By Lorraine Anyango.

Kisumu county’s Multi-sectoral Nutrition (MSN) platform is working towards surveying nutrition to update data on the same.

Currently, the only available data is from Kenya Demographic Health Survey 2014.

To achieve this, the MSN has incorporated the Academia, that is Maseno and Masinde Muliro Universities to also undertake research.

These conversations come up during a visit by a delegation from USAID to Kisumu County to check on the outcomes of the ‘Advancing Nutrition project.

The delegation comprising of the USAID project management specialist, Agriculture, and Nutrition, Mrs. Mildred Irungu, Admin for the office of Economic Growth and Integration Mrs. Janet Cherono, Team Lead food and Nutrition Security Mr. Joseph Oyuga and Advancing Nutrition Chief of Party Peter Milo.

The team was received by CECM for Health and Sanitation Dr. Greggory Ganda, CECM Agriculture Livestock and Fisheries Mr. Gilchrist Okuom, and the chief officer of Agriculture and Irrigation Dr. Paul Omanga.

The need to have more recent research findings and data on nutrition wouldn’t have come at a better time than when Kisumu County recently concluded a digital health conference.

The conversation appreciated the role played by the Academia in nutrition, exploring the need for Curriculum reviews on several studies to include nutrition as well as graduates’ suitability for the marketplace.

“There is a disconnect between Academia and practice, students undertake refresher courses once they get employed, and there is a need for universities to be capacity built to produce ‘Fit for purpose graduates. Mr. Milo said.

“Maseno and Masinde Muliro university will be doing researched based advocacy, Maseno university has been key to ensure that the advocacy messages are evidenced and data-backed.” Mr. Milo added.

He added that Advancing nutrition is supporting the two institutions to re-look into their curriculum in the schools of Nutrition and Agriculture to meet the requirement as far as nutrition-sensitive agriculture is concerned.

Mr. Milo said that the institutions are to pick certain modules and infuse them into their curriculum and continue to teach the cycle of students they are having and allow those departing to be exposed to nutrition-sensitive agriculture.

“When implementing we see a big gap with the students who cannot relate nutrition with agriculture.” Mrs. Irungu added.

She said that three years ago, USAID, FAO, and The Ministry of Agriculture discussed with Kenya Universities Forum to push for nutrition-sensitive agriculture modules to be included in the curriculum, so far Jomo Kenyatta university has revied about 25 courses and even included nutrition in landscaping fields.

She added that Masinde Muliro and Maseno universities can learn from institutions that have already reviewed their courses.

While appreciating the change that Advancing Nutrition is registering in Kisumu County, Dr. Ganda emphasized the importance of the county having a household approach to interventions so that monitoring progress is reported per household.

“We have several parallel programs within the country, we are working towards integrating them, clustering families, so that success can be measured by the number of houses hold reached.

Mr. Okuom appreciated that courtesy of Advancing nutrition the departments are working together for improved outcomes.

The team visited Jiu Pachi civil society, where they saw a kitchen garden demonstration farm to teach the community about nutrition, they also visited Kisumu County Referral Hospital (KCRH) where they saw conical gardens whose vegetable harvest is used to feed patients admitted to the pediatric ward.

They also visited an ECD school in Manyatta supported by Kidogo Early childhood society and Faith Church in Kiboswa which has set up a kitchen garden demo farm and a breast-feeding room for mothers who come to church.

Advancing Nutrition is a USAID-funded project being implemented in three counties including Kisumu, Kitui, and Kakamega.