Busia County is situated in western and serves as the gateway to Kenya’s regional neighbors; Uganda , Rwanda, Burundi, DRC Congo and South Sudan, with two formal border crossing points at Busia and Malaba Towns, Busia County Government has its headquarters IN Busia Town and covers an area of 1,684 square kilometers (Km2 ), It is situated at the extreme Western Region of Kenya and Borders Bungoma County to the North, Kakamega County to the East, Siaya County to the South East Lake Victoria to the South West and the Republic of Uganda to the West. It lies between latitude 00 45 North and Longitude 34 25 East. The County can be accessed through Kisumu International Airport which is 112Km away. The Map of Busia County and its administrative units is shown below:
Busia County is subdivided into seven sub counties namely; Matayos, Butula, Samia, Bunyala, Nambale, Teso South and Teso North. It has population of 893,681–as per the Kenya National Bureau of Statics Census report 2019. The table below shows the current population description segregated by sex and sub counties.
The estimated number of households in Busia County is 173,996, with an average family size of 5. The poverty level stands at 66.7%, while the literacy level is 75.3%. The male to female ratio stands at 1:1.08 i.e. 48% male and 52% female. The age dependency ratio is 100:107. Almost half of the population (47.1%) is children aged 0 to 14 years, and 26.4% are women of reproductive age. The population is further distributed as follows: under one, 3.6%; under 17.5%; adult population, 27.4%. Persons aged 60 and over are 5.3% of the total population. The respective population cohorts are calculated for the entire plan period.
Busia County Nutrition Action Plan (CNAP) 2018/19-2022 is aligned with the Kenya Nutrition Action Plan (KNAP 2018 – 2022), Busia county Health Sector Strategic &Implementation Plan (CHSSIP) 2018-2023 and County Integrated development Plan(CIDP) 2018 – 2023.The plan recognizes the role of nutrition as a fundamental human right and a driver to accelerating economic development as envisioned in vision 2030.Food and nutrition security is characteristic of people’s physical and economic access to translates to how well the citizens (men and women across all ages and diversities) are equitably empowered and provided with an equitable and enabling environment to meaningfully participate and contribute as strong agents of change, in addressing the key long-term drivers of food and nutrition security. To achieve this there is need to all diversities in the county. This will help design tailor made nutrition programming while equitably building on their capacities, knowledge, and experiences and directing capacity, human and material resources as best needed. The development of this CNAP provides practical guidance to implementation of Busia County commitments to nutrition interventions. The CNAP will provide a framework for coordinated implementation of High Impact Nutrition Inventions (HINI) and nutrition sensitive programs by County Government and nutrition stakeholders. The alignment of CNAP to CHSSIP 2018-2023 facilitates mainstreaming of nutrition budgeting process into County budget, hence, allocation of resources to nutrition programmes towards nutrition resource mobilization within and without the county borders. The document also emphasizes multi-sectoral coordination and collaboration approach in planning, fostering departure from past trends in addressing the nutrition agenda within the county.
The plan was developed through a consultative process involving all stakeholders in health and nutrition as well as other line county departments. This included the county health leadership, county government line departments, national line ministries, development partners and implementing partners. The implementation of the CNAP will cover four years beginning July 2019 to June 2022. The County department of Health (CDOH) will monitor implementation of the CNAP, conduct mid-term review to assess progress and end term evaluation to inform priorities for the subsequent CNAP planning period. This CNAP demonstrates the County government’s commitment to its vision of making Busia a healthy, productive and internationally competitive County.
The target audience for the county nutrition action plan (CNAP) cuts across policy makers and decision makers both at national and county governments, donors and implementing partners of both nutrition specific and sensitive interventions, line ministries, county health management team, sub county health management teams, nutrition workforce in health and other departments that influence and provide enabling environment for nutrition to be achieved and the communities at the grassroots level. This will enable them to understand what the county government is doing to ensure optimal nutrition for the entire population and what they can do individually to contribute to the effort.