Distribution bottlenecks refer to the final leg of delivery of items to under-served populations. In Sub-Saharan Africa, this continues to be a major problem where populations living in remote areas are unable to access of essential supplies like vaccines, medicines, and essential foods and supplements to many remote areas in sub-Saharan Africa. [1] Often this is because of poor road infrastructure, poor supply chains, lack of economies of scale, and the presence of “middle men” who increase the cost of products.

In Kenya, the distribution of many essential commodities to rural and remote areas is further complicated by the fact that major manufacturers, including of enhanced complementary feeds, are concentrated in urban areas where the population concentration is highest. In addition, home preparation of complementary weaning foods that contain proteins has not been widely adopted in Kenya, possibly due to the higher cost and longer time required to prepare these protein-rich foods. [3]

This innovation aims is to increase demand for complementary foods in rural areas of Kenya by using women to market the complementary foods and the importance of complementary feeding. Face-to-face delivery of information has been identified as one of the most effective channels of increasing the adoption of complementary feeds in rural areas. [4] Thus, women will also distribute the product; the resulting increase in demand will encourage local businesses to stock complementary feeding products, thus lowering costs because of economies of scale.

From each women’s self-help group engaged in the project, 5-15 members will pool a portion of their savings by contributing as little as 10 or 20 cents each per month; this will serve as a “fee” for them to participate in the program. This savings pool will create a fund from which the women can borrow to support the costs of their complementary food business moving forward and offset expenditures they may have to use future savings for, such as medical bills and school fees. These participating women’s groups will also be provided with an initial loan (a seed fund) to purchase an initial stock of complementary foods in bulk, directly from manufacturers – cutting out the use of a middle man and thus mitigating a challenge faced by the “last mile” of delivery. The bulk purchase will be delivered to the nearest health clinic.

Under the supervision of trained staff, to ensure integrity and cleanliness, the bulk food will be repackaged into small quantities. The women will be provided with business and nutritional training skills and will engage in door-to-door marketing of the re-packaged product to mothers with infants. The women will provide mothers with the benefits of weaning infants on such foods. Each package will have a pictorial guide on preparation and benefits.

75 % of the profits from sales of complementary food products will be fed back into the revolving fund pool, while 25 % of the profits will be compensation for the women. After 6 months from time of initial set-up, the women will use the pooled funds to purchase additional product as a group, to again retail at a profit. A mobile phone-based system will track the supply chain to ensure that there is constant supply of the product.