Reimagining nutrition education for pregnant adolescents in the face of climate change: a community approach.

Objectives: To explore challenges with current nutrition education for teenage pregnant women in a drought-prone community in Kenya and to elicit the communities' suggestions on how to best adapt it in the face of climate change. Design: Nine serial focus group discussions (four with adolescents, two with their parents, two with community health volunteers and one with healthcare workers) were conducted on a purposively selected study population in Kaloleni, Kilifi County, Kenya. Data collection took place between March and November 2022, with a total of 73 participants. An inductive approach was used, and interpretive thematic coding was done as the primary analytic strategy to allow themes derived from participants' reflections. Results: First, participants reported that unpredictable rainfall patterns had affected nutrition intake and variety due to reduced yield from farmland, diseases in livestock and insufficient income. Second, participants reported barriers to accessing nutrition education, as it was mainly given in clinics and not targeted at adolescents or men. Third, they experienced challenges in applying nutrition education in daily life due to a mismatch between available foods and cultural practices. Recommendations for the future encompassed equipping individuals with practical cooking skills tailored to available nutrients, initiatives aimed at water conservation and addressing animal health concerns, enhancing accessibility through community-based training programmes and fostering collaborative efforts to ensure the provision of essential nutrients. Conclusion: Food choices in Kilifi County are getting more limited due to unpredicted rainfall patterns. Therefore, a reorientation of nutrition education is needed in order to build resilience in the community. Strengthening community action, including developing skills to increase long-term local support, would be needed to ensure the adequate nutrition status of vulnerable groups like pregnant adolescent women.

Climate change poses a threat to nutrition and food security in Kilifi County, Kenya.

Over the last decades, increased emission of greenhouse gases has led to hot weather extremes, heavy precipitation and worsening of agricultural and ecological droughts. Although Africa's contribution to climate change is minimal, the continent is especially vulnerable to its effects. This report aims to describe the effect of climate change leading to drought in Kilifi County, Kenya, and the communities' experiences of this effect on food availability. During their community rotation, residents from a university in Nairobi, Kenya, evaluated changes in weather patterns and nutrition indicators in Kilifi County and conducted focus group discussions (FGDs) with community members and health care stakeholders to explore challenges in access to adequate nutrition and possible local solutions. Kilifi County has one of the highest rates of undernutrition in Kenya, with one in five under-5 children being underweight. County data showed that rainfall in the last 4 years has become increasingly unpredictable, resulting in reduced household milk production, one of the indicators of nutrition security. Three major themes emerged from the FGDs: lack of food variety, collapse of drought mitigating projects and increasing poverty levels. Possible solutions to these problems include promoting alternatives to the current diet that are culturally sensitive and adaptable to recent climate changes, ensuring continuity of agricultural and financial support projects and improved local leadership and governance.