News
13.10.2022
Applications open for second Rwanda cohort of the African Food Fellowship
The African Food Fellowship is delighted to announce that applications for the 2023 Rwanda cohort of its flagship Food Systems Leadership Programme are now open.
We are calling upon Food systems leaders living in Rwanda and working in Sustainable Land Use, Access to Nutritious Foods, or Food Technology & Trade to submit their applications here before the deadline closes on November 27, 2022. Forty successful applicants will be selected, with their leadership journey commencing in January 2023. Selected applicants will enjoy ten months of inspiring, action-oriented learning delivered by Wageningen University & Research, a leading agricultural university in the world. Upon graduation, they will be inducted into the Rwanda Food Fellowship, a life-long professional network of change-makers.
‘We’re catalysing a new generation of leadership across Africa to build healthier, more inclusive, and sustainable food systems. Join the African food Fellowship to be part of a growing movement that will change the future of food as we know it,” said African Food Fellowship Director Joost Guijt.
The participation fee for the Food Systems Leadership Programme is 850,000 Rwandan Francs which will be paid in two instalments at the start of and halfway through the programme.
“The African Food Fellowship has been quite a resourceful journey for me in the sense that I am now able to implement a systemic lens taught in class in my everyday work. As part of my coursework, I started an initiative building farmer field schools in villages to address access to extension education and inclusion for women and disabled persons. I am excited about this project and I look forward to having it implemented countrywide,” said Esther Mukundane, an alumnus of the programme and the country director for Aspire Rwanda.
The first Rwanda class graduated in September this year at a colourful event in Kigali, with 24 Fellows receiving certificates for successfully completing the Food Systems Leadership programme and getting inducted into the Rwanda Food Fellowship, where they will enjoy benefits such as professional masterclasses and access to food systems platforms where they can interact and collaborate with their peers.
“We are eager to welcome the next cohort of fellows. Our programme combines classroom learning from a world-class institution in food systems, with inspirational sessions, and technical mentoring from technical and leadership experts in the food systems space. With these resources, Fellows are able to refine their leadership skills and work on food systems projects on the ground,” said the Fellowship’s Rwanda Dean Anysie Ishimwe.
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.
