Playlist with videos from Malawi and Burkina Faso ⎮ 7 YouTube videos (approx. 3 mins each)

Agroecology and employment promotion can go hand in hand to drive an ecological, economic and social transformation of sub-Saharan Africa’s agriculture systems, while tackling the prevalent high unemployment rates in the region.

Agroecological approaches provide a multi-layered, interlinked response to a three-pronged challenge:

• Ensuring food security for a growing world population
• Maintaining healthy ecosystems to safeguard livelihoods within planetary boundaries
• Building resilience to multidimensional crises

Promoting youth-centered agroecological business models is key to reaching these goals by creating innovative, yet context-sensitive solutions.

In Burkina Faso and Malawi

In these two countries, a diverse agroecological business landscape is emerging. Young agripreneurs engage to locally produce bio-repellents, organic fertilisers and quality seeds. They practice organic farming with mixed cropping and harnessing new technologies like solar-powered irrigation. Many young agripreneurs embrace newly adapted circular approaches to agriculture. At the same time, they recognise the prospects that will come with scaling up these businesses further and how it will improve their economic situation. All this together supports a green job-fuelled transformation of the agri-food sector.

To get a more hands-on insight into these often times abstract concepts, take a look at the Agroecological Business Model playlist!

Explore the firsthand experiences of both established and emerging agroecological business ventures. These stories provide technically detailed knowledge of various agroecological practices and show how young agripreneurs bring their ecological business ideas to life. This is achieved through the foundational technical and entrepreneurial training supported by GIZ projects. The stories also highlight how the knowledge and skills gained from this training can be successfully applied in practice.

Additional information

• Learn more about the 360 Agri-Jobs approach for an integrated perspective on employment promotion.
• Dive deeper into Agroecology as an Integrated Transformative Approach: Agroecology – From Principles to Transformative Pathways and get insights into the concept of Agroecological Business Models.
• Discover the Toolbox for Rural Youth Employment Promotion: An interactive collection with over 70 tested tools — including the combination of employment promotion and green transformation as well as the format of AgroBootCamps.

About

The GIZ Sector Project Rural Development and the Global Project Rural Employment with a Focus on Youth created the videos in cooperation. In advance of these emerging business models, all showcased agripreneurs took part in technical and entrepreneurial training courses. In Burkina Faso, they were held as AgroBootCamps – an innovative training model developed by a consortium of West African partners like Djouman. It was implemented by the agroecology NGO BéoNéere, supported by Djouman and the GIZ Project ProEmploi. In Malawi, GIZ, EYA!ATVET organized a start-up acceleration program as well as agroecological training in cooperation with the Kusamala Institute of Agriculture.

Contact

Dorothee Baum, dorothee.baum@giz.de
Frank Bertelmann, frank.bertelmann@giz.de