ABOUT Maureen Gitagia

Maureen is a registered clinical nutritionist with over four years of experience in nutrition, food systems, food security, and health research. She is currently coordinating research activities for a UNICEF project aimed at better understanding caregivers’ perceptions of nutrition and health claims when purchasing foods for infants and young children, which will aid in the development of future regulatory guidelines for nutrient profile models for complementary feeding. She also supports the AfriFOODlinks project, which aims to improve food and nutrition security while also improving climate and environmental outcomes. It intends to achieve this by encouraging public shifts toward sustainable healthy diets and transforming urban food environments through real-world socio-technical experiments. She is part of an APHRC team that runs the Zero Hunger initiative, which aims to end hunger and promote safe and healthy diets in line with the Sustainable Development Goal number two (Zero Hunger Goal) and to promote the progressive realization of the right to food through applied research, public engagement, and advocacy programs.

Before joining APHRC, she worked as a research assistant in the UKAID-funded agrobiodiversity and dietary diversity Transform Nutrition project and the European Research Council-funded Farm scale as a driver of agricultural development project. She holds a Master of Science degree in Nutritional Sciences and a Bachelor of Science degree in Food, Nutrition & Dietetics from Egerton University

She is passionate in supporting food systems transformation through research in order to achieve just and sustainable food systems in which everyone is free from hunger and has access to adequate food (nutritious, safe, and culturally acceptable food) and people live happy, healthy, and fulfilling lives in harmony with nature on this planet.

Apart from work, she enjoys outdoor activities such as hiking and is a gold holder of the President’s Award, an exciting self-development program available to all young people across the country to equip them with positive life skills to make a difference for themselves, their communities, country, and the world.