Nutrition in the first 1000 days of life

Food consumption behaviours are continually evolving, especially with the impacts of climate change, making the pursuit of lasting and sustainable dietary improvements a crucial challenge. This research seeks to identify the factors influencing food consumption behaviour in urban Kenya and determine the most effective strategies for achieving lasting dietary improvements for children aged 6-23 months while minimizing financial costs and environmental impact.

The research takes a systems approach, based on the HPLE framework for sustainable food systems, combining nutrition linear programming, evidence synthesis, and stakeholder engagement techniques with primary data collection on diets, food environments, consumer behaviour, and food supply chains. This design will enable the project to gain a better understanding of the linkages, trade-offs, and synergies required to achieve desired food system outcomes (including diets, nutrition and environmental sustainability) in rapidly urbanising environments. The food systems approach also provides opportunities for bringing together various groups of stakeholders, including businesses and policymakers, to co-develop strategies for achieving sustainable healthy diets in the contexts of ongoing rapid urbanisation and climate change.