Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition in Kenya Announces Marketplace for Nutritious Foods

Nairobi, Kenya, 21 June 2012 -- At a ceremony in Nairobi to celebrate its 10 year anniversary today, the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) in Kenya announced a Marketplace for Nutritious Foods that will encourage local business to improve the nutrition and health of Kenyans.

The Marketplace brings together Kenyan small and medium enterprises (SMEs), non-profit alliances, donors, research and academic institutions, policy makers and social investment firms. GAIN will play a catalytic role by creating a platform and small grant investment facility for all the actors along the agricultural value chain to interface, network and share knowledge in order to grow the number of investments in nutrition-focused agricultural innovations in Kenya. GAIN anticipates the small grants to be funded by various stakeholders including the private sector, and other public and international organizations.

The Marketplace offers a platform where SME’s can identify market failures and policy constraints to improving nutrition. The Marketplace will convene meetings at regular intervals. Twice a year, members will be encouraged to submit concepts to its innovation accelerator where innovations will be scored and ranked in the areas of nutritional impact, agricultural feasibility, business sustainability and scalability.  Businesses showing the greatest potential for positive nutritional impact and business strength will benefit from advanced support and services.

“The Marketplace combines GAIN’s technical expertise as well as our ability to convene diverse sectors committed to fighting malnutrition to nurture and grow high-potential, local, market-based innovations that will improve lives,” said  Marc Van Ameringen, Executive Director of GAIN.  “GAIN Kenya delivers expertise spanning across agricultural inputs, post-harvest nutritious commodity management, nutritious product development, quality control and nutritional content assurance, effective processing, packaging, marketing, and policy agenda setting,” he added. 

About GAIN

Driven by a vision of a world without malnutrition, GAIN was created in 2002 at a Special Session of the U.N. General Assembly on Children. GAIN builds and supports innovative partnerships among the public and private sectors to increase access to and consumption of nutritious foods necessary for people, communities and economies to be stronger and healthier. With a current reach of over 600 million people (half of whom are women and children) in more than 30 countries GAIN’s goal is to improve the lives of 1.5 billion people within the most vulnerable populations around the world through access to sustainable nutrition solutions. For more information, please visit us at www.gainhealth.org.

Media Contacts:

CJ Jones   
Country Manager, GAIN Kenya   
Office: +254 (0) 20 422 3035    
Mobile: +254  (0) 729 868 766  
[email protected]   

Karie Atkinson   
Communications Associate, GAIN
Office: +41 22 749 17 83  
Mobile: +41 76 706 18 29
[email protected]   

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