By Gitahi Ngunyi
Kenya government spending on nutrition has increased five times in the last five years as a result of advocacy and lobbying activities by nutrition NGOs, data presented to a regional workshop on scaling up nutrition today shows.
According to the data presented by Kenya’s country director for Nutrition International Dr Martha Nyagaya, the country’s spending shot to USD4.9 billion by end of 2022 from USD0.98 five years earlier. This increase has led to the reduction to malnutrition and its results such as stunted growth cases among children.
“Results from 12 counties where we operate show a remarkable drop in malnutrition although that does not mean that we are out of the woods yet,” said Nyagaya who is also the chairperson of Kenya’s chapter of Scaling-Up Nutrition Civil Society Alliance (SUN CSA).
Kenya’s SUN CSA National Coordinator Edgar Onyango says although these results are groundbreaking, the alliance wants to ensure that they are sustainable.
“We want to ensure there is institutionalisation and policy coherence. We are now working with counties to develop nutritional policies and strategies and ensure that those policies and strategies are implemented to support nutrition,” he says.
He adds that the alliance will work to ensure that there is wide ownership of the policies and strategies through improved coordination of nutrition through multi-sectoral approaches that ensures all critical stakeholders are involved at both national and county levels.
“These strategies are much more sustainable approaches to ensure that our work lives beyond current efforts,” says Onyango.
National Data from Kenya Domestic Household Survey (KDHS) from the 12 counties that Nyagaya presented at the workshop showed that there was a general drop in the prevalence of chronic malnutrition in Kenya with national average drop recorded at 8.4 percent.
“Nandi and Bomet recorded the highest drop in chronic malnutrition rates at 14.8 and 13.4 percent respectively among the 11 counties supported by Nutrition International,” said Nyang’aya adding that Kiambu recorded the lowest drop 1.4 percent.
Nyagaya who was speaking at a workshop organised by the Scaling-Up Nutrition East and Southern Africa Regional Group said the changes in Kenya were achieved by strategic advocacy efforts led by the local chapter of the nutritional NGO alliance, Scaling-Up Nutrition Civil Society Alliance.
She said the alliance had implemented five key strategic priorities that had delivered to deliver results. The strategies include correct of the Kenyan nutrition context and framing the investment case for nutrition as well as mobilising political and financial commitments for nutrition.
Other strategic priorities include creating an enabling environment; planning, financing and monitoring multi-sectoral interventions and learnings, coordination and sustainability.
The workshop aims to ensure that the East and Southern African Scaling-Up Nutrition Civil Societies network will be coordinated effectively and the governance structures established and a joint regional strategy for 2024 will be reviewed and updated.
Further, it is expected that by the end of the workshop that the engagement and collaboration with the Scaling-Up Nutrition Movements (SMS) regional hub and other regional technical and financial partners will be enhanced through regular communication, joint activities, and mutual support.
It is also expected that a platform for peer-to-peer learning, knowledge exchange, information sharing and identification of joint advocacy opportunities among Civil Societies Alliance (CSAs) in the region will be provided and used effectively and that the the capacity for CSAs in good governance and documentation of good practices will be strengthened through training, mentoring, and peer support.
