Factors exacerbating vulnerabilities to food insecurity among the - PDF document

Factors exacerbating vulnerabilities to food insecurity among the Maasai community living in Kajiado County Caroline Wainaina 1 ; Elizabeth Kimani-Murage 1; Frederick Wekesah 1.2 ; Teresia Njoki 1 ; Milka Njeri 1 ; Betty Samburu 2 ; Lucy Gathigi 2 ; Paula Griffiths 3 ; Sophie Goudet 3 ; Claudia Mitchell 4 ; 1 African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC) 2 Julius Global Health, Julius Center for Health Sciences and Primary Care, Utrecht Medical center, Utrecht, the Netherlands. 3 Ministry of Health, Kenya 4 Loughborough University, United Kingdom 5 McGill University, Canada Corresponding Author Caroline Wainaina, MSc. Email address: carowangoi@yahoo.com Abstract People are considered food secure when they have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life. In a previous public engagement project among the Maasai community living in Kajiado County, food insecurity was identified as a major factor affecting nutrition, particularly among pregnant, breastfeeding women and infants. The main objective of this study was to get a deeper understanding of food insecurity as it affects women and children in Kajiado County. The study used participatory action research approach. Key factors affecting food security include: environmental factors, whereby the land is dry most of the year hence unable to support crop farming, leading to food unavailability, and scarcity of portable water, limiting optimal food utilization; nomadic lifestyle in such of green pasture for livestock, limiting food accessibility; limited access to food due to drought which affect their livestock; socio-cultural factors that limit women’s food -related autonomy. It is important for community to embrace other alternatives for livelihood, including farming and government support in irrigation to improve food access and availability. Women empowerment is needed to enhance their food related autonomy. 1

Background Individuals are considered food secure when they have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life 1 . Food security has four pillars: i) availability, which means that sufficient quantity of appropriate food is physically available from own production, commercial imports or food assistance 2 ; ii) access to food - which means that income or other resources are adequate to obtain sufficient and appropriate food through home production, buying, bartering and gathering among others. Lack of access to adequate and diversified diet results in various forms of nutritional problems 1 ; iii) utilization which includes biological use, and is linked to a person’s health. Food utilization is affected by appropriate food processing and storage practices, adequate knowledge and application of nutrition and child care principles, and adequate health and sanitation services 3 ; and iv) sustainability of the three pillars above. In Kenya, 10 million people, i.e. a quarter of the population are food insecure, particularly those who live in arid and semi-arid regions, with high poverty levels and accessibility problems due to issues like poor infrastructure 4,5 . The Maasai community lives in the semi-arid parts of Kenya. Perennial droughts and hunger due to water and food shortages respectively have led to malnutrition, diseases and deaths among the Maasai community for many years now 4 . Many interventions have been initiated to mitigate the situation, including food aid, provision of water for irrigation farming and watering livestock through sinking of boreholes. These actions, although noble, have not achieved the intended impact and the food insecurity situation continues unabated. In finding ways in which the situation can be changed, it is important to employ innovative methods in understanding three key factors; a) how food is made available to people in the community; b) how the community economically and physically accesses food; and c) how food is utilized when available. Understanding the constraints underlying each of these factors is a necessary condition for designing and implementing appropriate and effective food insecurity strategies. 2

Aim of the study This engagement sought to gain a deeper understanding of the vulnerability to food insecurity in the Maasai community in Kajiado, Kenya, particularly among pregnant women, breastfeeding mothers and children under-five years old. Specific objectives 1. Establish their lived experiences with regards to food insecurity in order to understand the exacerbating factors that lead to vulnerability to food insecurity particularly for women and children; and 2. Establish community’s perception of solutions to the food insecurity; and 3. Devise a potential action plan to be shared by implementers at the community, sub-county and county levels. Methodology The project used participatory action research methods to engage the community including the use of participatory video and photovoice, along with in-depth interviews (IDIs), focus group discussions (FGDs), key informant interviews (KIIs) and community dialogues. The participants included pregnant women and or breastfeeding others, older and younger fathers/spouses in the community; older mothers and grandmothers; community leaders and representatives; health care workers and provider and community-based organizations representatives (see table 1). The participants were mobilized from two communities of Oloika and Lenkobei of Shompole, Kajiado County and their details are presented in Table 2. Qualitative interviews aimed to get a rich description of the food and nutrition security situation in the community, including equitable measures of food in the households in terms of adequacy, quality, quantity, diversity, accessibility, availability of nutritious food, social support systems and availability and accessibility of water in the community. Photovoice Photovoice as an innovative participatory community engagement method that ensures active participation of their members in documenting real life experiences, especially that 3

of the women and children with regard to food and nutrition insecurity. The community was divided into three groups; 6 young women, 6 mixed group of young women and men; 6 community health volunteers. The teams were then trained separately on the use of the cameras, objective of the study, importance of capturing their real/actual situations that showcased food and nutrition insecurity in the community. They were then taken through the consenting process, to enable us use the photos they take for research purposes. Group discussions following photovoice Group discussions were held with the women at the end of the exercise to discuss/ describe the issues represented in the photos taken, in which the technique SHOWeD (What do you S ee here? What is really H appening? How does this relate to O ur lives? W hy does this problem or strength exist? What can we D o about it) was used to guide the discussions. In this technique, the mothers described what they saw in the photos taken, and how it relates to their lives and what could be done to improve the situation portrayed in the photos 6 . Participatory video The community was also engaged in creating participatory videos on the food and nutrition insecurity situation in the community, highlighting the plight of their women and children. The participatory video was used to explore problems, to come up with potential solutions and communication to decision/policy makers within Kajiado County. Community dialogues The community dialogue with community members and community leaders was held to establish the situation of food and nutrition in the community as well as, what challenges if any that the community has had as regards food security, factors exacerbating vulnerability, and ways of mitigation using locally available skills and resources. The findings from the community dialogue was used to review and validate the findings from photovoice, participatory video and the qualitative interviews. We used the productions coming out of the community engagement in the form of photo exhibitions and participatory video, in addition to the data obtained through the 4

discussions to engage the potential change agents including community-based organizations and the County government, as well as other decision-makers to enhance their awareness on food and nutrition insecurity issues and together devise action plans and potential solutions to the problem. Through this forum, the community members were given an opportunity to voice their problems and suggest potential solutions to policy and decision-makers in the County, including the government and community-based organizations and non-governmental organizations. Table 1: Types of interviews and participants involved Type of interview Participants Participants In-depth interviews Breastfeeding mothers and pregnant 8 Women Fathers 2 Older women/grandmothers 4 Focus group discussions Breastfeeding and pregnant Women 24 Fathers 24 Community leaders 8 Key informant interviews Community-based organization 2 representative Community leader 1 Administrative leader/Chief 1 Health care worker/provider 1 Community dialogue Community representatives 25 Stakeholder dialogue County and Sub-County officials, NGOs, 25 CBOs and community representatives Total number of 125 participants 5