KILIMO BUNIFU
Fulfilling its mission of empowering livelihoods and building resilience into those who are the most marginalized, Passion of Hope International (PHI) sponsored a two-day virtual workshop in late November 2020 as part of the 9th International Conference on Appropriate Technology. The virtual collaboration was facilitated by Dr. Puleng Makhoalibe of Alchemy Inspiration (Johannesburg, South Africa). For two intensive days, 27 leaders with expertise in food security collaborated in a think-tank to improve food sovereignty for the impoverished rural areas of sub-Saharan Africa. Ten participants received funding support from TechnoServe, a global leader in the fight to reduce poverty.
Three big ideas unfolded from the workshop: (1) Have a foundation based on farmer collaborations and partnerships throughout the value chain, (2) Solutions must be based on Triple P (people, profit, planet) principles and actualized through agricultural innovation hubs, and (3) Establish bi-directional knowledge transfer and communication linkages via a digital platform. The vision for food health and food sovereignty in Africa begins with control of agricultural production and product transformation all the way to the market.
​
We believe that farmers (the primary producers) must be valued beneficiaries of their labor. They are the foundation of local economic growth, sustainable agri-food systems, and food security for all others. Market structure must affirm their value. By strengthening local agricultural capacity amongst medium and small scale farmers based on regenerative agriculture principles and encouraging collaborative partnerships within the value chain, a more robust and equitable local economy can be sustained. The face of poverty in these ignored and forgotten rural communities will now see hope.
What are the three pillars of transformation in The Kilimo Bunifu Project?
-
The Platform: Establish an online platform for knowledge sharing – RAPA (Restorative Agri-food System Platform for Africa). RAPA will be the foundation of the innovation community which begins with endogenous knowledge and extends to the global research academies.
-
Partnerships and Policy: Leverage new and existing partnerships for scalability; foster linkages and collaborations among key stakeholders in the complete agriculture sector; impact public policy through well researched findings and fact-based, proven models.
-
Triple P Hubs: Establish local hubs around the continent as “feet-on-the-ground” to implement and share knowledge towards food sovereignty and nutrition security, environmental restoration, and improved livelihood of their communities measured by people, planet, and profit values. The regional hubs will be centers of excellence for knowledge transfer and demonstration of best-practices, top down and bottom up. The mission of the hubs will be to facilitate coordination, broker and create spaces and opportunities for multi–stakeholder action, research, experimentation, learning and debate.
Hubs will implement appropriate agro-ecological innovations and practices, advocate for public policy changes, be a source of business opportunities and investment for agricultural entrepreneurs and those downstream in the agri-business sector, ensure sustained participation of youth and women, actively work to reverse and overcome past ecological deficits, and will nurture partnerships which are collaborative, mutually-beneficial, sustainable partnerships. Out of the Hubs we hope to witness ‘market trigger’ which effectively improve the support systems for triple bottom line farmer entrepreneurship and positive market uptake for all stakeholders. The Hubs, in conjunction with an accessible knowledge platform and facilitated with partnerships, will lead to a more robust agricultural sector in these deficient communities.
The Kilimo Bunifu Project is ultimately about Food - Food health, Food security, Food transformation and value-add, and Food-related transactions for fair and equitable profitability. It will integrate the efforts of government institutions, farm-based civil society organizations, producer organizations, finance, and non-governmental partners. Innovation Hubs are planned in Kenya, Benin, and South Sudan as part of the first phase of the project.