Like many young people, Burkina Faso’s youth is increasingly turning away from the agri-food sector due to its low wages, socio-economic challenges and lack of rewarding job opportunities. Generation Food aspires to support young, motivated entrepreneurs with sustainable business ideas through an incubator.
67% of Burkina Faso's population is under 25 years old. Young Burkinabe face many socio-economic challenges, including a lack of rewarding job opportunities providing them with a decent income.
In Burkina Faso, almost 80% of the population works in agriculture, but only 0.2% of them are trained for this. In Burkina, as in the rest of the world, young people are increasingly turning away from the agri-food sector and its low wages.
However, they lack the necessary support (coaching, advice and feedback, access to finance, equipment, etc.) to develop their business plans in order to make their business ideas come true.
This incubator will be a place where young, beginning entrepreneurs and people with experience and expertise will inspire and reinforce each other. Young women and men will be trained in all the skills needed to create successful businesses. This way, we increase the chances of success for these businesses.
Rikolto, in collaboration with the City of Ouagadougou, sets up a Generation Food incubator aimed both at young people who have an idea for starting a business, and at those who already have a business and want to make it more sustainable and profitable.
The Generation Food incubation programme will run for two years and consists of the following milestones:
Generation Food has helped build the capacities of 80 young people in the areas of agri-food processing, production and business management.
The training programme developed has been a revelation for young people, who have become more confident and turned their businesses into benchmarks in the city of Ouagadougou and Burkina Faso in less than three years.
The electronic platform created during the project has more than a hundred members who promote their products, give each other advice and communicate about training and business opportunities.
Generation Food has supported 15 young entrepreneurs through the provision of investment funds. Some of these young people are now considered role models. They have formal contracts with financial institutions and are invited to national, regional and international meetings.
I was particularly interested in organic farming. I was able to harvest around 50 kilograms of organic strawberries, which I sold to supermarkets, distributors, processors, restaurants and private individuals. When I compare my current situation to how things were before I was selected for Generation Food, I can see that I have grown both economically and professionally.
Marie Reine KINDA
Young entrepreneur in the Generation Food programme
By giving young people the opportunity to put their ideas into practice, we stimulate innovation from the bottom up and show the food industry that change is possible.
Generation Food is part of Rikolto's international program Food Smart Cities program. In various cities around the world, including Ouagadougou, Arusha, Arusha, Leuven, and Quito, Rikolto supports municipalities in formulating sustainable food policies and putting them into practice. In co-creation with universities, businesses, local food production/distribution initiatives, municipalities and farmers' cooperatives, we are developing business models (from farm to fork) that make the transition to sustainable cities possible. Through Generation Food, Rikolto advocates for the active participation of young people in the development of the future food system.
