First Foods Africa: Tackling Child Food Poverty and Malnutrition

About

First Foods Africa is UNICEF's groundbreaking initiative to address severe child food poverty affecting 59 million children in sub-Saharan Africa. The initiative focuses on the critical period (6-59 months) when only 1 in 3 children achieve minimum dietary diversity. Through three strategic pillars—incentivizing local production, strengthening policy environments, and stimulating consumption—First Foods Africa works to increase availability and affordability of nutritious "first foods" including complementary foods, food ingredients, nutritious snacks, and supplements (SQ-LNS and MNPs). The initiative partners with 14 African countries, national governments, medium-to-large African food companies, and UN agencies to create systemic food systems transformation. It aims to reduce child food poverty by 10% by 2030, preventing stunting and wasting while supporting local economies and climate resilience.

Developed by UNICEF's Child Nutrition and Development Programme, First Foods Africa represents a comprehensive approach to addressing the complementary feeding crisis in sub-Saharan Africa. Building on UNICEF's expertise in local production of ready-to-use therapeutic foods (RUTF) and guided by the UNICEF Nutrition Strategy 2020-2030, this initiative brings together governments, private sector, UN agencies (FAO, IFAD, UNCDF, UNIDO, World Bank, WFP, WHO), and financial institutions. The Child Nutrition Fund serves as the key financial instrument, supporting the $300 million initiative ($250M programmatic + $50M capital investment) across three pillars to reach 122 million children under 5.