Sharing ideas, scaling impact: Global Partnerships and Social Entrepreneurship to Benefit People Living in Poverty.
Kenya
Fighting Hunger with Kenya’s Start-Ups
Project Status Ongoing
Main sector
Nutrition Food Security and Nutrition
In Kitui County in southeastern Kenya, it has barely rained in recent months. For three years now, the population of the region has been regularly confronted with severe drought and flooding. Crops are destroyed or fail completely as a result. Therefore, many small holders’ families are increasingly forced to skip entire meals altogether. What makes the situation even worse is that pest infestation has increased significantly in recent years. Rodents, diseases or insects destroy the fields and food - one of the many consequences of the global climate crisis.
In the village of Kinakoni in Kitui, the situation of the approximately 5,000 people who live there is becoming increasingly threatening: there is a lack of water, food and income opportunities. The fields are dry as dust and the last harvest has failed. Many children are now showing clear symptoms of malnutrition and undernourishment.
Innovative ideas against hunger wanted
Together with the village population and the STERN Foundation, Welthungerhilfe is looking for new solutions to eliminate the structural causes of hunger in the village of Kinakoni. To this end, we are cooperating closely with Nairobi's start-up scene. Together with local experts and the village community, we want to develop innovative solutions that contribute, for instance, to improving the income situation, school education and agricultural yields.
"The village of Kinakoni is representative of many villages in Kenya, where people are struggling with numerous crises at the same time: hunger and poverty are further worsened by the current drought, previous floods and plagues of locusts as consequences of climate change. But a lack of infrastructure and social safety nets, as well as poor education and health care, are also leaving families without any means of livelihood," says Kelvin Shingles, country director of Welthungerhilfe in Kenya.
The goal is that the newly developed approaches to fighting hunger can subsequently be used in other villages, regions and countries.
How the project helps in Kinakoni and the region
- The 5,000 inhabitants of Kinakoni receive improved access to water for domestic use and for irrigating their fields;
- Hunger, malnutrition and undernourishment are combated with innovative ideas;
- In addition, educational and income-generating opportunities are expanded in the region;
- The new solutions to hunger and malnutrition will not only benefit the residents of Kinakoni, but will also be applied in other villages, regions and countries.
The project is implemented together with the STERN foundation.
