FOOD AFRICA
FOOD AFRICA How can we build a transparent food safety value chain through co-creation with the University of Nairobi? About 90% of population in Kenya make their living on the agriculture. Yet, Kenya is the country with the highest incidence of acute toxicity in food possibly ever reported. One reason is high numbers of aflatoxins, a poisonous substance produced by certain molds, causing the long-term development of lung cancer and children growth disease.
APPROACH
This project is a joint initiative with University of Nairobi as part of PBL (Problem-Based-Learning) East Africa projects facilitated by Aalto Global Impact for creating sustainable impacts. The team is a multicultural and multidisciplenary team of 5 Aalto and 5 Nairobi University students.
THE TEAM
// Problem Based Learning MAARIA TIENSIVU Project Manager and Design Research Lead
LOI TRAN
LAURA SILVANTO
MASAHIRO KUNIEDA
HILDA RUIJS
Communication and Business Model Design Lead
Documentation and PR Lead
Technology and Systems Management Lead
Design and Networks Lead
MISSION Our mission is to understand the underlining reasons behind the food safety issue in Kenya, and to conceptualize an innovative solution to the general food safety in Kenya.
// Clients
Natural Resources Institute Finland (LUKE) Finnish Food Safety Authority (Evira)
// Team Kenya
Duncan, Spencer, Unelker, Benjamin, Claire
// Mentors
Vilma Hämäläinen, Elina Lehikoinen Anne Atambo, Peter Okech, Herbert Wamalwa
This approach is needed to solve within a very complex food system : Many stakeholders are involved and if you change one thing in the food system, it’s impact elsewhere is hard to predict. The fieldtrip with our Kenyan Colleagues was key to understand the complexity of the problem that addresses many stakeholders in the value chain. Field trip visits to all sizes of: # dairy & maize farm # feed producers # consumers in retail stores
// CO-design
The multidisciplenary & multicultural team allowed for unique collaboration. Design thinking methods allowed for deep contextual understanding within the systemic boundaries.