Current partners

African Food Fellowship

  • Kenya & Rwanda
  • Impact networks
  • 2024-2027

The African Food Fellowship is a five year initiative with a mission to catalyse new forms of food systems leadership, anchored around its Food Systems Leadership Programme. The fellowship connects food systems leaders in Africa to build relationships with peers and gain essential knowledge.

In 2024, Small Foundation partnered with the African Food Fellowship to strengthen the network approach for the Rwanda and Kenya Chapters of its Food System Leaders Network over three years. Our collective aim for the partnership is that the network will play a catalytic role to shift policies, power dynamics, investments and incentives towards more equitable, sustainable and healthy food systems in Africa.

Network Spotlight – Impact in 2025

In 2025, the African Food Fellowship graduated its fourth cohorts in Kenya and Rwanda, bringing the number of graduates to 213. A fifth cohort of 81 people was recruited across both countries. Fellows continued to engage in a healthy and increasingly-connected network, with a particular focus on developing collaborative initiatives, ‘Food Systems Actions’ with ambitions to change policies, practices, incentives and investments in the Kenyan and Rwandan food systems, including inputting directly into the Rwanda strategic plan for agriculture transformation and the Kenyan national post-harvest management strategy.  

To incentivise collective action, the African Food Fellowship launched a Food System Action Fund. First disbursement is planned for early 2026. Towards the end of 2025, a new country chapter has been launched in Zambia, where the first cohort will be recruited in 2026 

Video Spotlight

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