CASCADE Better Nutrition for Women and Children in Tooro Kyenjojo, Kyegegwa, Kamwenge, Kabarole and Fort Portal City, Western Uganda Implemented by KAWODA since 2024 as a women-led partner of CARE International in Uganda  |  Funded by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs

5 yrs June 2022 – December 2026

6 countries across Africa

1 million women and children under five

5 Tooro locations led by KAWODA

About CASCADE

CASCADE is a five-year, multi-country initiative (June 2022 – December 2026) working in Kenya, Benin, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Mozambique, and Uganda. Its goal is to improve food security and reduce malnutrition among one million women of reproductive age and children under five, by increasing access to and consumption of healthy diets, and by building household resilience to economic and climate-related shocks.

In Uganda, CASCADE is delivered by a consortium led by CARE International in Uganda and the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN), with the Food Rights Alliance, Africa Innovations Institute, Farm Africa, and Kyambogo University — alongside local women-led organizations like KAWODA, who anchor the work in communities across the Acholi, Tooro, Karamoja, Lango, and Busoga regions.

Why Social Norms Matter for Nutrition

What a family eats is shaped by more than income or food supply. Cultural beliefs, gender roles, and household decision-making patterns can limit how much nutritious food women and young children consume, even when it is available. CASCADE tackles these barriers directly, working with the people and institutions communities already trust.

KAWODA’s Role in Tooro

Since 2024, KAWODA has led CASCADE’s community-level work across the Tooro region, focused on shifting harmful social and gender norms that affect nutrition and on holding public services accountable for delivering it. Working with technical support from CARE’s gender and nutrition advisors, KAWODA plans and leads community activities so that ownership stays local.

What We Are Doing

KAWODA’s CASCADE work runs across four connected streams. Each is planned and led locally, with technical support from CARE’s gender and nutrition advisors.

STREAM 1

Shifting the norms that shape what women and children eat

Building on a community Social Norms Exploration, KAWODA uses the Social Analysis and Action (SAA) approach, in which communities themselves identify the norms holding back nutrition and decide what to do about them.