Have you ever felt the anxiety of stepping out of your comfort zone? Perhaps you have seen an aspiring singer hesitate at the karaoke mic, and felt a sense of admiration and a desire to have the same courage? Young entrepreneurs with bold ideas face a similar obstacle – a lack of confidence to take the plunge.
This is what Generation Food is all about.
It is a programme that seeks to unlock the potential of young agrifood entrepreneurs to accelerate the growth of their business or to make their ideas a reality. A reality that, in turn, pushes us to find creative solutions to critical global issues linked to our food systems. The following insights come from an internal learning exchange that brought together colleagues in Rikolto from different regions working on youth food entrepreneurship.
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Climate change is HERE. From unprecedented flooding affecting millions in Brazil to a drought in Sicily causing more than €1 billion in losses to farmers, its impact is undeniable.
Our current food production and distribution networks contribute significantly to greenhouse gas emissions, biodiversity loss and freshwater stress. At the same time, cities are expanding rapidly and often struggling to absorb their growing population and provide them with adequate housing and transport infrastructure, basic health and education services and/or decent employment opportunities.
Instead, we see new neighbourhoods springing up in areas that are highly vulnerable to natural disasters, in addition to more convenience stores, supermarkets and food chains that almost compete to see who can sell the crispiest and greasiest ready-to-eat chicken or pizza.
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Earlier this year, the Netflix documentary “Hack Your Health: The Secrets of Your Gut” explored the often unseen role that food plays in our overall wellbeing, and also how the gut microbiome of urban dwellers is less diverse than that of their rural counterparts.
When it comes to finding solutions to these related food challenges facing cities, we need the passion, the creativity and the “question everything” attitude of young people.
That is why Rikolto is tapping into this potential with Generation Food, an agrifood incubator which we have implemented in cities in Belgium, West Africa, East Africa and most recently Latin America.
Generation Food seeks to empower aspiring young entrepreneurs by strengthening their business skills, refining their ideas and facilitating connections with suppliers, funders and potential customers.
Having a “nice” business idea is not enough: the programme is aimed at young companies that are genuinely responding to the concrete food needs of their urban and rural contexts.
For instance, limited access to organic fertiliser can hinder smallholder farmers interested in shifting to more sustainable production practices.
In the Southern Highlands of Tanzania, a Generation Food participant Suluhu is addressing this gap by supplying organic fertiliser to farmers in Njombe. And Yummy Yummy, a women-owned business, is tackling another challenge – access to healthy food – by crafting delicious and nutritious vegetable and fruit cakes in Mbeya city.
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Post-harvest losses and limited market access are also common problems linked to the food systems where we work. Start-ups such as Elite Wine, which uses surplus tomatoes to make wine, and Theo Silver, which creates valuable oil from reject avocados, can help give a second life to food products that would otherwise be lost or wasted.
Ssokoletu.com is another inspiring enterprise in the Democratic Republic of Congo. This B2C platform is sourcing products from 25 annual supplier contracts with peer Generation Food graduates, with more on the horizon in the cities of Goma and Bukavu.
Sadiki Mukandamana, another Generation Food graduate, observed that the market shelves in Goma were completely dominated by low-quality imported beans. This inspired him to create “Madesu”, a brand that supplies packaged, local and organic, standardised and ready-to-cook beans. Since 2023, Madesu has sold over 2,500 kg of beans!
Creativity thrives where “head” and “heart” work together. With this in mind, Rikolto and its partners seek to create a space where everyone feels respected, valued and listened to.
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Ready to pull back the curtain on different Generation Food trajectories?
In Burkina Faso the initiative specifically engaged youth, women and people living with disabilities (PWDs).
Generation Food was first launched in Ouagadougou, and then as part of the Project for the Improvement of the Competitiveness of Rural and Urban Enterprises in the Centre-East Region and the Creation of Decent, Inclusive and Sustainable Jobs (PACE-DID).
Bernadette Ouattara Wininga, Rikolto’s programme director for Burkina Faso, outlines the challenge: the lack of trust between entrepreneurs (especially women, youth and people with disabilities) and microfinance institutions (MFIs).
“These institutions have often perceived them as high-risk clients, and in addition to the various prejudices that people living with disabilities face, access to credit to run their own SMEs is an issue that has a direct impact on their livelihoods.”
