Food and Nutrition Security
Food and Nutrition Security
SDG Partnership Platform Window 2 on Food and Nutrition Security was launched on 26 February 2020 at the first national Agriculture Summit with Cabinet Secretary for Agriculture and key stakeholders including FAO, IFAD, UNIDO, Kenya Private Sector Alliance & Kenya National Chamber of Commerce and Industry, representing some 400 sector members and actors. Window 2 bases its rationale and zeal on the realisation of the Agriculture Sector Transformation and Growth Strategy (ASTGS 2019-2029) and on the Big Four agenda of the President of Kenya, while also guided by the national Food and Nutrition Security Policy. The ASTGS has an estimated investment capital requirement of USD 4.5 billion over the first five years of its implementation, requiring both sustained coordination but also right policy and regulatory frameworks as well as partnerships.
Kenya’s Agriculture sector directly contributes between 33% and 36% of the country’s annual GDP, employs over 60% of the rural population and accounts for 60% of national exports. Despite this, Kenya still has a chronically food-insecure population of over 1.3 million people, while only 22% of children aged 6 to 23 months enjoy an acceptable diet. SDGPP Window 2 places itself as a key driver in transforming the national food and nutrition systems through its role of convening, connecting and catalyzing the right partnerships and financing opportunities both at national and county levels. It aspires to facilitate public and private partnerships to increase SDG-compliant, nutrition sensitive agricultural investment in order to enable Kenya to achieve food and nutrition security and sustainable economic, social and environmental impacts. It focuses support to enabling policy dialogues, agro-processing, capacity development and innovative investment options including de-risking mechanisms, data and business intelligence generation, bridging information gaps among stakeholders and to improved coordination within and among value chains and food systems. These efforts are underpinned by the ‘leaving no one behind ‘principle, placing particular emphasis to opportunities for small-scale farmers, the youth and women in the sector.
