What are Country Food Fellowships?
Country Food Fellowships are impact networks where inspiring food system leaders connect, learn, act, and belong. We curate these networks to elevate the collective leadership of Fellows during their journey towards food system transformation.
Our vision is that by 2027 a continent-wide network of African Food Fellows will lead the debate and practice of radically changing food systems for the better. This influential network will comprise thousands of food system leaders who will act primarily in their countries but will be connected throughout the continent.
Why Country Food Fellowships?
We envisage that country food fellowship will play a catalytic role to shift policies, power dynamics, investments and incentives that define national food systems in Africa.
Who is part of Country Food Fellowships?
Fellows that join the African Food Fellowship are welcomed into the Country Food Fellowship as they progress through the Food System Leadership Programme. They become part of a network to advance food system transformation in their country.
What do Country Food Fellowships offer?
Country Food Fellowship are now present in Kenya and Rwanda and will expand into other countries as the Fellowship grows. Ultimately, we believe that Country Food Fellowships will catalysing food systems actions initiated by Fellows. To achieve this, Country Food Fellowships:
- Provide a professional home for Fellows
- Facilitate access to opportunities to advance a growing number of collective food systems actions
- Catalyse collaborations with wider networks of food systems leaders, influencers, and decision-makers
- Influence national and impact area food system agendas
- Provide a docking point for institutions seeking to engage with the Fellowship
- Provide a lifelong learning environment for food systems leadership
What principles inspired the design of Country Food Fellowships?
1. A unifying collective purpose:
Fellows start to define their collective purpose during Food System Leadership Programme and further refine it as they interact with other Fellows from different cohorts within the Country Food Fellowship. Face-to-face events anchor and focus the members of each Country Fellowship around an opportunity for collective systems action.
2. A curated virtual space:
Each Country Fellowship is hosted on a virtual platform curated around content driven by and tailored to the priorities of its Fellows.
3. A governance structure with Fellows at its heart:
A Strategic Advisory Circle made by Fellows to steadily design and implement their own agendas, ensuring that each Country Food Fellowship reflects the issues, needs, and priorities of its Fellows.
4. Regular forms of connection:
Each Country Food Fellowship has its own rhythm, empowering leadership where and when it emerges and built around regular sessions—virtual or in person—designed to serve as consistent points of connection among Fellows.
Our ambitious agenda is to support a new generation of food systems leaders to reshape African food systems to be healthy, inclusive and sustainable. We believe new forms of influence and power can come from active and self-organised networks spurring Fellows to advance systems actions that shape policy, power dynamics, investments, and incentives in food systems.
