Entries by James Anderson

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African Food Fellowship opens applications for cohort 5, introduces new impact area

African Food Fellowship opens applications for cohort 5, introduces new impact area

The African Food Fellowship is delighted to announce that applications are now open for its fifth cohort. The Fellowship is recruiting 80 new Fellows in Rwanda and Kenya, 40 for each country. These are food systems leaders who are passionate about working together to create healthy, inclusive, and sustainable food systems.

Interested candidates can submit their applications before the deadline closes on April 25, 2025.

The Fellowship has also updated its impact areas for this round of applications to better reflect a shift in continental priorities. In Rwanda, we are now targeting applicants working in the impact areas of Healthy and Nutritious Foods, Climate Smart Agriculture, or Inclusive Markets and Trade, while in Kenya, we shall be accepting applications from people working in Horticulture for Inclusive Markets, Blue Economy for Food or Agri-finance.

The impact areas are informed by the new Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) Strategy and Action Plan 2026-2035 endorsed in January 2025 by 55 African Union member states. The agreement introduced ambitious new targets, including Increasing agricultural productivity by 50%, reducing undernourishment to less than 5%, reducing negative environmental impacts of agriculture by 40%, and increasing the value of processed food exports by 30%. It also aims to integrate over 10 million small-scale farmers into agricultural value chains. These changes show a more holistic approach in how food is produced, processed, and distributed.

Applications now open

“The new Kampala Declaration signed in January this year has inspired us to revise our impact areas to better align with the targets outlined in the agreement. We now have a sharper focus on trade in both countries, as well as a more deliberate inclusion of climate smart agriculture in Rwanda, and an expansion of aquaculture to encompass the blue economy in Kenya. Targeting leaders working in these areas means that we’re able to better support Africa’s food systems transformation agenda,” said African Food Fellowship Director Joost Guijt.

Currently active in Rwanda and Kenya but with ambitions to expand to all Economic Zones in Africa by 2030, the African Food Fellowship is a dynamic network of leaders working together on bold change to make food systems healthy, sustainable, and inclusive. It is dedicated to building the leadership capacity of food systems actors in Africa so they can better respond to challenges and craft sustainable solutions.

“A lot of investments have been made to end hunger, tackle malnutrition, raise productivity, and generally improve food systems in Africa. However, few have focused on building the capacity of the people tasked with delivering these ambitious targets. Africa needs good leaders to deliver healthy, inclusive, and sustainable food systems the African Food Fellowship is investing in these leaders,” said African Food Fellowship Rwanda Lead Anysie Ishimwe.

The Fellowship has built a thriving ecosystem for food systems actors in Africa to connect with their peers and gain essential leadership skills and knowledge to transform food systems. Fellows are co-creators and co-owners of this ecosystem.

Successful applicants will join an impact network of over 230 Fellows in both countries. They will start their journey with the prestigious Food Systems Leadership Programme (FSLP), a world-class 10-month programme  delivered virtually by faculty from Wageningen University & Research and Wasafiri Consulting. During the programme, Fellows acquire shared language, knowledge and tools to unpack food systems, analyze their complexity, and identify opportunities for systemic interventions.

The Fellowship also supports Fellows as they design, implement, and adapt their food systems actions. Fellows identify common goals and work on new pathways that are healthy, inclusive, and sustainable. They exchange ideas, mentor each other, and work together to achieve shared goals.

Current Fellows include government officials, community leaders, entrepreneurs, farmers, scientists, development workers, financiers, educators and journalists. They contribute different perspectives, practical skills and networks to the Fellowship. Collectively, they can shift the power, policies, investments, and incentives that shape food systems. 

“We especially encourage women, farmers, and people living in marginalised areas to apply because they are often left out of leadership opportunities. The Fellowship is a diverse and inclusive space whose members enrich it with different perspectives, experiences and networks. It reflects the wide spectrum of skills, specialisations, and identities in which food systems in Africa operate,” said African Food Fellowship Kenya Lead Brenda Mareri.

The Fellowship charges a fee of USD 1,000 for the Food Systems Leadership Programme, payable in two instalments. A limited number of scholarships are available for those who can demonstrate they need it. We encourage and support participants to seek organisational scholarships.

Originally posted on the African Food Fellowship website.

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We are looking for a Project Officer

We are looking for a Project Officer

Join our team!

We are looking for a Project Officer to play a varied project and operational support role within our operations team.

