HealthyDiets4Africa

This week on #15July we celebrated #WorldYouthSkillsDay. Investing in youth skills and capacity building is a critical component of the HD4A project. Through our various consortium partners on the ground - FSPN Africa based in #Kenya, OIC - Côte d'Ivoire, Agri-business Vocational Training centre, Dschang in #Cameroon, and Africa Projects Development Centre in #Nigeria - we strive to equip youth with essential skills to get involved in sustainable agricultural development, have nutritious and functioning agri-businesses, and ultimately contribute to #transforming #foodsystems so to pave the way for a #healthier, more #sustainablefuture. These young individuals are not just learning—they're innovating, leading, and inspiring positive change in their communities and beyond. Check out the video for more insight into how the #HD4A project is at the forefront of fostering a new generation of leaders.

Thank you to all of you for joining yesterday's rich and insightful webinar! We hope that you found it just as valuable and engaging as we did. With many thanks to our wonderful panelists Christophe Matthys from KU Leuven, Fidelia Dake from the University of Ghana, William A. Masters from Tufts University, and moderation by Marc Nene from Le Centre d'Excellence Régional contre la Faim et la Malnutrition - CERFAM. A lot more webinars coming up within this series – we’ll keep you posted!

📢 #REMINDER ♦ How have food systems impacted the evolution of dietary patterns in Sub-Saharan Africa and what have been some of the main determinants for these changing patterns? ♦ Do dietary patterns depend on the type of socio-economic group and what might that tell us about the nutrition transition? ♦ What determines the cost of a healthy diet? How does affordability affect dietary intake and health status in different locales? We hope to unpack these questions and more during this webinar! Join us there tomorrow 📅 Wednesday, 17th July 2024, at 🕒 13:00 GMT 👉🏾 Register here: https://bit.ly/3RDlCTE

🌟 #HD4A celebrates #WorldYouthSkillsDay 🌟 Our Consortium partner in #Kenya, FSPN Africa is committed to skilling youth for peace and development, through: 🔹 #BusinessDevelopment: Youth agripreneurs are equipped with essential skills through bootcamps and online training, covering everything from legal regulations, risk analysis, budgeting, crisis management, strategic planning, business branding and financial management etc. 🔹 #Exposure & #Visibility: To enhance visibility and exposure, FSPN Africa showcases their innovators at various events which provide valuable networking opportunities with fellow innovators, investors, and consumers. In addition, the innovators gained critical skills in networking, business pitching, and collaboration, which are essential for fostering sustainable business growth. 🔹 #FinancialAccess: Under the HealthyDiets4Africa project, three outstanding innovators were awarded prize money to upscale their operations. FSPN Africa is working toward linking youth innovators to investors and successful entrepreneurs for business. #HealthyDiets4Africa Empowering youth for a sustainable future!🌱🌍 #WorldYouthSkillsDay #YouthEmpowerment

🌟 #HD4A celebrates #WorldYouthSkillsDay 🌟 OIC - Côte d'Ivoire our consortium partner based in #CôtedIvoire empowers youth through comprehensive #agropastoral #training, focusing 80% on practical, hands-on experience and 20% on theory to prepare them for real-world agricultural challenges. Their Training combines classroom instruction with field-schools for practical demonstrations. Participants learn to use high-yield seeds and innovative systems like soil-less and organic inputs, with an emphasis on crop diversification. By acquiring these skills, youth gain valuable knowledge in producing #healthyfood and achieving #foodsecurity. This training opens employment and entrepreneurial opportunities in rural and urban economies. Graduates become agents of economic development, enhancing agricultural productivity and nutrition. They gain autonomy, improve employability, and can establish agro-businesses, stimulating local economies. #HealthyDiets4Africa Empowering youth for a sustainable future!🌱🌍 #WorldYouthSkillsDay #YouthEmpowerment

