GAIN has long supported SMEs to increase their production of safe and nutritious foods but has found it difficult to understand the impact of such activities on consumers. As food is a fast-moving consumer good, which travels in large volumes between diverse actors of a value chain, spanning wide areas, it can be hard to identify its end consumers, and collecting data from them can be resource intensive.
From October 2020 to December 2021, EatSafe conducted bi-weekly consumer and vendor surveys in traditional markets to assess the functioning of markets and market actors under COVID-19. The resulting Bulletins and Traditional Market Reports present detailed reports on trends in consumer resilience, vendors' business impacts, and food price changes.
Understanding urban specific contexts and food system challenges during the pandemic is the first step towards the co-design of policy options. Between December 2020 and April 2021, GAIN conducted a mixed method Rapid Needs Assessment of the urban food system in Machakos and Kiambu (Kenya), Beira and Pemba (Mozambique), and Rawalpindi and Peshawar (Pakistan).
Understanding the rapidly changing situation for vendors in traditional markets and the consumers that rely on these markets can provide vital information for determining what is needed to ensure the availability of affordable, safe, nutritious food during the COVID-19 pandemic.
With Kenya weathering the third wave of COVID-19, the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) has continued to develop ways to mitigate the impact of the pandemic on livelihoods and SMEs in Kenya through the Keeping Food Markets Working (KFMW) programme.
The COVID-19 pandemic is a multiplier of vulnerability, compounding threats to food security and nutrition (FSN) while exposing weaknesses in food systems. In response, the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) developed the Keeping Food Markets Working (KFMW) programme to provide targeted support to help sustain core food systems.
The COVID-19 pandemic and its second wave have continued to negatively impact the livelihoods and threaten the food security and nutrition (FSN) of many households in Kenya. In response to mitigate these impacts, the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) developed the Keeping Food Markets Working (KFMW) programme to provide targeted support to help sustain core food systems, workers and markets during the COVID-19 emergency.
This Situation Report—the fifth in a series—finds that COVID-19-related control measures continue to have an impact on food systems in 10 countries where GAIN works: Bangladesh, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, Pakistan, Rwanda and Tanzania.
This document is an Addendum to the Global Options Paper, Weathering the Pandemic to Build Back Better: Options for Supporting SMEs in Low- and Middle-Income Countries. The Global Options Paper is a rapid review and analysis of the challenges facing agri-food SMEs.
The COVID-19 pandemic is a multiplier of vulnerability, compounding threats to food security and nutrition (FSN), while exposing weaknesses in food systems. This report summarises the current situation of Kenyan food systems amidst COVID-19 with a special emphasis on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and how nutritious foods value chains are changing.