- Availability, access, utilization, and stability act as the four cornerstones of food security.
- The ongoing Russia-Ukraine war is disrupting supply chains and further affecting the prices of grain, fertilizer, and energy.
- Unavailability of food, inadequate health systems, and an unhealthy environment resulting in a lack of proper care in households and communities contribute to malnutrition.
According to the Committee on World Food Security (CFS), “Food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life.”
Availability, access, utilization, and stability act as the four cornerstones of food security.
The nutritional aspect is paramount to the idea of food security, as is in the CFS Reform Document 2009.
The global outlook
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the latest available evidence points out that globally, the number of people who can’t afford a healthy diet spiked by 112 million, rising to almost 3.1 billion, a reflection of the impacts of rising consumer food prices during the covid-19 pandemic.
These statistics might be more significant once data surfaces to determine income losses in 2020.
The ongoing Russia-Ukraine war is disrupting supply chains and further affecting the prices of grain, fertilizer, and energy.
In the first half of 2022, the chaos resulted in further food price increments.
Simultaneously, “More frequent and severe extreme climate events are disrupting supply chains, especially in low-income countries.
Looking forward, the gains we made in reducing the prevalence of child stunting by one-third in the previous two decades – translating into 55 million fewer children with stunting – are under threat by the triple crises of climate, conflict and the COVID-19 pandemic.
Without intensified efforts, the number of children with wasting will only increase,” FAO predicts.
What is of concern is that projections approximate that 670 million people will still be battling hunger in 2030.
This translates to 8 percent of the global population, similar to the situation in 2015 when the 2030 Agenda was launched.
CFS strives “for a world free from hunger where countries implement the voluntary guidelines for the progressive realization of the right to adequate food in the context of national food security.”
The CFS comprises almost all the member states of the FAO, the World Food Program (WFP), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), or non-member states of the FAO that are members of the United Nations (UN).
The CFS debate and decision-making are supported with structured expertise through the creation of a High-Level Panel of Experts (HLPE) so that the decisions and recommendations of the CFS are anchored on hard evidence and state-of-the-art knowledge.
The CFS as a Committee is hosted in the FAO. The CFS approves the Global Strategic Framework for Food Security and Nutrition (GSF) in its plenary.
This single, living document aims to improve coordination and guide synchronized action by a wide range of stakeholders.
The GSF is flexible so that it can be adjusted as priorities change.
The 2010 Constitution of Kenya states that food and nutritional security is a constitutional right for every Kenyan.
The framework adopted by Kenya includes the four dimensions of food security: availability, accessibility, stability, and meeting nutritional requirements.
Kenya’s approach to food security combines longer-term action to enhance productive potential and incomes with short-term programs and policies that respond to the immediate needs of low-income and food-insecure populations.
Kenya’s food security, nutritional status
The Ministry of Agriculture Livestock Fisheries and Irrigation reports indicate that about 50 percent of Kenya’s population is poor.
Some 7.5 million people live in extreme poverty, while 10 million suffer from chronic food insecurity and malnutrition.
At any one time, about 2 million people require assistance to access food.
This number could double during drought seasons, heavy rains, or floods.
Economic performance has a direct bearing on people’s food security and nutrition status in Kenya.
However, it is acknowledged that improved financial status alone is not sufficient to ensure nutrition security.
Lack of access to an adequate and diversified diet results in various forms of nutrition problems.
According to records, the nutritional status of children aged below five showed no significant change between 1998 and 2008.
Nationally, over 2 million children (35%) are stunted.
Malnutrition occurs when dietary intake is inadequate and health is unsatisfactory, the two immediate causes of malnutrition.
Infectious diseases like diarrheal and acute respiratory diseases are responsible for most nutrition-related health problems.
Unavailability of food, inadequate health systems, and an unhealthy environment resulting in a lack of proper care in households and communities contribute to malnutrition.
In some cases, the human, economic, and ideological environment may have gross inequalities, disparities in access, and discriminatory elements which effectively deny some people on the basis of residence, gender, ethnicity, religion, and other grounds.
Micronutrient deficiencies are highly prevalent in Kenya, particularly at the early stages of child development.
Vitamin and mineral deficiencies exist even among population groups with sufficient food, such as maize, to meet energy requirements.
For instance, among children, Vitamin A deficiency has been found to be as high as 84% in some cases, iron deficiency as high as 60% among pregnant women, and 16% anemia among adult males.
