The Canadian and German governments will spend Sh803 million to fund two major projects aimed at fighting malnutrition in Elgeyo Marakwet County for the next 10 years.
The Realizing gender Equality, Attitudinal Change & Transformative Systems In Nutrition (REACTS IN) project will be funded by the Canadian government while the government of Germany will fund Enhancing Nutrition Services to Improve Maternal &Child Health in Africa (ENRICH) with the two projects being implemented by World Vision Kenya and other partners.
Marie Bettings from World Vison Canada said escalating problems posed by climate change and increased cost of food has led to the rising challenge of malnutrition which affects the vulnerable and particularly women and girls.
She contended that poor feeding practices and lack of access to adequate nutritious food affects children’s education while they are also prone to suffering from various diseases as a result of low immunity.
Martha Nyang’aya from Nutrition International said despite various efforts to fight malnutrition in the county, stunting among children stood at 22%, underweight was 15% while wasting stood at 5% which she said was worrying and required a multi sectoral approach to fight.
She said there was need to redefine food security saying Kenya was one of 7 countries in Africa which has seen an increasing trend of malnutrition which manifested in stunting and also increasing micro nutrient deficiency saying 42% of adolescent girls were iron deficient.
Ms. Nyang’aya pointed out that although statistics indicate that Elgeyo Marakwet county is over 80% food secure, the food is mainly available during harvesting season which is later sold saying even sources of proteins like eggs are not consumed within the household but sold to meet financial needs.
She regretted that 12% of girls with iron deficiency get pregnant between the ages of 12-14 years and later drop out of school thus exacerbating the challenge of malnutrition and stunting.
She therefore called for concerted efforts in addressing issues affecting the development of girls in a holistic manner saying while perpetrators of sexual abuse should be arrested, there was need to empower the girls to say no and resist the perpetrators.
She called on county governments to set aside funds to cater for nutritional needs of the residents to ensure that projects such as ENRICH and REACTS IN are sustainable even after donors leave.
The CEO World Vision Kenya Gilbert Kamanga said gender equality was key to fighting malnutrition saying male engagement was key to ensuring that families get nutritious food but regretted that men were less concerned on what their families eat.
Noting that Nutrition need to be sustained both at home and in school, the CEO called for establishment of school feeding programmes that are sustainable.
The REACTS IN project will be implemented in Marakwet East which faces the twin problems of food insecurity and border conflicts while the ENRICH project will be implemented in Keiyo North, Keiyo South and Marakwet West sub counties.
By Alice Wanjiru
