Re-wiring how leaders connect to transform Africa’s food systems
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Re-wiring how leaders connect to transform Africa’s food systems
What is food systems leadership – and can it drive transformation?
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We were at the Africa Food Systems Forum (AFSF) in Kigali which presented us with lots to ponder. Perhaps the most important being that food systems leadership critically needs investment for food systems transformation.
H.E. Hailemariam Desalegn, Chair of the Africa Food Systems Forum Partners, and Ethiopia’s ex-Prime Minister, opened Africa’s leading Summit in Kigali on food systems in early September 2024. He set the scene for Africa’s food systems transformation.
Three messages from Hailemariam and one from Lawrence Haddad (the fourth), GAIN’s Executive Director, resonated with me:
- “Food systems transformation is urgent!”
- “We must tap youth creativity to bring it about”
- “If governed differently food systems could change and be a lead for other sectors”
- “Africa has a policy implementation capacity gap”
Africa is currently off-track having failed to achieve the Malabo Goals for 2025 that were set in 2014. At the Summit panellists described myriad challenges from poor resilience of food systems due to climate change; to lack of access to finance and infrastructure including energy, inputs and mechanisation; to low political attention and losing ground on technology.
Africa’s growing food importation bill, including receiving grain from Ukraine, a nation in significant conflict, served as a totem of the challenges. The opportunity is for African soils and ingenuity to feed itself and other regions in the decades ahead if structural challenges are put right.
While positive things were said at the Summit, even a few solutions, and it was a fantastic networking opportunity, I was one of many I spoke to who attended and left with little genuine optimism that the ‘change’ many hope for is in the air. Answering three questions might help us:
- Where can we source the energy for change?
- What do we mean by food systems leaders?
- Why is cultivating food systems leadership considered only ‘nice to have’?
Sourcing energy for change
Energy for change can come in two forms: the upcoming Kampala Declaration in January 2025 which has a new Africa-wide vision for the period 2026-2035 bringing a food systems approach; and leveraging new generations of diverse younger change makers working across food systems particularly those in their 20s, 30s, and 40s who wish to positively challenge the status quo with action.
The Kampala Declaration is important as it frames continental ambition in political terms. It provides a locus for African institutions and international actors.
The main shift for the decade ahead is a new focus on a broader agri-food systems approach as agriculture, nutrition and economic development are understood and applied together:
“Policies must be integrated to address trade-offs and interlinkages between sustainable practices, value chain complexity, and nutrition, among other food system factors. The Kampala Declaration also seeks to strengthen institutional capacity, foster transparency, accountability and inclusive stakeholder participation in the governance of agri-food systems.”
None of this is feasible without deeper and broader investment in people, i.e. emerging generations of food systems leaders who can work with complexity and tread a new collaborative path forward.
The latter is where sustained energy for change and action can be unleashed. Financial resources invested in younger resourceful people is a no-brainer.
The world needs change agents, people who make change happen, like never before. And leadership is the much-needed currency to drive that change. Business unusual means equipping, connecting and supporting large numbers of diverse leaders to lead change in sectors across complex food systems.
Partnerships do not exist yet to do this at scale. There are promising initiatives (such as African Union’s Agriculture Mission; the African Food Fellowship and AWARD and up to 15 others) but they are not yet organised for collaboration.
Efforts are afoot to find new means to collaborate and organise collaboration to ensure policy profile and investments are commensurate with the opportunity.
What is food systems leadership?
Thoughtful individuals are shaping a new sense of what food systems leadership is that is different from hierarchical approaches that have often shaped decisions in and between institutions. For example here on Medium by Debisi Araba and Brenda Mareri here: What is food systems leadership?
Efforts to enhance food systems leadership run the risk of being interpreted differently and being ‘washed’ to mean anything to anyone. Working systemically and with good knowledge of how food systems operate is key.
A successful food systems leader will draw from key tenets of systems leadership. They bring their leadership to share a path with others to knit together different food system interests.
For instance, they will acknowledge the complexity that exists and reach out to draw from multiple perspectives. They will focus efforts on improving the enabling conditions or root causes that give rise to today’s problems.
They will take decisions and experiment with actions and intentionally learn as they go, typically making decisions with insufficient information (which is often uncomfortable). They will be humble and collaborative leaders intent on sharing or giving the limelight to others.
They will seek a shared big change in food systems and bring attention to the collaboration needed for change, while cracking on with everyday decisions.
Food systems leadership can and should be learned. But how?
Cultivating food systems leadership at scale
Food systems leaders will drive positive change when they seek common ground with others.
How can we overcome the limitations of current institutions, organisations and businesses that are typically hierarchical and self-interested? And where key tenets of food systems leadership are not incentivised, how can we cultivate genuine food systems leaders? And at scale?
Imagine being part of a dynamic emerging leadership network, focused on transforming Africa’s food systems. A network that connects you in new ways to others you value for the next 10 or 20 years, helping you make informed decisions as you navigate the complexity of food systems, including as you move from one job to another.
This community not only supports your professional learning and growth, but also brings a sense of joy and purpose to your work in its connectivity. A professional association supporting you to be part of a growing army of food systems leaders in your country.
This is what the African Food Fellowship is here to be. Yet the Fellowship is one cog and the continental challenge demands a continental scale of response.
The Fellowship aims to collaborate with others to build an architecture cultivating new generations of food systems leaders. The Fellowship is partnering with the African Leadership University, and it is exploring partnerships, e.g. with AGRA’s CALA and AWARD, to bring food systems leadership development to scale.
I estimate that perhaps 3-6m USD annually is invested intentionally in food systems leadership development. This is tiny in the scheme of the tens of billions of dollars of decisions made by people in food systems each year.
What is the return on investment of tens of thousands of food systems leaders making better decisions that can reshape the drivers for food systems transformation month by month, year by year? It is high.
AGRA’s President concluded the AFSF Summit in Kigali calling for leadership in food systems to be prioritised in efforts to transform food systems. But transforming food systems in Africa will take time. It means rewiring how food systems leaders connect and how they act.
Organisations, institutions, and leaders from all places join us in this shared endeavour. Please reach out to me or anybody connected associated with the African Food Fellowship if you believe you can contribute to this new and exciting, and shared pathway ahead.
The opportunity is to transform food systems further and faster by going together (and not alone).
