Concern Worldwide Launches the Advancing Food Security in Nairobi Program as a Recipient of Citi Foundation’s Inaugural Global Innovation Challenge

One year ago, Concern Worldwide took to the Global Citizen Festival stage in Central Park, New York, as 1 of 50 nonprofits around the world awarded a $500k grant through Citi Foundation's inaugural Global Innovation Challenge to improve food security and strengthen the financial health of underserved families.

In front of nearly 60,000 artists, activists, world leaders, philanthropists, corporate leaders, and changemakers, Candance Patel-Taylor or, VP of Communications, joined Padma Lakshmi, and Montserrat Salazar Gamboa a, Country Director at The Hunger Project, to share a message:

"With the funding from the Citi Foundation, we will provide business training, nutrition, education, and urban gardening support to small-scale food vendors, specifically women and young people in Nairobi, Kenya." ~ Candance Patel-Taylor, VP of Communications, Concern Worldwide US

One year later, on the cusp of the 2024 Global Citizen Festival, the Advancing Food Security in Nairobi (AFSN) Program has officially launched, and we’re looking back at how we got here, and forward to the impact Citi Foundation's philanthropic support will have on the small-scale food vendors Concern is partnering with.

The Advancing Food Security in Nairobi (AFSN) Program

Nairobi, Kenya, is one of the largest cities in East Africa and a major commercial hub for the region and continent. Despite its economic prominence, 16.7% of Nairobi’s population is classified as impoverished, with a large portion residing in informal urban settlements. Communities in these settlements confront numerous challenges, including high unemployment rates, poor health and nutrition, and limited education.

These circumstances are fueling the cycle of extreme poverty – a cycle that disproportionately impacts women the most. Because formal employment opportunities are limited, the proliferation of street food vendors – often women – has been driven by a need to find alternative methods of income generation.

However, these circumstances can pose health risks to the community due to unhygienic food preparation practices and a lack of nutritious food offerings. This is especially detrimental to children in the community who are more susceptible to chronic malnutrition and stunting – two issues that have generational impacts on health and economic advancement, and thus the ability to break the cycle of poverty. 

“Am really excited to showcase my products in this year’s Nairobi International trade fair. Through this exposure am looking forward to making a lot of sales.” Andrew Egala, Small-Scale Vendor.

Andrew is one of the 100 small scale vendors benefitting from the AFSN project. Andrew, together with seven other vendors, have been supported to showcase their products for the first time in an international trade fair. The project will be working with the vendors to enhance their enterprises through product development, procurement of essential equipment and packaging so that they can have a greater reach with safe and nutritious food within Nairobi informal settlements and beyond.

With programming in Kenya for over two decades, we envisioned developing an innovative solution to address these social and economic challenges and accelerate our mission of ending extreme poverty. With the support of the Citi Foundation, that vision is turning into a reality through the Advancing Food Security in Nairobi (AFSN) Program. 

The Innovation

The two-year AFSN project aims to empower small-scale traders and vendors to create sustainable pathways to food security. The two-fold approach to this goal will improve access to affordable and healthy foods and promote positive nutrition practices. To break it down:

Improving Access to Affordable Health Foods

Under this objective, the project will implement a small enterprise business accelerator. This will connect 100 small-scale food vendors and mother-led small businesses to an array of resources to kickstart their growth. Vendors will partake in business development training, connect with peer businesses and mentors, and establish working relationships with relevant value chains and markets, and committed investors.

Improving Nutrition Practices

The project will support the creation of 20 mother groups and train 200 community health volunteers to encourage healthy behaviors, such as incorporating diverse diets and urban gardening of nutritious foods and raising awareness on proper infant feeding practices.

“The key solution in addressing food and nutrition security in urban set up is by incentivizing local markets, especially local vendors dealing in food value chain, as a means of increasing access to safe and affordable nutritious food.” Hassan Olow, Programme Director, Concern Worldwide

The AFSN Program Launch

To kick off the project, last week Concern Worldwide Kenya’s team was joined by the Nairobi County Government, Directorate of Trade and Industry to officially launch the Advancing Food Security in Nairobi Project and celebrate the shared vision of “A City of Opportunity for All.”

The launch featured remarks by Wairimu Munyinyi-Wahome, Country Director, and Hassan Olow, Program Director, from Concern Worldwide Kenya, as well as MaryAnne Mwaura, Head of Public Affairs, Sub-Saharan Africa at Citibank, Lydia Ngungu, Deputy Director of the Trade Department at the Nairobi City County Government, and Dr. Anastasia Mutethya Nyalita, County Executive Committee Member for Business and Hustler Opportunities.

The project launch was a monumental moment in bridging the capacities of Concern Worldwide, the Nairobi local government, the private sector, and local communities, and represents a collective commitment to supporting the world’s most vulnerable communities.

What’s Next?

In the next year and through Citi Foundation support, we hope to enhance capacity of small-scale vendors to produce safe and nutritious foods for urban informal settlements through trainings on business development; creating linkages with micro finance institutions, academia, large manufacturers and mentors to facilitate productive partnerships; support in product enhancement and procurement of essential equipment. Our vision is that caregivers of children, breastfeeding mothers and pregnant women will have information to make decisions on healthy diets for themselves and their families with majority of the households having innovative kitchen gardens.

To learn more about the AFSN project, please contact Kathryn Waller, MPH , Director of Strategic Partnerships.