A Human-Centered Approach to Improved Nutrition in Kenya

One Acre Fund (OAF) is a non-profit social enterprise dedicated to lifting smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa out of hunger and poverty by providing them with tools and opportunities to build wealth and improve their quality of life.

Through its unique farmer-centered model, OAF delivers a variety of services to its member farmers including: financial services, high quality inputs like seeds and fertilizers, and on-farm trainings and peer-based coaching.

Traditionally an organization focused on farming and agriculture, OAF identified an opportunity to improve child health and development through nutrition behavior change targeting young children and pregnant and lactating women. In 2017, OAF introduced nutritional counseling to its farmer families to improve consumption of diverse, high-quality foods, to prevent anemia and stunting among children under two.

Social and Behavior Change to Tackle a Critical Need

In 2019, OAF hired Changeable to integrate principles of social and behavior change communication to achieve a more specific behavioral objective: Increase consumption of beans and eggs among children aged 6-23 months and among pregnant and lactating women (PLW).

Over the course of our four-month engagement, Changeable worked with OAF to produce a new integrated behavioral framework and a human-centered, social behavior change communication strategy designed to catalyze healthy, nutritional behavior change among rural Kenyan families.