Nutrition in city Ecosystems (NICE) – Africa

Budget	CHF: 2,946,325
Location	Busia and Bungoma
Outreach	Farmer groups 10,00090, farmer hubs 28, schools in Busia and Bungoma 15, Women and youth groups
Partners	County government of Busia, County Government of Bungoma, Swiss Tropical and Public Health institute (Swiss TPH), ETH Zurich, Sight and Life Foundation, Sustainable Agriculture Foundation

Context:

The Nutrition in City Ecosystems (NICE) project forms part of the ‘Thematic Section: Food Systems’ of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC). NICE aims to improve nutrition and health, and to reduce poverty. It does so by increasing both the demand for, and supply of, nutritious foods produced using agroecological practices. NICE focuses on ‘secondary cities’, away from the capital. These cities are good examples of the urban areas which the UN predicts will grow fastest.

Objectives:

• Governance & Systems: Women and youth are involved in urban governance structures that incentivize food systems for improved nutrition
• Availability, Production & Value Chains: City populations enjoy the enhanced availability of nutritious foods produced using agroecological practices
• Knowledge & Demand: City populations’ knowledge increases, and demand is created for the consumption of nutritious foods produced using agroecological practices.
• Policy, Learning & Scale-up ‘Knowledge hubs’ ensure exchange within and between cities, helping shape urban &rural food environments and inform national and global policies.

Key Activities:

Outcome 1
Strengthening food system governance, in close alignment with national policies, and boosts the participation of women and youth. Building on the specific local situation, NICE brings different sectors together in a single platform. They include the municipal authorities, civil society and local business. The ambition is for each platform to be strongly city-led and anchored in a by-law or other formal mechanism. Nutrition Action Plans are developed, and local capacity-building helps mobilize public and private sector funding for their implementation.

Outcome 2
Increases the availability and production of nutritious foods produced using agroecological practices to tackle dietary deficiencies. NICE lays the basis by acquiring a good understanding of the agroecosystem in each city’s ‘foodshed’. It facilitates a participatory process to identify the key value chains. Outcome 2 also makes critical improvements to market access, storage, processing and value-addition along each chain. It pays careful attention to involving women and youth. Digital innovations help improve links all the way from farms to families.

Outcome 3
Stimulates demand for nutritious foods produced using agroecological practices. Creating demand includes shifting the perception of city food consumers. Rather than being the beneficiaries of behavior change interventions, city food-consumers become active change participants and promising purchasers. Local insights shape the demand creation strategy in each city. NICE engages the education and health sector as change agents and multipliers of new food habits. City inhabitants learn more about nutrition and adapt their consumption accordingly.

Outcome 4
Consolidates city lessons and brings them to national level to shape policies and countries’ nutritional environment. The secondary cities serve as hubs for sharing knowledge with further cities in each country. ‘South-to-South’ exchange is encouraged between the countries and in international city networks. With time, the NICE cities will also link up with Swiss cities that are driving innovations in their own food systems.

Achievements (so far):

• Setting up Multi stakeholder platforms in both Busia and Bungoma counties.
• Training farmer and farmers hubs on the various forms of agroecology and their implementation within the selected value chains (poultry, Fish, African leafy vegetables, Groundnuts and orange fleshed sweet potatoes).
• Rolled out small grants to 15 women and youth groups in Busia and Bungoma for production and value addition.
• Trained farmer hubs on agroecology and setting up their entrepreneurial skills and use of digital platforms in conducting their business. 
• Supported farmer hubs with infrastructure to enhance better access to farmers with farm input and value addition. 
• Worked with 28 schools training and establishing kitchen gardens and reviving 4 K Clubs in these schools to enhance knowledge.
• Developed play-based training materials for use in schools for promoting healthy diets. 
• Supported government in national nutrition (nutrition weeks) and food security events (world Food day).
• Held peer to peer learning events with farmers on food systems and agroecology. 
• Supported policy development and launched a food safety policy in Bungoma county.