Pioneering approach to better nutrition for mothers and young children.

Bioversity International will receive funding through Grand Challenges Explorations to pursue an innovative global health research project in Baringo, Kenya.

Grand Challenges Explorations  [2] is an initiative created by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, that enables researchers worldwide to test unorthodox ideas that address persistent health and development challenges.

Bioversity will be working in close partnership with Save the Children UK to better understand the role and potential of wild and underutilised foods in improving the diets of children aged 6-24 months and mothers in the Baringo East Region of Kenya; a region with persistently high levels of chronic child malnutrition. Save the Children UK has developed a Cost of Diet tool that calculates the minimum amount of money a household will have to spend to meet their full nutritional requirements using locally available foods (produced, bought or gathered).

“We hope that this approach will provide evidence of the role of local foods in filling nutrient needs for poor communities. And although the specific local foods will differ from place to place, it should be possible for wild and underutilized foods to fill the cost gap of nutritious diets in many more places,” said Dr Jessica Fanzo, Senior Nutritionist, Bioversity.

Read the press release for full details  [3]