In 2023, the Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) released their Agripreneurship 101 curriculum, with the aim to effectively support entrepreneurs to identify, evaluate and pursue opportunities in the agricultural sector. Since then, we’ve been in conversation with the FAO and Orange Corners to discuss possibilities to collaborate on bringing this curriculum to practice. This week marks the start of this collaboration.
For the development of the Agripreneurship 101 curriculum, the FAO has built upon scientific research on the effectiveness of entrepreneurship programmes and training transfer best practices. That research shows that adding a focus on actionable training which focuses on dealing with errors and psychological training – more specifically on personal initiative (PI) – increases the effectiveness of entrepreneurship training significantly. At the same time, we noticed that the largest supported sector throughout all our Orange Corners hubs is agriculture. However, this sector might need more sector-specific training content to align best with their needs. Not only can this increase the impact on youth employment, it also has the potential to improve the access to nutritious food while protecting the environment. The expertise of the FAO in the food system, together with the experience of Orange Corners in the field on entrepreneurship, might prove to be a formula for success.
The pilot of this collaboration will start in 2025 to help young people in Ethiopia and Kenya develop agribusinesses that are good for people and the environment. The implementation will be done by the Entrepreneurship Development Institute (in Ethiopia) and the Youth Enterprise Development Fund (in Kenya). These organisations will conduct an ecosystem mapping, select the most relevant value chains, contextualise the curriculum, put the training into practice, compare effectiveness of an in-person and online approach and formulate recommendations for policy makers on how to improve the ecosystem. Simultaneously, the private sector (both Dutch and local) will be actively involved, and possibilities for providing funding opportunities will be explored together with financial institutes. At the same time, the WITS Innovation Centre in Johannesburg will conduct an agripreneurial ecosystem mapping in South Africa, to identify areas for future programming there.
The launch of this collaboration shows the dedication of both the FAO and Orange Corners to enhance international collaboration, exchange best practices and aim for the greatest impact on youth employment and food security.
Click here to have a look at the Agripreneurship 101 curriculum, it’s free to use for everyone! Click here to read more about the impact of the training.
