Nutrition Lessons Foster Female Enterprises in Tanzania

Rodrick Ntike is having a hard time making his voice heard over the wails of children seated with their mothers around the echoing cement building of the Mhalala Health Post. The little ones are hungry — their mothers probably are, too — but he has nearly finished his explanation of the importance of a balanced diet.

In front of Rodrick is a wooden triangle stacked with foodstuffs. Grains and starchy tubers are at the bottom for carbohydrates — which are needed in large quantities. Fruits and leafy vegetables come next, followed by pulses for protein (soya beans and pigeon peas). Animal protein, which is represented by milk and dried fish, is stuffed into the next shelf. In the apex is a bottle of vegetable oil — to be used only in small quantities. The mother’s eyes follow a toddler wearing a pink tutu who totters unsteadily across to the triangle and grabs a banana. Little Naila Abdul is delighted with her prize and turns to her mother. Rodrick indicates that she can keep it. She happily devours the banana while envious eyes look on.

Tasting is believing

Once the theory portion of the class is over, the group moves behind the building where a fire is already burning. A large pan of water atop it is near the boiling point. Rodrick, who is a district nutrition officer, continues the demonstration of how to prepare nutritious porridge.

The key ingredient is a multi-grain flour of yellow (vitamin A-enriched) maize, along with soya beans, peanuts, finger millet, sorghum, wheat, carrot and a little cardamom for flavoring. This flour has been produced by a woman entrepreneur, Hellena Jeremia Kingu. On a table in the Health Post, she has laid out more packets for sale, along with other products that she has made such as peanut butter, honey, baobab powder, nutritious snacks, chili sauce and dried ginger.

Once the porridge is served, the volume of noise descends markedly, and it becomes easier to talk about the project supporting this Village Health and Nutrition Day: Ukijani.

Sister projects in Tanzania and Madagascar

For two of us, Vistantuli and Jane, the scene is reminiscent of another nutrition demonstration event in Madagascar, some six months ago, when we visited Ukijani’s sister project Miriaka. There, too, different food types were explained, and the importance of a balanced, diverse diet was stressed. There, too, we observed food preparation being demonstrated and the result was shared among the audience of mothers and infants. Furthermore, the Ukijani team brought back to Tanzania from Madagascar the idea of a project cookbook — elaborating it into a full nutrition guide for mothers of young children.

Improved family nutrition is an integral part of these sister projects that seek to combine women’s livelihood opportunities and sustainable environmental management. The latter entails the introduction of climate-resilient agricultural practices such as agroforestry, improved soil management through composting, mulching and biopesticide use, and mixed cropping that integrates nitrogen-fixing species.

These practices equip women practitioners with the knowledge to diversify their production, sometimes into fruit forest gardens. They begin to appreciate the health benefits of (largely) organic fruit, vegetables and staples such as vitamin A-enriched maize and sweet potato. Not only do they integrate this into the daily diet of their families; they also sell the surplus, and many have now developed related businesses. Hellena is just one example, but her products are typical — all processed from the local harvest, much of it from her own farm or that of her neighbors.

Opportunities such as the Health and Nutrition Day are used to profile such products and attract customers, stressing that they are far better than highly processed commercial products that often contain very high amounts of sugar, salt and fat. The nutritional flour is especially affordable and popular and is now produced by 86 different women entrepreneurs spread across the six districts of project operation.

A big boost to demand has been agreements with schools for the preparation of school meals. It is parents who pay for these meals; they appreciate them for a variety of reasons, including the time saved in food preparation at home, and the improvement in children’s concentration in school. For students travelling long distances to school, the nutritious meals cooked on site are especially welcomed.  

Good nutrition for healthy child growth

When the meal at Mahalala is over, the mothers line up with their infants for Rodrick to update their measurements. He records height, weight and the infant’s arm circumference — a simple way to give a first indication of nutritional status and health. Naila Abdul scores green on her arm band measurement (indicating good nutrition), as do all the infants attending the clinic. This is very reassuring. According to the most recent Global Hunger Index, 29.9% of under-five children in Tanzania are stunted due to malnutrition, with 3.3% suffering wasting (rapid, involuntary weight loss that is often accompanied by weakness and fatigue) due to acute undernutrition.

In Madagascar, the situation is worse. An extremely alarming 38.4% of children under five are reported to be stunted, and 7.2% suffer wasting. Although Miriaka operates in the northeast SAVA region, where agricultural production is generally high, poor nutritional knowledge means that children do not always eat a balanced diet. As one sector chief in the commune of Doany, Lesara Julma, remarked to Visitantuli and Jane in December last year, “It is not a matter of producing many products — we know how to do that. But malnutrition can still result if one doesn’t know how to eat healthily. It’s the knowledge on what and how to cook that is key.”  

One of the women who was participating in the nutritional training that we observed, Francia Marie Angeline, explained the situation further.

“Everyone really enjoys the new meals — especially my children and my husband. Before, we used to just cook a single product for the family to eat, such as rice, cassava or yam. We might eat a few green leaves with it. But now we know that one needs a mixed diet.”  

Tracking dietary changes

In both Madagascar and Tanzania, nutrition training and demonstration sessions over 2025 and early 2026 have been very well attended, no doubt in part due to the free meal provided. The test will be whether this translates into long-term improved practices, including increased dietary diversity.

Early indications are promising. The midterm review of the Ukijani project interventions revealed that some 74% of women who had participated in awareness sessions demonstrated knowledge of undernutrition, while 82% showed an understanding of the health risks associated with being overweight or obese. Household dietary diversity has also improved substantially, with the proportion of households achieving minimum dietary diversity (as measured by the FAO Household Dietary Diversity score) increasing from 7.4% at baseline (project commencement) to 42.8% at midterm.

This change is reflected in the comments of another participant, Wanindela Samuel, who lives in a different village of the Singida Region served by the Ukijani project. When asked about her engagement in the project, she said, “Last year I went to Manyoni for training on vegetable cultivation and on how to prepare nutritious food for my children. They talked about cooking vegetables only briefly for five minutes and eating some raw. I learned about preparing a balanced diet from morning until evening — integrating vegetables, small fish, milk and fruits.” 

Wanindela’s comments reinforce our conviction that project activities have had a very positive impact on nutritional awareness in the communities supported.

About the Authors

Jane Carter is the Senior Adviser for Natural Resource Governance at Helvetas Switzerland, and is based in Bern.

Agnes Mahembe is the Program Officer for Food and Nutrition Security at Helvetas Tanzania, and is based in Dodoma.

Vistantuli Pilyson is the Ukijani Project Officer for Nutrition, Monitoring Evaluation and Learning at Helvetas Tanzania, and is based in Singida.

Maxmilian Saku is the Ukijani Project Manager at Helvetas Tanzania, and is based in Singida.