World Food Programme (WFP’s) led initiative ‘Vijana in Kilimobizz’, an initiative that seeks to empower youths especially women towards innovation in food systems for sustainable job creation has announced this year’s edition winners.
The winners are set to receive grants as a direct investment towards improving and scaling their innovations.
“Besides the financial grant, the 13 crowned innovations will undergo an incubation and acceleration programme allowing them to mature and bear greater influence in the country's food security," said Federico Sartori, head of innovation at WFP.
"This is while leveraging the UN supported network of innovation centres across the country. We believe that WFP and the UN can support Kenyan youth and entrepreneurs in the most remote locations by acting as a bridge and a de-risking factor for the private sector."
The national programme has been ongoing in the country where a total of 1,973 applications were made at the onset.
A total of 99 made it to the regional bootcamp and pitching competition, and after a rigorous evaluation process, 27 innovations were selected by a jury of experts to compete at the national level.
Ultimately, 13 innovations (6 from track 1 and 7 from track 2) stood out the most and were crowned as winners.
Challenge participants Empire Innovation, Gurar Youth Group, iPop Africa, Tusmo Farm, Technophiles Research and Innovation Club and Candycream Dairies won the ideation stage innovations award.
On the other hand, Aadin Limited, Agri Innovation Hub, Ajema Foods, Greenmeal Feeds Limited, Kitirikamba Seed Multiplication, SwiftRiver Growers and Yarsi Foundation were crowned the winners of the scale-up innovations award.
On her part, the head of food systems, resilience and climate change Claudia Ah Poe, reiterated they are dedicated to identifying and supporting innovative solutions through collaborative efforts to accelerate the transformation of food systems, and create employment for women and youth.
"Parameters that determined the winners included impact to humanity, and those that champion revolutionising the agricultural value chains towards creating jobs for the youth," Poe said.
She challenged youths to think about environmental footprint of their entrepreneurial ideas as climate change is threatening the entire food production value chain.
