A few weeks later, Laticia was invited to join other “lead mothers” and community volunteers from the area at training workshop organized with support from USAID’s Kenya Nutrition and Health Program Plus. At the workshop, Laticia and other participants were taught basic facts about nutrition, including benefits of exclusive breastfeeding and complementary feeding for young children. They also learned about different food groups and how to prepare nutritious meals using affordable local ingredients. Through this training, Laticia and the other “lead mothers” now lead group education sessions using Kenya’s National Maternal, Infant, and Young Child Feeding (MIYCN) Guide, developed with support from USAID’s nutrition program.
In Kenya’s Arid and Semi-Arid Lands, recurrent drought makes access to water—for humans, agriculture, and livestock—an ongoing challenge. Many communities rely on ground water accessed through boreholes or wells, as well as surface water supply structures, such as small dams and water pans. During drought, surface water supplies are not adequately replenished and the pumps that operate boreholes and wells tend to break from overuse and poor management. Repair of pumps can be costly and, particularly in hard-to-reach rural areas, critically delayed. When water is scarce, communities may utilize water unsafe for consumption, face purchasing water at inflated prices at a time when household income is already strained, or walk long distances to reach water, disrupting other critical activities.
The Feed the Future Kenya Investment Mechanism (KIM) Program is a five-year project that will unlock financing and investment by addressing two principal market failures that have discouraged investors from financing certain segments of the clean energy and agriculture sectors:
1) insufficient quality consulting services (financial, transaction advisory, strategy and business performance), and
2) limited availability of financial products or available financing tailored to agriculture and clean energy.
Kenya hosts approximately 450,000 registered refugees, mainly from Somalia and South Sudan in Dadaab and Kakuma refugee camps and also in Kalobeyei integrated settlement. Since the outbreak of conflict in South Sudan in mid-December 2013, more than 100,000 South Sudanese refugees have entered the country. Joint United Nations, donor and Government of Kenya assessment missions report that refugees depend on international assistance for survival.
The Regional Office of Food for Peace (FFP) supports or directly manages food assistance operations in 14 countries in East and Central Africa. Humanitarian needs - specifically food insecurity - in this region have been rising at an unprecedented rate due to cyclical drought, political insecurity, prolonged conflicts, environmental degradation and disease outbreaks. Currently, the number of people facing crisis- and emergency-levels of food insecurity in the region has nearly doubled from 12 million to 24 million and the number of refugees in the region had risen to 4 million.
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Last updated: August 19, 2019
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