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:
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 Food Smart Cities programme. In different cities around the world, including Burkina Faso, Arusha, Leuven and Quito, Rikolto supports municipalities in formulating food policies and putting them in practice. In co-creation with universities, businesses, local food production/distribution initiatives, municipalities and farmer cooperatives, we develop 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 shaping the future food system.
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