Job Vacancy at Concern Worldwide

PRIVATE FOOD MANUFACTURER FOR THE LISHE POA PROJECT

The private food manufacturer will research, develop, obtain product certification, produce, brand and market a nutritious, ready to eat, affordable and locally appropriate snack and/or food that will meet key nutritional needs of mothers, infants and young children within the urban informal settlements in Nairobi County

BACKGROUND AND CONTEXT

Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 9 envisions the building of a “resilient infrastructure, promoting inclusive and sustainable industrialization and fostering innovation.” Specifically, target 9b advocates for “domestic technology development, research and innovation in developing countries,” which includes a focus on fostering an enabling policy environment. Across Africa, including in Kenya, there is a vibrant culture of designers, engineers, and entrepreneurs creating products intended to improve people’s lives. While the forth strategic objective of the Kenya Urban Nutrition Strategy (UNS) focuses on promoting market-based solutions and their pro poor positioning to secure good nutrition and healthy environments for urban populations, the reality is that little progress has been made in the development of infrastructure to allow local manufacture and uptake of low cost, ready to use food snacks in Kenya

Vending of street foods has increased substantially particularly in the lower-income areas and in the industrial area. Street food provide 17 ± 38% of the recommended daily energy intake of the adult population. Moreover, diets fed to the children 6-23.9 months within the informal settlements of Nairobi do not meet the nutrient density requirements especially iron, zinc, iron, vitamin A & C and proteins. Street foods are known to have negative impact to the health of people across the life cycle. Some of the negative effects of street food include; undernutrition due to inadequate intake of both macro and micronutrients, increased risks to disease outbreaks such as Typhoid fever, dysentery, cholera etc. and increased risk of Non Communicable Diseases (NCDs) such as obesity, diabetes and hypertension due to consumption of fatty and oily foods. Meeting the needs of these populations, in light of the various contextual challenges addressed above, requires innovative solutions that work for long-term change. To address these challenges, the Korea International Agency (KOICA) will fund Concern to implement a five years (starting August 2018) innovative project that aims to meet the significant market need for affordable, nutritious food solutions for young children and pregnant and lactating mothers. Concern in partnership with the Ministry of health and Nairobi County department of health will collaborate with other state agencies as well as a diverse range of local partners and stakeholders such as private food manufacturer, academic and research institution, Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS) and UNICEF, to develop and nurture innovation platforms that design, prototype and produce a ready to eat nutritious product that will be promoted for use within in the slums of Nairobi. The product will be made ready to eat, affordable, safely packaged and proper food hygiene will be ensured.

METHODOLOGY AND APPROACH

The food manufacturer, in collaboration with key stakeholders within the project, is expected to undertake the following;

Product Development

• Conceptualization of the product through hackathons. The hackathons may include participants from: raw material suppliers, researchers from academia, consumers of the product, MOH, KEBs etc. Lishe Poa project will support the manufacturer in organizing meetings and forums for product conceptualization.
• Development of prototypes/ samples of the snacks and internal snack assessments. The project will support the manufacturer in order to achieve this objective. Support may be in terms of raw materials acquisition, technical support, and support for nutritional information testing, etc.
• Testing market viability for food snack prototype(s)/samples through consumer focus groups to determine acceptability & brand recognition. Modification of the product/snack until it meets its desired purpose. The project will provide support in for this process.
• Certification of the product; Necessary financial and technical support will be provided by the project.

Production of the Snack

The nature support provided to the manufacturer is expected to help the manufacturer sustainably and safely produce the snack even after the life the project comes to an end. This support may include financial and technical support for production line enhancement, training of production staff, acquisition of initial raw materials etc.

Marketing and Sales of the Product

The project will help the manufacturer in demand creation for the product. This may be in form of support for branding, consumer education, advertisements, creating engagements with local vendors and community health workers as possible channels of product promotion and distribution.

All submissions od expressions of interest must include details on the specific methodology and approach to be taken and any other proposed methodologies and approaches that would also add value to this assignment.

OUTPUTS AND DELIVERABLES

• A nutritious ready to eat product/s (snack and/or food) that is affordable, safe and appropriate to meet the nutritional requirements of mothers (pregnant and lactating), infants and children under 5 years living in informal settlements within Nairobi.
• A sustainable business model which enhances consumption of the developed nutritious snack and/or food among mothers, infants and children under 5 years. In this model, the product should be well known, nutritionally appreciated, easily accessible and affordable to the target population. The distribution channel should have a way of incorporating community health volunteer as product promoters. The local manufacturer should also be making appropriate returns from the sale of the developed product.

COMPANY PROFILE

The company must be registered and have manufacturing operations in Kenya with proven; capacity and infrastructure to hygienically, safely and cost-effectively develop, produce, brand and market nutritious food products and; competency & commitment to quality & accountability (must have HACCP plan for existing products) and a current business model geared towards social impact and social entrepreneurship