Week 2 of the Africa-UK AgriFood Innovation Online Missions Eastern Round-up
Week 2 for Eastern Region of our Virtual Missions was a very busy week and plenty of fruitful discussions! Here are some highlights of the activity.
Recordings are now available for Eastern Region
Registration now open for Week 3! Click on the link below.
Monday 15th June – Week 3 (Western region)
Week 2 continues the success of the previous week for the Africa-UK AgriFood Innovation Online Missions brought to you by the GCRF AgriFood Africa Programme. These missions are our way of maintaining progress for the programme in response to the Covid-19 situation which has prevented any face-to-face meetings between potential partners. We continue our efforts to build a community of stakeholders from numerous African countries and the UK, to realise sustainable management of the food production systems in Africa in a way that alleviates poverty, enhances economic prosperity and delivers improved well-being.
This week (8-12 June 2020), followed a similar format with a programme overview, funding mechanisms and general funding information for the next round of the Agri-Tech Catalyst, we have also looked at feedback and topics raised from week 1 and have provided further opportunities to engage with members of the GCRF AgriFood Africa programme. We were joined by an exciting line up of speakers kicking off the week with Susie Kitchens, British Deputy High Commissioner for Kenya who highlighted some very real issues and challenges for both UK and Kenya:
“Despite challenges of weather events, locusts and now Covid19, I’m very optimistic about UK-KE partnerships to increase productivity, efficiency and resilience in Agri-food.”
Two networking sessions with Meeting Mojo were available to help set up meetings with potential collaborators on Tuesday and Friday. The pitch sessions, where prospective partners provide 2-minute videos outlining their competencies and what they are look for in partners were well attended. We also added an additional opportunity for Meeting Mojo and networking after the pitch sessions for this week and next (week 3) as a result of the feedback received.
The panel Q&A Session was an excellent way to end the week’s fruitful discussions and included Mike Shaw – Managing Director at Wellspring, Calum Murray – Head of Agriculture and Food at Innovate UK, Izael Da Silva – Deputy Vice-Chancellor (DVC), Research and Innovation at Strathmore University, Nicholas Ambanya – Chief Production Officer at Twiga Foods, and Sheena Raikundalia, Director at UK- Kenya Tech Hub, Nairobi.
KTN are pleased to announce next week’s panel (Week 3) as follows:
- Calum Murray – Head of Agriculture and Food at Innovate UK
- Professor Ben Bennett – Deputy Director, Natural Resources Institute; Professor of International Trade and Marketing Economics; Director of the Centre for Food Loss and Waste Reduction (FLoW); Faculty Deputy Director of Research and Enterprise at University of Greenwich
- Edwin Zu-Cudjoe – CEO, Socialfarm Company Ltd
A full programme agenda for week 2 can be found here.
We’d like to thank all the Speakers, Organisers and of course the Attendees!
So how can you access all of this fantastic online material?
We are live streaming our online missions, and also publishing recordings following the events to our dedicated YouTube and Facebook channels, click on the links below.
Do make sure you subscribe, like and follow our channels for up to date notifications of when new videos go live.
Agri-Tech Catalyst Funding Information
These countries were eligible for funding under the Agri-Tech Catalyst Round 9 competition and are likely to be included in Round 10 for Eastern:
Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, Rwanda, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda
Round 10 will be published later this year and we will announce the fund in due course.
What’s coming up in the forthcoming weeks?
The third week will provide further opportunities to engage with members of the GCRF AgriFood Africa programme. Our Keynote Speaker is Hon. Amie Fabureh, Minister of Agriculture of The Gambia. There are also plenty of online networking opportunities and time for Q&A.
Similarly to the first and second weeks, there is also a Pitch Competition showcasing the talent of both UK and African partners. Members of the GCRF AgriFood Africa programme will vote for their favourite pitch and the winner of each session will get a spotlight across all KTN platforms, where they will be invited to pitch to increase their visibility and find new collaborations! The winners from Week 1 and 2 will be announced on the KTN website.
To register for the Western region, click on the link below:
Monday 15th June – Week 3 (Western region)
For Week 3 of our Online Mission, KTN are pleased to announce Keynote Speaker Hon. Amie Fabureh, Minister of Agriculture of The Gambia speaking on 15 June. Registration for an updated programme of material in July will be open soon.
Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter #agrifoodafrica
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To find out more about the project and opportunities to get involved, please contact Jayne Brookman or Tim Messeder; for general enquiries, please email gcrf.agrifood@iuk.ktn-uk.org.
Sign up to become a member of the GCRF Agri-food Africa Network.