To bridge this gap, Rikolto’s project partners TRIAS, SOS-Faim and other actors developed a four-step approach:
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In addition, the team introduced an innovative funding mechanism targeting these often underserved groups:
Tanzania, like much of East and West Africa, has a young population, with almost half under the age of 25.
Agriculture remains an important source of income for many young people. However, there is limited participation of women and youth in horticulture. Unemployment is also rising (4.26% by 2022 – World Bank).
Funded by the European Union’s AGRICONNECT programme, Rikolto’s Generation Food team in the Southern Highlands of Tanzania engaged 400 entrepreneurs aged 18–35 by providing:
Most of the examples mentioned earlier in this article are enterprises that have taken part in this programme. Some agribusinesses were able to obtain funding from other organisations, for example two agribusinesses received funding of TZS 90 million from the Ministry of Agriculture through the Building a Better Tomorrow programme (MOA-BBT project).
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“Our documentation also found that, on average, the supported enterprises created jobs for an additional three young people.”
In the Democratic Republic of Congo, Bukavu and Goma offer contrasting urban experiences: Bukavu is a lakeside city with well-established markets, while Goma is a commercial centre in the shadow of a volcano that faces multiple security issues.
The Generation Food initiative was launched in both cities in partnership with the Un Jour Nouveau (UJN) business learning centre in Goma and the Orhéol business incubator in Bukavu in 2022.
A total of 127 young people (aged 18–35) with 38 business ideas participated in the process.
In the DR Congo, the team identified several structural barriers to youth entrepreneurship:
“As soon as you make a declaration, you have to start paying business taxes. In some companies, 30–35% of the declared investment capital has to be paid to a number of resource mobilisation offices within 45 days. This is difficult for start-ups,” says Bonnke Safari, Rikolto's project coordinator in the DR Congo.
To address these, Rikolto and its partners facilitated the creation of the Economic Interest Group (EIG) of the Kivu Agripreneurs Group (GAKI), known in French as GIE-GAKI. It is a mutual support network that provides opportunities for agrifood entrepreneurs by using a collective power strategy to deal with potential shocks. This group brought together 100 members with a combined supply of 240 products. "We facilitated a process to define and approve the roles and responsibilities of the members, and also the legal status,” explains Bonnke.
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Rikolto and its partners co-financed the purchase of essential equipment for the GIE-GAKI’s physical market, with rental costs covered by membership fees. This structure offered several advantages for the agripreneurs:
“We also encourage the local government to co-invest in these activities. Currently, with the support of the Bukavu Municipality, we are improving a fruit and legume market pilot, which will provide the youth with space to store and sell fresh produce in the city,” says Bonnke.
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Each project has its own unique challenges and opportunities. Some valuable lessons from our colleagues in the various Generation Food initiatives are provided below. Their insights are intended to inspire those interested in starting or collaborating on urban agrifood entrepreneurship.
Building partnerships is especially crucial when designing programmes to support sustainable and inclusive start-ups in the horticulture sector, for instance. We understand that access to finance for small businesses is often limited. However, the highly perishable and risky nature of horticulture further discourages financial institutions from providing loans.
A nice example of collaboration comes from Tanzania’s Southern Highlands. Our team successfully linked the Generation Food incubator with a government youth initiative, Tanzania’s Building Better Tomorrow, and financial institutions such as the Tanzania Agricultural Development Bank (TADB). This partnership unlocked funding opportunities for young agripreneurs. In addition, linking participants to established business development service providers such as Agriedo, AgriHub and Kiota Hub provided them with essential expertise in marketing, finance and regulatory compliance.
This collaborative approach also brought positive results in Burkina Faso.
The team focused on strengthening financial service providers (SFDs) and aligning their offerings with the specific needs of young people, women and people living with disabilities (PWDs). This enabled the introduction of nine new products in three agri-value chains (soya, poultry and sheep fattening). This proved successful, but only after dedicated efforts had been made to facilitate dialogue and build trust between entrepreneurs, SFDs and other stakeholders.
The DRC experience also highlights the power of public and private sector involvement as a driver of innovation. This collaboration can lead to investment opportunities, for example through procurement. This can create a market for products or services developed by Generation Food participants, or it can incentivise innovation that meets a specific need. For example, the programme could work with schools to secure contracts for the supply of fresh produce, and encourage young entrepreneurs to focus on innovations that address existing market needs.
