On the ground in Kenya: teaming up with WFP against malnutrition

In November, I traveled to Kenya, where I visited Kakuma, the site of one of the world’s largest refugee camps. I saw firsthand the harsh realities of malnutrition and how our partnership with the World Food Programme (WFP) makes a tangible impact on the ground.

Kakuma shelters about 300,000 refugees, most of whom fled conflicts and instability in South Sudan, Somalia, Ethiopia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and other countries. The landscape around Kakuma is dry, arid, and hot. Refugees live in thousands of tents and makeshift housing, awaiting a better life. 

For all these people, access to nutritious food is a critical issue.

Malnutrition isn’t just about the lack of food. It’s also about the lack of nutritious food, which can lead to hidden hunger – a deficiency in essential micronutrients the body needs to maintain optimal health. Hidden hunger affects over 2 billion people worldwide, including one in two preschool-aged children and two in three women of reproductive age. Deficiencies in iron, vitamin A, folic acid, and zinc are among the top causes of death through disease in developing countries.

dsm-firmenich has been working with WFP since 2007 to address this threat. Together, we’ve harnessed our unique and complementary strengths: dsm-firmenich’s leading scientific and technological nutrition expertise and WFP’s global reach and experience supporting vulnerable communities. Joining forces enables us to achieve more than we could separately.

I saw WFP's 50-person team in action at the Kakuma camp, helping distribute food, providing school meals, and driving efforts to enhance community integration and refugee self-reliance. In many of their operations, WFP ensures that essential micronutrients are present in beneficiaries’ diets by distributing staples such as cooking oil and maize flour, that are fortified using premixes like those produced by dsm-firmenich.

In Kakuma’s International Rescue Committee health facility, WFP also distributes Super Cereal Plus – a corn-soy blend with vitamins and minerals that can be quickly cooked into a porridge – to help manage and prevent malnutrition in infants, young children, as well as pregnant and breastfeeding women. Our partnership was key in contributing to the development of this nutritious product, which benefits millions of the world’s most vulnerable each year.

dsm-firmenich and WFP, together with the Government of Kenya and other strategic stakeholders on the ground, have recently helped bring fortified rice to the Kenyan market. With rice being the third most consumed cereal crop in the country, enhancing its nutritional value through fortification can increase micronutrient intake among the general population and improve individuals’ health and wellbeing.

Fortified rice is made by blending fortified kernels with regular rice. At dsm-firmenich, the kernels are produced through a process called extrusion that combines micronutrients with rice in a high-pressure machine. We can make kernels of different shapes and colors to match the rice with which it is blended – this ensures that fortified rice looks, cooks, and tastes just like regular rice.

I saw the blending process firsthand in Nairobi at a manufacturing facility of Capwell Industries, a customer of dsm-firmenich and the first rice miller to launch fortified rice on the commercial market in Kenya. 

Key figures about the dsm-firmenich and WFP partnership

• WFP and dsm-firmenich contributed to the development of improved formulations for 10 nutritious food products used globally by WFP and other humanitarian organizations.
• Approximately 38 million people benefit from these improved food products each year through WFP operations.
• With support from the partnership, more than 20 million people benefit from fortified rice through social protection programs annually. 

Bringing progress to life

At dsm-firmenich, our core values - owning the outcome, shaping the future, and being a force for good - guide everything that we do. Our 17-year-long partnership with WFP is a powerful example of this commitment.

We are committed to helping close micronutrient gaps, advancing opportunities for individuals, communities, and countries – but we can’t do this alone. That’s why we cultivate transformative partnerships that extend across governments, NGOs, United Nations agencies, research institutions, academia, donors, and businesses to transform food systems for the better.

I am proud of our 17 year-long partnership with WFP and also all the work our Nutrition Improvement teams on the ground have been doing to develop innovative solutions to bring essential nutrients to the most vulnerable populations.

If you would like to learn more about WFP and the work that we do together, click here. 

Best regards,

Dimitri de Vreeze

CEO dsm-firmenich

What other solutions do we bring together with our customers?

• High-energy and highly nutritious peanut paste: A staple for emergency assistance to severely malnourished children. These are ready-to-eat and shelf-stable.

• Micronutrient powders: a powder sachet with 15 micronutrients for children during their first 1,000 days. This is usually added to semi-solid food such as porridge.

Disclaimer: WFP does not endorse any product or service.