INCiTiS-FOOD Practitioner and Expert Virtual Round Table Discussion

27 March 2023. INCiTiS-FOOD Practitioner and Expert Virtual Round Table 

INtegrated and Circular Technologies for Sustainable city region FOOD systems in Africa (INCiTiS-FOOD)

Supporting innovative food systems and innovators:
Living Labs for Africa’s food systems

• The INCITIS-FOOD Project (www.incitis-food.eu) is working on improving innovative circular food system in 6 countries across 3 African regions: East (Kenya), West (Ghana, Nigeria and Sierra Leone) and Central (Cameroun and Gabon). These countries also host living labs that act as innovation accelerators.
• Living labs are innovation networks in which the participant’s roles and rules are freely defined by themselves. They essentially exchange information according to a defined research strategy and a digital infrastructure in order to transform this information into new knowledge; comparable to a lean innovation approach in which the end users define the contents of the project.
• What are the benefits of participating as a food system actor? 

The objective of the eight living labs in six African countries is to map the landscape of food
providers, manufacturers, marketers, and consumers and to help identify bottlenecks and challenges that can be addressed by the living labs.

This consortium exceptionally involves a financial partner (AFRACA) to upscale innovation.

• 
  The African Rural and Agricultural Credit Association (AFRACA) is a leading pan-african network of financial and non-financial institutions involved in promoting access to rural and agricultural finance in Africa. AFRACA was established in 1977 as a lead advocate and coordinator on rural and agricultural finance in Africa. AFRACA members include: Central Banks, Commercial Banks, Agricultural & Development Banks, Microfinance Institutions, Universities and Training Institutions.
• AFRACA is the banking expert in the consortium and will contribute to the Business Model Development and Financial Capacity Building for Circular Agri-food Entrepreneurship, INCiTiS-FOOD Roadshow Events and investment financing.

The project will also empower communities through the Open Calls funding, led by the Foodscale Hub, organization experienced in running large-scale international acceleration programs. One million euros will be given to 8 external Local Innovation Hubs (both from countries that participate in the INCiTiS-FOOD project and beyond) and 24 Independent Innovators from 6 countries from 3 African regions (East: Kenya; West: Ghana, Nigeria, Sierra Leone; Central: Cameroon, Gabon) as financial support from the InCiTiS-FOOD project. 

Beneficiaries of the Cascade Fund will be surveyed to generate empirical evidence on the co-benefits of the INCiTiS-FOOD project technologies and business models, which will guide urban food policy roadmaps.

The INCiTiS-FOOD project is co-funded by the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme and all the information is available on project’s website, as well as Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, Instagram and Youtube.

“We will set up 8 Living Labs in 6 African countries. Living labs will be turned into incubators of innovation and their mission will be to improve food and nutrition security in African city regions. Since current African food systems are experiencing severe challenges in delivering desired outcomes and a quarter of those who inhabit African cities remain food insecure and malnourished, we need to redefine and modernize the production. There are different methods to prevent food instability: availability of nutritious and safe food through local production, food access – affordability, food utilization, reduction of food waste, and food stability at all times.” Prof. Dr Gertrud Buchenrieder, Universität der Bundeswehr München – project coordinator (see pictures, right)