SBN Kenya: A Successful Multi-Stakeholder Partnership

The SUN Business Network in Kenya was first conceptualised in 2014, convened by the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) and co-convened by the World Food Programme (WFP). The private sector was encouraged to take the lead in setting up and organising the network. Initially, the network struggled to gain momentum due to limited resources, additional added responsibilities and conflicts of interest between business members.

Over the course of 2017-2018, the network conveners (GAIN and WFP) worked closely with the SUN Focal Point in Kenya, Ms Gladys Mugambi, to go back to the drawing board to strategise on a new structure for the SBN in Kenya. They brought together representatives from various organisations to form a secretariat, with active participation from:

Business member organisations: 

• Kenya Private Sector Alliance (KEPSA)
• Kenya Association of Manufacturers (KAM)

Government: 

• Ministry of Health
• Ministry of Agriculture
• Ministry of Industry, Trade and Cooperatives
• Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS)

United Nations organisations: 

• Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO)
• UNICEF
• World Food Programme
• Civil Society Organisations
• UN Sustainable Development Goals Partnership Platform (UN SDG PP)

The secretariat members provide overall strategic and technical guidance, advice and oversight to SBN Kenya.

To catalyse efforts of the business network champions (the SBN Kenya secretariat), Nutrition International extended their support in late 2018 to engage a business network coordinator to relieve immediate resource constraints. The Technical Assistance for Nutrition (TAN) is a project led by the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DFID) which seeks to improve the capacity of SUN countries to design, deliver, and track the progress of nutrition programmes to generate, learn from and adopt knowledge of what works.

In 2019, the UN Sustainable Development Goals Partnership Platform (UN SDG PP) joined the business network secretariat to help synergise the efforts of different stakeholders to achieve 100% food and nutrition security, which is one of the Government of Kenya’s ‘Big 4 Agenda’.

SBN Kenya has received ongoing support from the SBN Global Team to successfully revive the business network, which is currently sparkling with over 70 business members and is in the process of developing a 5 year strategy based on the needs and challenges facing existing members.

Watch SBN Kenya members and SUN stakeholders reflect on what motivates them to contribute to the network here.