Methodological Development for External Food Environment Surveillance Systems (EFESS) around Two Secondary Cities in Kenya

Project Summary

Principal investigator(s):

Nilupa Gunaratna Purdue University

Simon Kimenju Kula Vyema Centre of Food Economics

Ramya Ambikapathi Cornell University

Duration:

24 months (from June 2023)

Value:

£250,000

Countries of research:

Kenya

Purdue University

Principal investigator:

Nilupa Gunaratna, Purdue University

Co-Principal investigators:

Simon Kimenju, Kula Vyema Centre of Food Economics
Ramya Ambikapathi, Cornell University

The overarching goal of this project is to develop a methodology for monitoring the external food environment (EFE), typically found in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) and created by formal and informal food vendors. The purpose of an external food environment surveillance system (EFESS) is akin to health and demographic surveillance systems, and aims to monitor trends, inform nutrition regulations and policies, capture the impact of shocks to the system in real-time, and serve as an inclusive platform, particularly for informal vendors, who are often undercounted in official labour statistics and absent in policy and governance. Food environments in LMIC settings have a preponderance of informal vendors, who operate without licensing but play a large role in vending nutritious produce, prepared food, and packaged snacks. Because of mobility and seasonality, informal vendors are major sources of spatial and temporal variation that dynamically change food environments. There is a lack of research methods, particularly study designs, for food environments, and most research has been cross-sectional, missing the dynamic nature of food environments, especially when informal food vendors play a key role.

This study has two aims:

1) To capture spatial and temporal variation in external food environments across rural-urban transects originating from two secondary cities in Kenya.

2) To develop a protocol for an external food environment surveillance system and a tool to monitor changes in food environment architecture.

This study will provide the necessary outputs to establish and maintain an EFESS, and the use of varying agroecologies and urbanization creates variation that will increase replicability of these methods in other settings. Beyond research, an EFESS can inform policy formulation, through data on food vendor experiences and decision-making. It can also capture food environment dynamics in dimensions that affect consumer food purchases and ultimately diets and health outcomes.

News:

Surveillance systems critical to food security in lower-income countries