Week 4 of the Africa-UK AgriFood Innovation Online Missions Round-up
Recordings are now available for Week 4
Registration open for OPEN SESSIONS for Week 5! Click on the link below.
Week 4 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.
For this week’s webinar (14 July 2020), our Gender Equality session showcased the clear relevance of the role of women in driving the goal of this programme is to alleviate poverty and food security in AgriFood systems across Africa. We were joined by Speakers Kathryn Miller, Innovate UK, Melody Mentz-coetzee, University of Pretoria, Zoe Jones, Innovate UK, John Jones, James Hutton Institute, and Azumi Mesuna, ActionAid Ghana,
Our Finance and Insurance session Panellists including Edwin Zu-Cudjoe, Executive Director, Socialfarm, Rishi Raithatha, Insights Manager, GSMA AgriTech programme, and Richard Leftley, MicroEnsure Holdings commented how there are challenges for the uptake of AgriFood insurance schemes and these often rely on government intervention for successful adoption. A round table discussion on the subject marked the clear need for finance options to be made available to smallholders. It was a very interesting session and well received.
The discussion on the role of Research and Training panelled by Professor Izael Da Silva, Strathmore University, Ernest Teye, University of Cape Coast Ghana, Professor Caroline Orfila, University of Leeds highlighted the importance of ensuring that knowledge transfer occurred between academia and industry to ensure that real-world problems are addressed. Round table discussions commented that technical solutions to problems in AgriFood systems exist within Africa, but an approach that addresses the wider context in which agriculture is taking place needs to be adopted.
We’d like to thank all the Speakers, Organisers and of course the Attendees!
KTN is pleased to announce WEEK 5 (4 August 2020) confirmed panel speakers as follows:
- Nicholas Ambanya, Twiga
- Sheena Raikundalia, DFID
- Allan Tollo, myfugo
- Emeka Nwachinemere, Kitovu
- Onyeka Akumah, FarmCrowdy
A full programme agenda for week 5 can be found here.
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 fifth week will provide further opportunities to engage with members of the GCRF AgriFood Africa programme. Sessions include Overseas Development Assistance, Manufacturing and Supply Chain, and Digital and Data. There are also plenty of online networking opportunities and time for Q&A.
To register for the next event, click on the link below:
For Week 6 of our Online Mission, KTN is pleased to announce Keynote Speaker X speaking on 25 August. Registration is open here.
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.