Designing Sustainable, Locally Sourced Supplementary and Therapeutic Foods for Emergency Nutrition

Malnutrition in children under five years remains one of the most urgent and persistent global health challenges, and a direct violation of children’s rights. Program coverage for the treatment of severe acute malnutrition remains critically low, often reaching fewer than 20%, while moderate acute malnutrition, which affects even more children, is often overlooked. Moderate acute malnutrition is the precursor to the severe form, and if addressed early, many cases could be prevented, saving lives and reducing the need for more intensive and costly treatment. The NutriLOC project is strategically designed to tackle the persistent and complex challenges of child malnutrition by advancing locally driven, evidence-based solutions for the management of malnutrition. At its core, NutriLOC aims to innovate and scale up a new generation of therapeutic and supplementary foods that are produced from local ingredients, are non-dairy, nutritionally adequate, cost-effective, sustainable, and equitably accessible through national nutrition programs. The project focuses on ready-to-use therapeutic foods (RUTFs), ready-to-use supplementary foods (RUSFs), and introduces a new product category: locally adapted fortified supplements (LAFSs). NutriLOC explores the use of local fish, legumes, and cereals, as well as two emerging, protein-rich ingredients, spirulina and mycoprotein, that are already being produced in Kenya. The project outputs are designed to stimulate local economies and lay a foundation for sustainable self-reliance in malnutrition management. Moreover, it informs future research, scale-up efforts, policy reforms, and investment decisions. Ultimately, NutriLOC seeks to catalyze a transformative shift where innovation, sustainability, equity, and self-reliance converge to redefine how African countries combat malnutrition.