The Kungahara project, titled “Resilient Systems for Food and Nutrition”, is financially supported the European Union (EU) and the Austrian Development Agency. The project is implemented jointly by CARE Austria and CARE Rwanda, in partnership with DUHARANIRA AMAJYAMBERE Y’ICYARO (DUHAMIC-ADRI). The main goal is to significantly contribute to resilient food systems and improved food and nutrition security in Rwanda.
Overall Objective and Approach: To address the various factors hindering food availability and nutrition, the Kungahara project focuses on locally-led change across every stage of the food system: production, aggregation, processing, distribution, and consumption. It operates through two complementary outcomes:
- Outcome 1: To ensure women, men, and youth smallholder farmers actively participate in and profit from equitable, sustainable, inclusive, productive, and nutrition-sensitive agricultural value chains. This includes improving their market-driven production using climate-smart approaches, developing linkages with improved financial services, and enhancing access to markets for nutritious produce.
- Outcome 2: To enable vulnerable households, particularly women and children, to consume more diverse, nutrient-rich foods. This involves increasing understanding of affordable nutritious diets and joint household decision-making on nutrition needs, fostering formal and informal community mechanisms for better nutrition practices, and ensuring District Plans to Eliminate Malnutrition (DPEMs) are more responsive to community needs.
Target Areas and Beneficiaries: The project is delivered in three Rwandan districts: Gicumbi, Rulindo, and Gakenke. The main target group is
31,000 smallholder farmers, with at least 60% being women. These farmers, often marginalized from profitable value chains due to socio-economic challenges, will benefit from enhanced capacity in production, storage, processing, and sales using innovative and climate-smart agricultural practices. The project also engages Farmer Promoters, Nutrition Champions, and agri-value chain actors to strengthen the overall food system. Ultimately, approximately
900,000 residents across the three districts are expected to benefit from improved access to nutritious agricultural products and related information.
