Horticulture Fellow Winnie Yegon said her involvement has gone beyond food systems; “It has made me a better leader and gone beyond that to help shape me as a person as well. It has not just been about professional growth, it has been a personal journey too,” she said.

For Agri-finance Fellows Grace Njoroge and Sieka Gatabaki, the monthly Inspiration Sessions have been a gamechanger. These one-hour sessions are designed to expand networks, increase skills and build knowledge. They are delivered by industry experts and food systems leaders, as a mix of online skills masterclasses, industry deep-dives and leadership presentations.

In addition, each team is provided four hours per month of flexible, online support by dedicated Technical Mentors, designed to provide ready access to relevant technical and industry expertise and networks in order to progress Systems Initiatives.

The Fellows also benefit from online coaching sessions tailored to help teams progress their Systems Initiatives and to deepen the capacity for systems leadership. Delivered virtually by a cadre of Systems Leadership Coaches, they appear to have added considerable value to Fellows; “When we sat down to talk about solutions, all these different ideas came up from different people with different perspectives. I will definitely be replicating this at my place of work,” said Aquaculture Fellow, Seika.

“I realised that we have similar issues but different ways of approaching them, and different perspectives. People were able to open up because it was a safe space,” said Horticulture Fellow Grace.

Looking ahead, Fellows will be presenting the outcomes from their Systems Initiatives to an external panel of advanced food systems leaders in late March. The event will serve as a graduation for the Fellows into the inaugural Kenyan Food Fellowship; laying vital seeds for a movement of food systems game-changers.