Nutrition Education: A community-based approach in
enhancing household food security and nutritional
status in Machakos & Makueni Counties
Richard Mutisya1 , Zipporah Bukania1, Lydia Kaduka1, Moses Mwangi1, Robert
Karanja2 and Timothy Johns3
1Centre
for Public Health Research–KEMRI
for Biotechnology Research and Development–KEMRI
3School of Dietetics and Human Nutrition McGill University
2Centre
KARI-McGill Food Security Research Project
Innovating for resilient farming systems
Research to Feed Africa
CIFSRF Symposium
Naivasha, Kenya
23-27 June 2014
Photos: IDRC/PANOS, Sven Torfinn
Nutrition & Health Stream Overview
• NUTRITION AND HEALTH BASELINE SURVEY
– Food security, dietary intake and diversity
– Anthropometric assessment
– Clinical / Biochemical assessment
• NUTRITION EDUCATION
• ENDLINE SURVEY
– Knowledge, Attitude and Practices (KAP)
• FOOD VALUE ADDITION
– Identification of wild and local foods
– Nutrient analyses of local foods
– Functional analysis of anti-kwashiorkor activity
Background
Nutrition and Health Research Stream Baseline Survey
Key findings:
•
•
•
•
•
•
23.8% stunting levels in children (6-36 months)
14.4% women underweight
64.2% women have medium & low dietary diversity
86% households with severe food insecurity
80% purchase foods on credit (coping mechanism)
47% households treat water before consumption
Background
• Resilient farming aimed at alleviation of food
insecurity and its dietary/health consequences
is potential solution to improve these statistics
• Nutrition education can be used to:
– Change dietary practices
– Improve household food security
– Mitigate unhealthy food-related behaviors with
limited resources
Objective
To identify and train farmer nutrition champions (FNC) on
nutrition and good dietary practices consistent with
resilient farming.
Specific objectives:
• To understand community’s knowledge, attitudes and
practices (KAP) on nutrition and dietary practice
• To build the capacity of FNCs to implement dietary
behavior change communication
• To equip community members with basic knowledge
on nutrition and good dietary practice
Nutrition Education Conceptual Model
Methodology
• FGDs: to assess communities’ KAP of nutrition
and dietary practices
• Didactic Lectures: to deliver basic nutrition
education and address key gaps identified in
KAP exercise
• Teach-back methodology: to apply an
integrated approach that blends learning
training skills with teaching course content
Dialogue Card
Dialogue Card
Results
• Community food basket composition:
– Cereals: millet, maize, sorghum and their respective flours
– Legumes: beans, cowpeas, pigeon peas and green grams
– Vegetables: kales & cabbages, TLVs where cowpeas and
pumpkin leaves are in-season
– Fruits: various consumed when in-season
– Meats: beef, goat & chicken, as well as eggs/milk
• Nutrition and disease:
– The participants observed that nutrition is important in
maintaining good health and management of diseases
• Key messages:
– Main source of food is through own production
– Lack of knowledge on nutrition and diseases
Nutrition Education Training Summary
Training session
Gender
County Trained FNC
Trained Groups
Trained FNC
Category
Numbers
Machakos
4
Makueni
5
Male
41
Female
80
Machakos
52
Makueni
69
Machakos
41
Makueni
38
Female
Male
Machakos
39
18
Makueni
41
23
Follow-up Supervision
Makueni
Machakos
Totals
Evaluated groups
15
12
27
# training sessions
53
12
65
# community members trained
715
502
1,217
Monitoring & Evaluation
Conclusions & Recommendations
• Trained FNCs are potential agents for nutrition
messages at community level
• Offer a long-term, sustainable solution for
educating communities with tailored nutrition
education interventions
• National and county policies should consider
modalities of incorporating FNC models into
community health strategies and extension
services
Acknowledgements
This research was made possible through the Canadian
International Food Security Research Fund (#106510). The
Canadian International Food Security Research Fund (CIFSRF) is a
program of Canada’s International Development Research Centre
(IDRC) undertaken with the financial support of the Government
of Canada provided through Foreign Affairs, Trade and
Development Canada (DFATD).
We acknowledge the support of Lutta W. Muhammad and
Gordon M. Hickey, Principal investigators of this CIFSRF project
for the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI) and McGill
University, respectively. We also acknowledge the Director
KEMRI and Center Director CPHR for their support.
Photos: IDRC/PANOS, Sven Torfinn
Special thanks goes to all farmers and
households who took part in the KARI-McGill Food
Security Research Project with KEMRI
THANK YOU
Photos: IDRC/PANOS, Sven Torfinn