Dr Debesi Araba Board Member African Food Fellowship
Africa’s food future depends not only on innovation but on visionary, inclusive leadership. On August 27, 2025, the African Food Fellowship (AFF) released a seminal report titled “Leadership: Nurturing the Green Shoots of Success for Catalytic Food Systems Transformation.”
The research highlights leadership as the catalytic force needed to turn good ideas into systems-changing interventions and provides strong evidence of its role in creating healthy, inclusive, and sustainable food systems in Africa.
Drawing on case studies of successful agro-food initiatives, the report argues that Africa cannot meet the ambitious goals outlined in the AU-championed CAADP Kampala Declaration without investing in new kinds of leadership that mobilize change in complex environments, center inclusivity, and act with boldness.
According to Dr. Debisi Araba, Board Member of the African Food Fellowship and co-author of the report, alongside AFF research lead Herman Brouwer, food systems leadership offers a new lens for understanding and addressing complexity.
Food, he explained, is not just about production but about human survival, prosperity, and fairness.
It is cultural and social, deeply tied to how people live and thrive, while also connected to legal, financial, trade, and energy systems.
“Producers should be able to trade safely, and consumers should be able to eat safely. Transformation cannot be achieved by looking only at value chains; it requires bold leadership that connects the dots across multiple sectors,” Araba noted.
Joost Guijt, African Food Fellowship Director, added that leadership must be understood not only as inspiration but as the practical craft of navigating systems.
“This report provides insight into a very critical understanding: we know why and what changes need to happen in our food systems, but who is going to drive those choices forward? Systems leadership is about connecting actors, mobilizing coalitions, and ensuring we shift from analysis to delivery.”
Case Studies of Leadership in Action
To ground theory in practice, the report showcases four case studies as archetypes of catalytic leadership:
- The E-wallet revolution in the Nigerian public sector innovation to reach farmers with subsidies and services.
- Mechanization as a Service is improving access to equipment through models like Hello Tractor.
- Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation (TAAT) is advancing research and scaling solutions.
- Food for Education is expanding school feeding programs to tackle malnutrition.
These stories exemplify ambition and the audacity of hope. They are “green shoots of success” that, if nurtured, can multiply across the continent.
Voices from the Ecosystem
Alice Ruhweza, President of AGRA, emphasized that leadership is the missing link between ambition and delivery:
“Everything we do is vital, but leadership is what turns ambition into delivery. African food systems are under immense pressure from climate shocks, hunger, fragile markets, and dwindling aid. Yet what is often overlooked is the power of leadership. Without leaders, ambition does not translate into results.”
She pointed to the success of AGRA’s Centre for African Leaders in Agriculture (CALA), where over 228 leaders from eight countries have already driven reforms in digital agriculture, subsidy systems, and climate resilience.
She called for an ecosystem of leadership programs, including CALA, African Food Fellowship, and others, working together to scale impact.
Jehiel Oliver, CEO of Hello Tractor, reflected on the challenges and lessons of building an agri-tech business:
“Building a tech-enabled agriculture business means you operate in an ecosystem challenged by several risks: lack of infrastructure, inequalities in the value chain, and lack of access to finance. Food systems transformation, therefore, cannot be achieved in isolation.”
Oliver shared how Hello Tractor scaled mechanization access to 2.5 million farmers, boosting yields by 60% on 5 million acres of land.
He highlighted the importance of designing incentives, forging coalitions, and aligning financial instruments to de-risk agriculture.
Notably, his company secured John Deere’s first-ever African investment and closed one of the largest commercial loans in African agriculture by structuring innovative credit partnerships.
Lessons and Recommendations
The Fellowship distills six recommendations for advancing food systems leadership:
- Invest in leadership capacity scale programs and networks like AFF, AGRA’s SCALA, and CGIAR’s AWARD.
- Anchor transformation in shared problem framing, treat challenges as design and trust issues, not failures.
- Institutionalize feedback and iteration, embrace reflection, adaptation, and even failure as part of change.
- Create incentives for cross-sector collaboration, forge intergenerational, inter-sectoral, and inter-regional partnerships.
- Localize ownership, strengthen community-led structures to spread responsibility and impact.
- Protect and amplify reformers who safeguard innovators whose bold ideas challenge norms.
Toward a Forest of Leaders
The African Food Fellowship concludes that the future of Africa’s food systems lies not in isolated innovations but in leadership that mobilizes ecosystems.
The “green shoots of success” seen in today’s initiatives must grow into a forest of leaders capable of delivering resilient, inclusive, and sustainable food systems.
“In closing, we want thousands more ‘Hello Tractors.’ We want thousands more ‘Food for Education’ initiatives. We want bold ideas at all levels, continental, national, sub-national, and community,” Araba said.
At a time of shrinking resources and multiplying shocks, investing in leadership remains the most catalytic intervention Africa can make for its food future.