The Project Officer will be dedicated to supporting one or more projects, providing operational planning, logistics and administrative support to all aspects of the project cycle (identification, proposal development, teaming, implementation and close-down).

See the full description.

How to apply:

  1. Submit the cover letter and CV to [email protected]
  2. The CV should be no longer than 3 pages.
  3. Use the subject heading: Application – Project Officer
  4. Application deadline: 16 May 2024

Good luck!

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Transforming African agri-food systems by advancing policymaker accountability

Transforming African agri-food systems by advancing policymaker accountability

How important are parliamentarians at the country level when it comes to transforming agri-food systems across Africa?

In 2022, parliamentarians provided an important glimpse of new forms of accountability that they can bring to influence national performance on food systems. Their role can grow in 2023 if harnessed well to support Africa to achieve its own Malabo targets that include ending hunger and transforming agriculture in the 2020s.

Let’s first focus on what really matters to ordinary people. Between just January and September 2022, food price inflation in Ghana increased by up to 122%.

According to Ghana parliamentarian Hon. Dr. Godfred Seidu Jasaw, who is on the committee on Food, Agriculture, and Cocoa Affairs, “it means we cannot sustain any agricultural progress. We are still doing under 2% of our 15% Malabo commitment, and even in the 2023 budgets that we are just reviewing, it is likely to be no different. The capacity to have compelling evidence and information to influence these budget lines and policy focus will be very useful.”

Hon. Jasaw was speaking at a session that included the Chairs of parliamentary committees of agriculture from Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, the Republic of Congo, and Nigeria.

The African Union’s CAADP Biennial Review is the most authoritative data, analytical report production and approval process covering agri-food systems on the continent. Over 50 countries report on their progress against the AU’s Malabo targets, yet many stakeholders in national governments or outside (who are important decision makers or influencers on policy, resourcing, and implementation), are unfamiliar with the BR process and findings.

Evidence from the BR shows that Africa’s agricultural growth and transformation have been faltering since 2015, and it provides evidence that existing efforts are not sufficient to get Africa back on track to meet its goals.

So far, country parliamentarians have not been a focus of the Biennial Review. However, it is clear that they are interested and ready for mutual accountability learning from their parliamentarian peers in-country and between countries, using the BR report.

As Hon. Jasaw expounds, “I’ve been very interested [in the Biennial Review] but I realise that there’s just no system in place to make such information available to us. And so I think that we should take the extra step of targeting who gets this report. The first priority must be given to the users of that report – the parliamentarians and policymakers, and then the technocrats at the ministry. Once we target these people consciously and they are reading and discussing the Biennial Review report, they may be able to lead others in applying the policy lessons and we may actually reach the lofty Malabo objectives and agenda that we have so far.”

So data matters and so does who receives it. But politics and coherent action by institutions must follow.

“When we want to address agriculture, we must think about strengthening production, industrialisation, and trade at the same time. All the difficulties are related to the climate, deforestation, pollution, COVID-19, purchasing power, and also the need to involve our political institutions. What we need is more coherence, not only between the information available but also across the different stakeholders involved,” explained Hon. Jeremy Lissouba, committee of agriculture, National Assembly of Congo.

The novel session at the end of November provided an opportunity for parliamentarians to make the case for an enhanced role for African country parliaments in the CAADP process: to formally receive and consider the BR data and to apply it in practice deepening accountability for performance with national governments and implementers.

Momentum and relationships have been co-created by a group of Non-State-Actors and the AU Commission. Energy is building to empower parliamentarians across Africa, particularly those in agriculture select committees with timely information from the BR in order for them to support better decisions by government and other stakeholders.

The opportunity is real. Parliamentarians can constitute a new, connected, and influential network that is using the BR findings in a majority of African countries to hold governments accountable, and in so doing, help to improve national agri-food performance.

The next step is a conference open to all country parliamentary committees of agriculture, finance, and planning in February 2023 before the AU Summit.

We are just three years away from the Malabo declaration targets deadline, yet Africa is way off track. It matters now more than ever, that the BR evidence is used in practical ways to boost trade in food, grow production of food in sustainable ways, improve nutrition outcomes for women and children, invest more public and private financial resources – and many other areas that are covered by the BR report.

Parliamentarians are mandated to hold the national government accountable. Let us help them do this using the latest data to shape national food systems. 2023 offers an opportunity to break through!

If you’d like to connect on this agenda and particularly if you are a member of an agriculture, budget/finance, or planning committee, please reach out to [email protected].

Organisation logos

Photo by Jake Gard on Unsplash

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