The Regional workshop for Food Security Center, the University of Nairobi on “Youth and Innovation Summit: Sustainable Solutions towards ZERO Hunger in Africa” was held on 25th-26th October 2018 at the Wangari Maathai Institute for Peace and Environmental Studies in the University of Nairobi. The summit was organized by the University of Nairobi as a strategic partner and sponsored through grants from DAAD under the Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), Germany in conjunction with the Food Security Centre of the University of Hohenheim in Germany with the theme of the summit was centred on SDG 2; Sustainable solutions towards zero hunger in Africa and SDG 1: No poverty. The aim of the regional summit was to aggregate all innovations and technologies developed by young scientists especially targeting the youth for agriculture (#CoolAgriculture) that can be used to address food insecurity which will later be disseminated for uptake by households and farmers.

According to the Coordinator, Dr Catherine Kunyanga, the aim of the summit is to aggregate all innovations developed by the youth for agriculture (#AgriCool, #CoolAgriculture) and later dissemination to households and farmers. The summit speakers emphasised on the “Youth Power and Potential” in transforming agriculture in Africa through science, research and innovations. The Youth were encouraged to have patience and persistence in starting up business from their innovations and technologies for better commercialization of the same. The summit which had over 10 nationalities representing Africa was a major success and the youth attending had positive remarks and wished to be engaged in future FSC activities.

The Principal Cavs emphasized that youth are an important generation. In their various disciplines, they have the power to cause change.  He also encouraged the youth to be risk takers since it is an important aspect, especially in social entrepreneurship.

The Keynote speakers included Dr Betty Bukusu from Purdue University and Mr Anthony Ngosi, Senior Program Officer (Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa, AGRA).

Key topics of the Regional Workshop

Keynote speech: Role of scientific innovations in African agricultural development

• The role of youth in making the sustainable development goal (towards zero hunger by 2025) a reality in Africa
• Challenges facing the youth in agriculture
• Overview of technologies and innovations for youth in postharvest management
• Overview of solutions and initiatives addressing food insecurity in Kenya and regionally
• Sustainable agriculture: Addressing food insecurity in Africa.
• Digital innovations to overcome agriculture value chain related constraints.
• -How can the 4 barriers to digital inclusion (incentives, low incomes and affordability, user capability and infrastructure) be overcome?
• - How can the public and private sectors contribute to creating an enabling environment for youth-led tech start-ups in Africa and digital inclusion more widely
• Role of partnerships and linkages: towards ZERO hunger
• Case studies: Success stories of youth and innovations in Africa
• Hackathon: ‘Hack against hunger challenge’. The participants will be allowed to present their innovations towards zero hunger in Africa and the best innovations will be selected for dissemination by FSC.