Market needs are a key consideration when selecting topics for the Generation Food curriculum. The ideal approach is to strike a balance between market trends, consumer preferences, sustainability and nutrition objectives and the key food system challenges that new businesses could potentially address.
Bernadette, our colleague from Burkina Faso, explains that early on in the programme they realised that technical aspects such as food processing and the valorisation of often discarded food by-products were skills that many entrepreneurs lacked.
“A group of entrepreneurs wanted to produce tomato paste, but they did not have the necessary skills or knowledge. So we put them in touch with processing experts for training.”
Another consideration in the selection of topics for the incubation programme was shared by Hilda Okoth, project coordinator in Northern Tanzania:
“In our previous experience in Arusha and Mbeya, we observed that some participants were not interested in the production aspect. While this opens up opportunities in other areas, it also points to a potential gap in the future workforce.”
Similarly, the team noted that healthy food and nutrition issues resonated strongly with young entrepreneurs, especially women. They showed enthusiasm for business ideas around healthy snacks, fresh juices and faster food delivery services.
Hilda mentioned, “In Arusha, we are also involving youth in the multi-stakeholder food governance processes that Rikolto co-facilitates. We see the potential for different working groups within these platforms to design innovations that create opportunities to support these businesses.”
In Mbale City, Rikolto facilitates a Good Food Parliament. Here, our colleague Peter Businda, project coordinator in Uganda, suggests exploring the inclusion of young entrepreneurs early on in the Good Food Parliament.
“By involving them from the outset, the entrepreneurs could be inspired by some of the pilots or innovations being tested there, and then align their business ideas to these tangible needs or demands from actors in Mbale’s food system.”
Charlotte Flechet, global programme director, also highlighted the critical issue of the mismatch between solutions and identified problems.
“We could invest in market research to truly understand the demand, the sustainability opportunities and what people are willing to pay for certain services or products. This information could be used in hackathons and to identify the priority types of businesses to support in future Generation Food cohorts.”
A recurring topic in the design and planning phase is determining the programme’s length and its processes. In Burkina Faso, colleagues reflected that the incubation period could be shortened to maintain participant’s motivation and keep the drop-out rate low.
In Tanzania, they decided that hands-on coaching and mentoring needed to be extended beyond the current 3–4 months. “The entrepreneurs needed more time to develop the necessary skills and knowledge to successfully launch a business,” Shukuru explained. Extending the coaching programme could enable them to overcome challenges and make more informed decisions.
Meanwhile, the programme was recently launched in Quito, Ecuador (in 2023). There, the team is working closely with partners such as the Economic Development Corporation – Conquito – which recommended that Generation Food be shorter to keep drop-out rates low.
“We listened to their advice, and it’s also important to mention that we want to institutionalise the programme within the city government to ensure long-term sustainability, so we’re really trying to work hand in hand with the local authority to enable that ownership,” said Carolina Salazar, project coordinator in Ecuador.
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In the DRC, creating a seed financing component for high-performing start-ups was the way to go. Financial support can be integrated during the programme design phase and entrusted to local banks or microfinance institutions (MFIs). These institutions have the expertise to monitor the credit quality of selected start-ups and ensure responsible allocation of financial resources.
Hilda Okoth also mentioned that it is key to keep exploring alternative models of financial support tailored to the needs of young people.
“In the Arusha edition too, the inclusion of microfinance, as is being attempted, requires careful management of youth loan repayments. In Arusha, we have opted for a revolving fund, but it has its challenges in terms of youth repayment.”
In the case of the awards or seed money for the most promising start-ups that some Generation Food programmes include, Peter Businda from Uganda points out that we need to be very clear in our communication about the type of funding on offer (loans vs prizes). We need to set realistic expectations.
Depending on the context of a particular city, there may be a very important need to support very early stage entrepreneurs who are still coming up with business ideas. The city could already have accelerators for larger businesses, for example.
In the case of Burkina Faso, the team is considering prioritising participants who have already invested in entrepreneurial activities for the incubation programme, unrelated to available incubators for more mature businesses. For the team, this could help to ensure a higher retention rate and focus resources on those businesses with a stronger foundation.
On the other hand, in the DR Congo, they considered that using existing local or public checklists of start-ups could streamline the selection of participants and reduce the number of drop-outs at the idea stage.
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If you are interested in partnering, please contact Charlotte Flechet, Global Programme Director – Good Food for Cities at charlotte.flechet@rikolto.org
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