A Cost of the Diet Analysis in Turkana County, Kenya

Situated in the North-West of Kenya, Turkana is one of the poorest regions of the country and affected by persistently high rates of malnutrition. Persistently high rates of malnutrition and the current upward trend indicate a critical situation in Turkana County, requiring further efforts being devolved in understanding and tackling the underlying determinants of this chronic issue.

In an effort to gain greater understanding of the underlying causes of malnutrition in Turkana County, Save the Children, funded by UNICEF, carried out a Cost of the Diet assessment to assess the extent to which access to a nutritious diet may be affected by economic constraints and availability of nutritious foods in the county.

The aim of this study was to identify whether a nutritious diet can be achieved using locally available foods, to estimate the cheapest cost of a nutritious diet, and whether this diet can be afforded by households in the Central Pastoral Livelihood Zone in Turkana County.