The African Food Fellowship is delighted to announce that applications for the 2022 Kenyan cohort of its flagship Food Systems Leadership Programme are now open.
The cohort will comprise 40 Kenyan Fellows, working across the fields of Agri-Finance, Aquaculture and Horticulture. Their leadership journey will commence in November and continue for ten months of inspiring, action-oriented learning, culminating with graduation into the Kenya Food Fellowship and a life-long professional association of change-makers.
Applicants are invited to submit their applications online on the link below before the deadline closes on 25 September 2022, with the programme launching on 11 November.
“We’re looking for 40 emerging leaders and practitioners fuelled by an ambition for impact and a hunger for action. We would particularly welcome applications from business leaders, community and farmer representatives and government officials,” said Fellowship Director Joost Guijt.
The participation fee for the Food Systems Leadership Programme is 94,800.00 Kenyan Shillings, which can be paid in two instalments (60,000 Ksh due before 1 November 2022, and 34,800 due before 1 April 2023).
“The Fellowship has been instrumental in giving me a broader view of food systems. In our everyday roles as leaders in different organisations, it can be difficult to have a 360-degree view of factors contributing to the challenges and wins in the food sector. Going through the Fellowship has made me more conscious about the actors that I do not necessarily interact with, but who are part and parcel of how the food system is structured,” said Grace Njoroge, an alumnus of the Programme, and an Innovation Fund Manager at GSMA Innovation Fund.
The recruitment of Kenya’s second cohort signals the Fellowship’s long term commitment to food systems transformation in Africa, cementing its goal to establish an African-wide network of 950 food systems leaders across the continent over the next five years.
“We’re catalysing a new generation of leadership across Africa to help build healthier, more inclusive and sustainable food systems. We will be delivering our flagship Food System Leadership Programme to annual cohorts of passionate food systems leaders, and work with our alumni networks to build dynamic Country Food Fellowships. These networks will support Fellows on their journeys to drive change and impact,” added Director Guijt.
The Fellowship, which started in 2021, graduated its first Kenyan cohort in April this year, and is currently supporting the first cohort of Fellows from Rwanda. It is being implemented by Wageningen University & Research and Wasafiri Consulting, with funding from IKEA Foundation.
About the African Food Fellowship
The mission of the African Food Fellowship is to catalyse the food systems leadership that will help build healthy, inclusive, and sustainable food systems across Africa.
Leading institutions Wageningen University & Research and Wasafiri Consulting established the Fellowship to help deliver progress promised in the 2014 Malabo Declaration, which aims to end hunger on the continent by 2025, and to promote intra- Africa food exchange through the continental free trade area.
The vision of the Fellowship is that by 2032 a continent-wide network of over 10,000 African Food Fellows will be driving change and impact across Africa.
