Project summary

NaviNut investigates food environments in East and West African drylands using an actor- and activity-oriented, transdisciplinary research approach with the aim of enhancing women’s agency in their different food-, nutrition- and health-related roles, and to support their capacity to navigate their rapidly changing food environments. NaviNut integrates knowledge, perspectives and interests of mothers from different socio-economic backgrounds, food processors and retailers, community health workers, regulators and various scientific disciplines. The objectives are to a) understand the complexity and dynamics of women’s decision-making in feeding their young children; b) contribute to the design of healthy food environments by increasing accessibility and desirability of locally available, highly nutritious, traditional food products; and c) improve community health services by designing appropriate nutritional dialogue models that enhance women’s learning on child nutrition. NaviNut will work in rural and (peri-)urban areas of drylands in northern Benin and northern Kenya to capture changing lifestyles and nutritional habits, and to increase the scope for outscaling its results in sub-Saharan Africa.

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