Breaking Intergenerational Cycles: Digital Social Protection for Maternal Nutrition Equity in Kenya
1
School of Business Leadership, University of South Africa, Pretoria, South Africa
2
School of Computing and Engineering Sciences, Strathmore University, NAIROBI, Kenya
Popul. Med. 2026;8(Supplement Supplement 1):
ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION:
Maternal malnutrition drives poor pregnancy outcomes and intergenerational health inequities, particularly among women in poverty. While expectant women require adequate nutrition, structural deprivation, gendered poverty, and weak social safety nets make this unattainable for many 1–5. In Kenya, social protection programs do not specifically target poor pregnant women, and fragmented systems enable this exclusion 6–9. Cultural practices, structural barriers, including FGM impacts and pastoral mobility, create ‘borders’ excluding women from standard care. This study examines how integrating digital social protection with maternal nutrition interventions can advance equity, inclusion, and sustainable nutrition outcomes.
METHODS:
Qualitative data were collected from expectant women across diverse underserved contexts: nomadic communities (Wajir), pastoral populations (Kajiado), nutrition-cash transfer pilots (Kitui), and urban informal settlements (Kibera). Perspectives from healthcare providers, community health workers, nutrition officers, social protection staff, and technology experts were triangulated using an "equity-first" lens to audit digital health approaches and understand systemic barriers10–12.
RESULTS:
Findings reveal that poverty-driven food insecurity, cultural practices, nutritional misconceptions, mobility, and urban precarity intersect to produce sustained maternal nutritional risk. Existing systems lack cultural grounding, often failing to address intrahousehold food allocation vulnerabilities. Programs frequently miss those most in need due to rigid eligibility criteria, disconnected registries, and limited contextual responsiveness. Participants identified integrated digital social protection-nutrition approaches as critical, particularly when designed for continuity of care, adaptive targeting, and timely pregnancy support. Maternal malnutrition requires specialized, adaptive, person-centered digital navigation.
CONCLUSIONS:
This study reframes social protection as a core public health intervention preventing intergenerational malnutrition cycles. By centering marginalized women's agency across rural, pastoral, and urban contexts, the findings demonstrate how culturally responsive digital frameworks can transcend geographic and cultural borders, contributing to the design of an equity-oriented system where health without borders begins with inclusive national systems.
Maternal malnutrition drives poor pregnancy outcomes and intergenerational health inequities, particularly among women in poverty. While expectant women require adequate nutrition, structural deprivation, gendered poverty, and weak social safety nets make this unattainable for many 1–5. In Kenya, social protection programs do not specifically target poor pregnant women, and fragmented systems enable this exclusion 6–9. Cultural practices, structural barriers, including FGM impacts and pastoral mobility, create ‘borders’ excluding women from standard care. This study examines how integrating digital social protection with maternal nutrition interventions can advance equity, inclusion, and sustainable nutrition outcomes.
METHODS:
Qualitative data were collected from expectant women across diverse underserved contexts: nomadic communities (Wajir), pastoral populations (Kajiado), nutrition-cash transfer pilots (Kitui), and urban informal settlements (Kibera). Perspectives from healthcare providers, community health workers, nutrition officers, social protection staff, and technology experts were triangulated using an "equity-first" lens to audit digital health approaches and understand systemic barriers10–12.
RESULTS:
Findings reveal that poverty-driven food insecurity, cultural practices, nutritional misconceptions, mobility, and urban precarity intersect to produce sustained maternal nutritional risk. Existing systems lack cultural grounding, often failing to address intrahousehold food allocation vulnerabilities. Programs frequently miss those most in need due to rigid eligibility criteria, disconnected registries, and limited contextual responsiveness. Participants identified integrated digital social protection-nutrition approaches as critical, particularly when designed for continuity of care, adaptive targeting, and timely pregnancy support. Maternal malnutrition requires specialized, adaptive, person-centered digital navigation.
CONCLUSIONS:
This study reframes social protection as a core public health intervention preventing intergenerational malnutrition cycles. By centering marginalized women's agency across rural, pastoral, and urban contexts, the findings demonstrate how culturally responsive digital frameworks can transcend geographic and cultural borders, contributing to the design of an equity-oriented system where health without borders begins with inclusive national systems.
| eISSN: | 2654-1459 |
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