The A4NH project in Kenya and Uganda

Photo credit: CGIAR-DAPA

Workshop participants in Nairobi

Promoting Sustainable Food Systems: Updates from a VCN project in Kenya and Uganda

by Irene Van Loosen

This blog post is the second in a blog series on work of CIAT’s Linking Farmers to Markets team in promoting sustainable food systems.

The blog gives an update of the one-year A4NH funded project ‘Understanding value chains that supply nutrient dense foods to urban and peri-urban consumers in Kenya and Uganda through informal markets (beans and amaranth) ’, which is currently being executed by the LFM team. The project is part of the wider ‘Value Chains for Nutrition’ (VCN) approach that CIAT is applying in several ongoing research projects. To read our introductory blog on VCN, please look here.

Workshop participants in Kampala – http://dapa.ciat.cgiar.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/workshop-participants-kampala-300×179.png

Introducing the A4NH project

A4NH stands for ‘Agriculture for Nutrition and Health’, a CGIAR research program. Increasing agricultural productivity and promoting healthy diets are deeply interrelated aspects of addressing hunger and poverty. Upgrading value chains for nutritious foods provides an opportunity to intervene in both the supply and demand components of a value chain. This approach can expand production and consumption of more nutrient dense foods and create a potential win-win situation for the rural and urban poor.

The A4NH project discussed in this post aims to improve the diets of vulnerable rural and urban consumers, specifically women of reproductive age and children 6-59 months old, in Kenya and Uganda. This is expected to be achieved through increased consumption of more diverse, safe, and nutrient-dense foods sourced from multiple crops and delivered through market-based solutions.

Read the full blog post: CIAT