An agile and diverse team

We are a team of highly seasoned and young professionals operating in food systems in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Together with public and private actors we co-create impact- oriented investments, and conduct research and development actions towards sustainable food systems.

Our expertise is rooted in ‘on-the-ground’ experience of reinforcing capacities through joint learning to build lasting partnerships. We accompany organisations through systemic change by leveraging on existing resources and harnessing opportunities towards achievable goals.

Our aim is to contribute to the empowerment of women, girls and youth, creating opportunities for their social and economic inclusion. Together we design programs and interventions giving them access to education, jobs and entrepreneurship.

WHO WE ARE

An Agile team from multiple geographies

We live and work in Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America enabling us to design and implement programs and projects with speed and agility. Our local and global knowledge allows systems thinking and grasp of emerging issues.

Currently we are located in France, Kenya, the Netherlands, the Philippines, Portugal and Uganda.

Our founders are from Bolivia, Canada, France, India, Kenya, Madagascar, the Netherlands, the Philippines, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda, Ukraine, and the United States of America.

Providing diverse expertise

We have diverse expertise in sustainable food systems and agricultural innovation, finance, trade, investment promotion and private sector development, and philanthropy.

Together we design projects and strategies, link and coach development partners, and facilitate action and learning.

We are a functional team learning from one another, which gives us a depth of knowledge and strength in operating within complex environments.

We collaborate with other competent professionals and service providers.

We are founded by the belief that with appropriate insight and skills, we can have greater effectiveness and efficiency in the change we want to bring.

OUR FOUNDERS

Our founders and members offer a solid knowledge and network capital. All have had leading roles in international organizations, governments, agricultural research organizations, donors, impact investors and banking, as well as prominent private companies. All have been combining such roles with deep and continued field work that ensures a true understanding of the reality of our target groups. This gives us the unique feature of being able to quickly navigate complex systems while connecting local to global.

Some examples:

A group of members contributed to the design of a youth-focused agricultural livelihood strategy for a large Philanthropic Foundation by conducting a country landscaping and scoping study and supported the development of an investment portfolio.
Some of members combine development with finance and banking. They structured and managed projects from $500,000 to $2.9 billion for various US-based banks and have worked with corporate finance, banking, private equity and venture capital in the food and pharmaceutical industries, primarily in emerging markets.
Various members have been working for international donors and organisations such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the European Commission, contributing to strategic development analysis about income generation for smallholder farmers, competitiveness of territories and value chains, Corporate Social Responsibility, sustainable agriculture and food systems.
A member co-designed an economic model to assess the benefit-to-cost ratio of substituting the procurement of imported foods to locally produced foods in Kenya, including for school-feeding programmes.
One of our members has worked with Tata Trusts in India, coordinating the design and roll-out of a programme focused on large-scale irreversible change in the Central Indian Tribal Belt.
Several members are pioneers and founders of research and development networks and organizations, mobilizing resources and managing multi-institutional partnerships as the Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in Eastern and Central Africa (ASARECA), the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA), and the Farming and Technology for Africa (FTA), an organization that targets young people in the promotion and use of information and communications technology in agricultural development.