About
Already in its second edition, “Youth AgriChampions – make young African farmers be heard” is a series of three Peer2Peer workshops that will take place in July & August 2023. This workshop series will bring together grassroot voices from the world of smallholder farming and agricultural entrepreneurship in Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda and Zambia, to share their on-the-ground experience with adapting their practices to climate change. During these workshops, the Youth AgriChampions will develop demands for global leaders which shall be launched at 2023 COP28 in Dubai.
This workshop series allows for innovative young minds from the grassroots world of smallholder agriculture to interact and express their wishes for solutions and support pertaining to the challenges they are facing with agricultural adaptation to climate change in their respective countries and regions. Over the course of three workshops, the Youth Agri Champions will discuss and develop a set of demands which will be collated and presented as a report by the Youth Agri Champions to the 8th Secretary-General of the UN, Ban Ki-moon, who will then use it in his advocacy work. The focus of this year’s demands will be on the topic of capacity building, including closing gaps between innovations in climate smart agriculture and the smallholders on the ground.
During the first two workshops, input will be given by two young experts in smallholder agriculture, such as Elizabeth Nsimadala from the PanAfrican Farmers’ Organization, providing inspiration to the Youth AgriChampions for the development of their demands. These demands will also be used to advocate on behalf of smallholder farmers and smallholder agriculture stakeholders at COP28 to help support agricultural adaptation efforts. Furthermore, five best practice examples of the Youth AgriChampion’s current work on adapting to climate change will also be promoted.
The workshop series is hosted and created by the Ban Ki-moon Centre for Global Citizens, under the framework of the Elevating Agricultural Adaptation program.
Youth Agri Champions 2023
2022 Highlights
“Youth Agri Champions – make young African farmers be Heard” is a series of 3 Peer2Peer webinars that took place in the Summer of 2022. This webinar series brought together grassroots voices from the world of smallholder farming and agricultural entrepreneurship in Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, and Zambia, to share their on-the-ground experience with adapting their practices to climate change. Based on this, a demand paper was developed by the Youth Agri Champions and presented to key ministers during bilateral meetings as well as public events at COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh, 2022.
Our Alumni
Caroline Catherine Wanjiru Moko – Kenya
Azeez Akanni Salawu – Nigeria
Sandra Mayala Kantarama – Rwanda
Mercy Philips – Kenya
Baliqees Salaudeen – Nigeria
Eliud Rugut – Kenya
Richard Kachungu – Zambia
Lucy Wangari – Kenya
Jean Claude Niyomugabo – Rwanda
Tabitha Kabura Gichiru – Kenya
Usman Kibiya – Nigeria
Josiane Irakarama – Rwanda
Felix Kiprono – Kenya
Ibrahim Emiola Eniola – Nigeria
Melvin Muna – Kenya
Workshop 1
The Youth Agri Champions Webinar Series kicked off on July 28th, with 16 smallholder farmers and agripreneurs from Kenya, Nigera, Rwanda, and Zambia. After a presentation from the Elevating Agricultural Adaption Program Manager, Angela Reithuber, on the BKMC’s work on supporting smallholder farmers in agricultural adaptation to climate change, the Youth Agri Champions were joined by, Elizabeth Nsimadala, the Director of Women Affairs at the Pan-African Farmers Organization and the President of the Eastern Africa Farmers Federation.
Workshop 2
The second workshop gave the Youth Agri Champions a chance to consolidate their ideas and demands. In between the first and the second workshop, the Youth Agri Champions continued to work virtually in their working groups, social risk management, funding/finance, and training/capacity building, where they built upon the ideas that came up in Workshop 1. our expert guest, Denis Kabiito, the CEO and Founder of the Young Farmers’ Federation of Uganda, shared his knowledge and experience with the participants.
Workshop 3
Coming together for the last time, opening the workshop was the BKMC’s Co-chair, Dr. Heinz Fischer, who praised the Youth Agri Champions for their ‘ambition, dedication, and enthusiasm for fighting climate change. After weeks of learning from each other’s diverse experiences and hard work in building up their demands, the final demand paper from the Youth Agri-Champions is now ready to help Ban Ki-moon and the BKMC team advocate for agricultural adaptation to climate change at COP27 and beyond.