🌟 #HD4A celebrated #WorldYouthSkillsDay 🌟 In #Nigeria, our consortium partner Africa Projects Development Centre (APDC) is dedicated to empowering African agribusiness SMEs through five integrated services: Incubation systems, Technology commercialization, Financial and market linkages, Business development, and Agribusiness registration. Over the last 6 years, they have supported over 2000 startups and SMEs, with 70% now producing nutritious agrifood or employed in agricultural firms. Within the HD4A project, recognizing the pivotal role of agribusiness incubators in fostering healthy food innovations and economic development, APDC addresses the need for #enhanced #SMEs agrifood production through incubation, technical and entrepreneurship skill upscaling, linkage to finance and market support to agrifood SMEs in producing sustainably more safe and nutritious foods that are accessible, affordable, and desirable by Nigeria and globally through export trade. #HealthyDiets4Africa Empowering youth for a sustainable future!🌱🌍 #WorldYouthSkillsDay #YouthEmpowerment

🌟 #HD4A celebrates #WorldYouthSkillsDay 🌟 #15July A day to recognize the creativity, innovation, and resilience of young people around the world, and especially the crucial role youth play in transforming food systems. At Agri-business Vocational Training centre, Dschang (AVTC), our consortium partner based in #Cameroon, youth receive hands-on training in the cultivation of a wide range of crops, including carrots, cucumbers, green beans, Irish potatoes, onions, peppers, tomatoes, waterleaf, and huckleberries. Additionally, they learn to rear rabbits, poultry, snails, pigs, fish, and insects. These skills are crucial for fostering #selfsufficiency and promoting #sustainable #agriculturalpractices. AVTC's off-centre initiatives focus on expanding outreach through the dissemination of organic crop production practices and #innovations in schools and orphanages. By promoting healthy diets and sustainable farming techniques, AVTC is helping to cultivate a new generation of informed, skilled, and environmentally conscious youth. #HealthyDiets4Africa Empowering youth for a sustainable future!🌱🌍 #WorldYouthSkillsDay #YouthEmpowerment

As part of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) team under the HealthyDiets4Africa, I have the privilege of collaborating with our living lab partner Entojutu, led by Tobi Adegbite. Together, we are conducting important activities to promote environmentally friendly solutions, such as using black soldier flies for sustainable food and feed production in Africa. This week, welcomed by Dr Debo Akande, we had productive discussions and interactions with the Mercy Corps team, led by Wilson M. Wakawa, and resilient food producers in Northern Nigeria. Sustainable food and feed production and safety were among our priority topics. Kolawole Banwo Ph.D. Ibikunle Mark Akanbi Iyanu Lydia Ibrahim Timothy Oyelakin

#HD4A together with Le Centre d'Excellence Régional contre la Faim et la Malnutrition - CERFAM is excited to bring to you the first webinar of our series, which will examine the impact of #malnutrition and the changes in #dietarypatterns across Africa over recent decades. 📅 Wednesday 17th July 2024 🕒 13h00 GMT 👉🏾 https://bit.ly/3RDlCTE We’re pleased to feature the following speakers: 📌 Christophe Matthys from KU Leuven will set the scene by providing an overview of the evolving landscape of dietary patterns across SSA. 📌 Dr. Jacob Owusu Sarfo PhD., PGDE, DipBMA from University of Cape Coast will explore the role of Women in shaping children’s nutrition across households in SSA. 📌 Fidelia Dake from the University of Ghana will provide a case study focusing on obesity amongst women in Ghana based on their socio-economic background. 📌 William A. Masters from Tufts University will tell us more about the cost of a healthy diet, looking at the relation between affordability, dietary intake, and nutritional health status. See you all there!

We recognize that #Nutrition is a crucial part of the food systems discussion, and often women are the frontline drivers of food sovereignty. In this error, when we are experiencing rapid digital transitions, they play a key role in sharing knowledge about practices that can be integrated into the transformation of food systems and agriculture. Learn how women in agriculture contribute to socioeconomic growth and some of the barriers they face⤵ https://lnkd.in/de6yJsgD #PartnersAgainstHunger #nutritionandagriculture #foodsovereignty