Nutrition Enterprise Development
For over ten years, GAIN has been supporting micro-, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) in nutritious food value chains to grow, innovate, and meet the needs of vulnerable consumers.
For over ten years, GAIN has been supporting micro-, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) in nutritious food value chains to grow, innovate, and meet the needs of vulnerable consumers.
Over 1000 MSMEs have been supported across nearly all of GAIN’s programme countries and covering input suppliers, primary producers, distributors and wholesalers, as well as retailers. Some example beneficiary companies are featured HERE.
GAIN’s support has included basic business development services, technical assistance for food safety, processing and product formulation, marketing and the like, as well as financial assistance in the form of small grants. (Our non-grant financial support is covered under Nutritious Food Financing). Four big projects delivered these interventions:
Implemented in Mozambique, Kenya, Rwanda, and Tanzania from 2013 to 2020, GAIN’s Marketplace for Nutritious Foods Programme focused on supporting SMEs in nutritious food value chains to develop profitable business models and sustainably bring nutritious and safe foods to markets. The Marketplace’s two-pronged approach supports a broad network of stakeholders with information and knowledge, through the “Community of Practice”, while targeted technical and financial support offers promising, innovative enterprises through the “Innovation Accelerator”.
“Keeping Food Markets Working” (KFMW) was set up as an emergency response programme to protect and sustain food systems in the face of COVID-19. It provided rapid support to food system workers, SMEs supplying nutritious foodsThe 18 months rapid response supported SMEs in Nigeria, Kenya, Mozambique, Tanzania, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Bangladesh, and Pakistan.
In 2016, GAIN and its partners spotted a gap in postharvest loss interventions targeted to a) nutritious foods and b) working in the supply chain beyond the farm. The Postharvest Loss Alliance for Nutrition (PLAN) was launched in Nigeria. While a significant amount of food loss occurs on-farm, many agriculture organisations are making progress with farmers to reduce these losses. PLAN added value by supporting SMEs post-farmgate in Ethiopia, Indonesia, and Nigeria over 5 years (2016 – 2020). It brought together public and private sector actors to collectively reduce loss of nutritious foods, boosting livelihoods of suppliers while increasing availability and affordability of nutritious and safe foods for consumers.
Through the Nutrition Impact at Scale (NIS) Project, GAIN partners with Enterprise Support Organisations (ESOs) to scale the impact of its work to increase access to safe and nutritious foods, especially for low-income consumers. Funded by The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands over five years (January 2022 – December 2026), the project uses a Market Systems Development approach to improve food systems, increase inclusivity, and ultimately, nutrition outcomes. It leverages the extensive experience GAIN has developed over the years of providing quality technical assistance, networking, knowledge sharing, building capacity of partners, and the provision of various tools and resources to Small and Medium Businesses (SMEs)to attach a ‘nutrition lens’ to the work of ESOs Nigeria, Benin, Uganda, Ethiopia, Mozambique, and Kenya