The project sought to enhance understanding of the interface between MSEs and the food environment, business enabling environment, and household consumption patterns, with a focus on generating evidence for interventions and measures that can support MSEs to make a visible, coherent, and substantial contribution. The evidence will inform multi-stakeholder dialogue towards policy priorities to ensure all Kenyans have access to affordable and healthy food, including the NCC-FSS.
This brief presents summary findings from the SME4Nutrition research project and seeks to unravel how gender factors play out in food SMEs and their business enabling environment. It sets out how these factors shape businesses’ characteristics, behaviour, and performance from a gender perspective. It lays out implications for those wishing to engage with gender in efforts to support an effective transition to healthier and sustainable food systems in Kenya. The gender- aware insights offers evidence to inform policies and strategies that can strengthen the contribution of MSEs to these outcomes.
This policy brief presents the findings from the Scaling Micro and Small Businesses for Healthy and Sustainable Food Systems in Kenya (SME4Nutrition) project that sought to contribute to building this evidence base.
About the partnership
