Region: East Africa
-
The Kenyan Diet: Food Voices and Choices
To coincide with World Food Day on 16 October, the Sustainable Diets for All program in Kenya curated a photo exhibition exploring the Kenyan diet. Capturing the views of 15 men and women living in the sub-counties of Gilgil, Njoro and Bahati in Nakuru County, Kenya, the exhibition highlighted the challenges they face in producing…
-
Challenges in leveraging (inter)national finance for energy access in Kenya
Kajiado County and its efforts to bring decentralized renewable energy to its people Kajiado County is predominantly semi-arid and sits on the outskirts of Nairobi in the south of Kenya. At the moment, about 39 percent of the county has energy coverage. And this is something Dr. James Sankale (Chief Officer at the Ministry of…
-
Nairobi Restaurant Week and World Food Fair
To honor World Food Day this October, Hivos East Africa is intentionally ruffling feathers of the eating habits of the common status quo in Nairobi. What are your eating patterns? Are the foods you consume safe for the environment? How do you access your traditional foods? And if you do are they affordable? For the…
-
Culinary tastes and your nutritional needs
Sometimes all it takes to satisfy a craving is to grab that juicy piece of steak to clear the urge. However at what expense? Food is evolving at a fast pace in today’s ever-changing world. You can transform any type of food with available recipes on digital platforms; multiple food apps deliver food at your…
-
Promoting healthy diets from the bottom up in Uganda
Mathias Kigongo is the Chairperson of Buikwe District in Central Uganda. The political head of the district, Mr. Kigongo is also a practicing farmer. He is well aware of the challenges people in Buikwe face in diversifying what they grow and what they eat. Mr. Kigongo has been collaborating with Slow Food Uganda and…
-
Disruptive fashion stimulating debate in society
One Friday evening in Kenya’s buzzing capital, Nairobi, fashion designers gathered not to just to meet, greet, show their collections and have fun, but to spark critical conversations about the role of sustainable fashion in promoting just and fair societies. Organized by Metta Nairobi and supported by Hivos East Africa, Nest and DusitD2, the Fashion…
-
Seeds in the hands of many instead of a few
‘Free the seed’ is not just turning out to be a fancy tag line on paper. For Caroline Alango, it’s a lived reality for the change she desires to see in the seed sector. As the founder of Dash Crop Limited, Caroline’s journey began in 2014 with a cassava seed. Her drive was only…
-
African advocacy groups and creatives unite for women’s empowerment
Shifting the narrative on women’s rights Conversations about social change are not always easy, be it around the dinner table or in the halls of government. That’s why Hivos is adopting a novel approach to supporting advocacy in an upcoming women’s empowerment campaign in Egypt, Kenya, Zimbabwe, and Tunisia. For this campaign, Hivos is connecting…
-
Trade unions to the rescue
Minaye flowers in Bishoftu (about 50 kilometers from Addis Ababa in Ethiopia) was, just like many farms, not immune to rampage and disruptions of day-to-day operations whenever there was conflict between staff and management. A year now, the farm has not had any riots. Not that there haven’t been disagreements between the workers and their…
-
‘Weaponized’ dress code and Kenyan workplaces
The degraded quality of the citizenship of Kenyan women is clearly seen in just how quick society is in restricting female autonomy, including basics like choice of dressing. These unwanted and unnecessary policing of women is seen in Kenyan workplaces all across the country where dress codes are used to reproduce sexism and misogyny that…
-
We have failed to give prominence to food issues –
By Caroline Wahome Access to experts is one of main challenges journalists are struggling with in their quest to publish stories related to food, the journalist have said. The members of the fourth estate had convened in Kampala, Uganda at a forum organized by Hivos under the theme “Positioning Media for policy influence of food…
-
Musings on renewable energy ‘gatherings’
The Green and Inclusive Energy (GIE) regional meeting in Dar es Salaam was a blast; literally and figuratively. The convening brought together Hivos East Africa GIE partners in a three day program of sharing, learning and networking. It may be difficult to describe what stood out for me –ranging from the partner stories; media engagement;…
