Kenyan counties signs agreement to fight malnutrition

Four Kenyan counties signed a joint funding agreement with an international nutrition agency to combat the malnutrition crisis affecting low-income households.

Nutrition International (NI) and the four counties each agreed to contribute 60 million shillings (about US $600,000) to support interventions that can boost nutrition indicators in Kenya, Xinhua news agency reported on Tuesday.

"The agreement, which requires each county and the Nutrition International to contribute 600,000 dollars each, will last for three years," Joel Spicer, president and chief executive officer of Nutrition International said during the signing of the agreement in Nairobi.

He said that Nutrition International will work in collaboration with the national government and devolved units to support research and implementation of low cost and high impact nutrition interventions.

Spicer said that the agreement will help improve Kenya''s malnutrition status that has been ranked poorly globally.

In Kenya, 1.9 million women are stunted, 794,200 children underweight and about 288,800 are overweight or obese.