Additionally, millions of children and adults suffer from ill-health effects associated with food-borne diseases and poisoning, such as aflatoxin poisoning.
Through various policies, including the constitution, the Government of Kenya has expressed commitment to eradicating hunger and malnutrition.
This includes efforts such as fertilizer subsidies to build self-reliance and imports to reduce chronic food insecurity and measures to reduce vulnerability to shocks and crises and assist those in need when emergencies occur.
Food security is also linked to Kenya’s national security. Article 238(1) of the 2010 Constitution of Kenya provides that one of the principles of national security is the protection of all citizens of Kenya, their rights, freedoms, property, peace, stability, prosperity and other national interests.
Some of the protected rights include the right to be free from hunger, adequate food of acceptable quality, and an uninterrupted supply of clean and safe water in sufficient quantities at all times.
Kenya, like many African and third-world countries, currently faces challenges arising from global phenomena, notably global warming and recurrent food and financial crises.
Droughts and flash floods are likely to increase as global warming continues.
This will negatively affect crop and livestock enterprises in most areas. Diseases and pests associated with high temperatures are likely to increase.
Early malnutrition leads to long-term effects commonly manifested in stunting, reducing productivity and human capital in adulthood.
Other long-term effects include metabolic alterations that can result in non-communicable illnesses such as hypertension and obesity disorders.
Changing lifestyles and eating habits have resulted in non-communicable diseases, including cardiovascular, cancer, and diabetes, and lead to serious development challenges, mainly manifested in early deaths and disabilities that reduce the quality of life.
Food price crises pose a major challenge in Kenya.
Although the country has faced food crises before, the current challenge is largely associated with new driving forces such as climate change, high energy prices, and globalization rapidly redefining food affordability.
The result is population groups shifting to eating less food or unbalanced diets leading to malnutrition and ill health.
Most families can only afford up to one meal a day.
A recent, more serious crisis is food safety.
There have been devastating cases of aflatoxin poisoning in some areas due to poor storage, wanting handling during milling, and importation of already contaminated foods.
Most of these food contaminants, such as aflatoxins, are cancer-causing.
Another food safety concern is the overall aspect of street foods that is fast rising in popularity.
Poor handling of street foods leads to increases in diseases such as diarrhea.
Gov’t efforts towards food, nutrition insecurity
Kenya’s first National Food Policy (Sessional Paper No. 4 of 1981), later consolidated into Sessional Paper No. 1 of 1986 on Economic Management for Renewed Growth, aimed to maintain broad self-sufficiency in major foodstuffs and ensure equitable distribution of food of nutritional value to all citizens.
This was to be achieved largely through government interventions, such as setting grain prices, state monopoly of input distribution, and across-the-board fertilizer subsidies.
Following the 1991-94 drought, Kenya’s second National Food Policy (Sessional Paper No. 2 of 1994) promoted a market-driven approach but on a limited scope.
The National Plan of Action on Nutrition of 1994 aimed at addressing nutrition problems in the country through the involvement of various sectors and was developed through a consultative process.
Its biggest weakness was the lack of an implementation framework with clear coordination mechanisms and commitment to funding the implementation of the planned activities.
Recently, significant progress has been made in the health sector with regard to coordination efforts with an established Nutrition Inter-Agency Coordinating Committee under the Health Sector Coordinating Committee.
While past food and nutrition policy initiatives have met only limited progress and success, several important and essential lessons have been learned over the years, and these helped guide the formulation of Kenya’s National Food and Nutrition Security Policy of 2012 (FNSP).
The FSNP aims to add value, build synergies and assist with implementing existing national and sectoral policies and strategies to address issues of food insecurity and malnutrition in Kenya effectively.
The Government of Kenya is taking its Millennium Development Goals (MDG) commitments seriously, backed by substantial resource allocation, in collaboration with the UN System in Kenya and the UN Millennium Project.
Nevertheless, the 2009 and 2010 MDG Reports considered Kenya unlikely to achieve the 2015 target of reducing the incidence of extreme poverty and hunger by half.
The FSNP demonstrates the government’s renewed commitment to hunger eradication and improved nutrition.
YOU MAY ALSO LIKE: How youth-innovated mobile platform is revolutionizing Kenya’s food production, security
It’s the policy of the Government that all Kenyans, throughout their life cycle, enjoy at all times safe food and water in sufficient quantity and quality to satisfy their nutritional needs and for optimal health.
