In the effort to end hunger, achieve food security and improve nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture-Sustainable Development Goal (SDG2), the Kenya government launched the ‘Big 4 Agenda’. The five-year program seeks to achieve rapid results in the four identified development sectors, namely: manufacturing, universal health coverage, affordable housing, and food security and nutrition. The program is a multi-sectorial and multi-pronged approach implemented through actors in government, private sector, academia, research institutions and development partners. The objective within the fourth goal, food Security and nutrition, the primary goals are to enhance large scale food production, drive smallholder productivity, and to reduce the cost of food to improve accessibility to all.
During the national launch of the 'Big 4 Agenda' in Nairobi, H.E President Uhuru Kenyatta, President of the Republic of Kenya urged academia and research institutions, as reservoirs of research information; technology and innovations accumulated over the years to drive the process. The National Commission for Science, Technology, and Innovation (NACOSTI)-whose core mandate includes integrating technology, science, and research toward policy and national development, formed an Interagency Committee to inform and drive this national agenda.
The African Nutritional Sciences Research Consortium (ANSRC) was nominated into the interagency to inform the research and policy dialogue. The Consortium presented a policy brief to the interagency toward achieving rapid results in nutritional science. Some of the research priorities proposed include developing advanced level training in food security and nutritional science, strengthening research infrastructure, increasing resource mobilization in Kenya’s agricultural and nutrition research has been formulating evidence-based research into policy and action.
