Going to Kenya to explore the agriculture innovation ecosystem with Kuza

This week I fly to Kenya to explore the innovation ecosystem with Kuza, an innovative program creating opportunities for youth, women and small business owners to learn, connect and grow through entrepreneurship.

I fly out on 2 May and return on 12 May, 2024. I will be based in Nairobi during my stay. I am keen to connect, learn, and support other's work to ensure we share value as much as possible.

Background

I attended my first Global Entrepreneurship Congress (GEC) in Bahrain in 2019 . The benefit of the GEC, like many innovation events, is the random serendipitous collisions that can lead to future collaborations down the road.

One of these collisions was with Sriram Bharatam . After meeting at the conference, Sri and I caught up for breakfast in Bahrain and connected over shared pitches on his Kuza program to develop agripreneurs and my Startup Status platform for measuring innovation ecosystems and programs. Like many conference connections, we felt there was opportunity and synergy even though there were no immediate opportunities and committed to staying in touch.

Catching up two or three times a year, Sri and I stayed connected over the next three years as he grew his business and I finished my PhD and continued my research and application in place-based work in rural communities, innovation ecosystems, and impact measurement. I grew increasingly impressed with Sri's systems approach to developing entrepreneurs, integrating value and supply chains, addressing infrastructure barriers, taking a holistic view of personal development, and supporting all of it with one of the most impressive data models I have seen in an entrepreneur support program.

Sri allowed me to play with his data set to explore mapping entrepreneurs, suppliers, industry applications, and geographic locations. We explored insights into network development, structural enablers and inhibitors, and connectivity and capability development potential. I became increasingly excited about the program's potential contribution to place-based change and ecosystem development. Kuza's further development into the Kuza One Network is revolutionary.

Going to Kenya

In our most recent catch-up, Sri mentioned it would be good if I were to come over and see the ecosystem for myself. I agreed, booked a ticket and evisa, and I fly to Kenya this Thursday to catch up with my friend and colleague.

I will admit that I paused in my decision based on my current workload, which includes:

• the Ready Communities place-based program in Kempsey, NSW,
• heading up innovation and policy mapping theme for the Queensland Decarbonisation Hub ,
• impact evaluation for the Red Earth Community Foundation's Community Leadership Program and the Australian Rural Leadership Foundation's Leadership programs ,
• agtech data projects with AusAgritech and AgriFutures , and
• evaluation for the Future Drought Fund's Southern Queensland Northern New South Wales Drought Innovation Hub .

However, the trip will deeply inform each aspect of the emerging portfolio of projects in which I find myself involved.

I look forward to experiencing what is both shared and distinct between the Kenyan and Australian entrepreneur ecosystems, exploring enabling and inhibiting factors, hearing insights from different perspectives, and exploring mapping and data models. I aim to add value where I might contribute, bring back insights, and work with Sri to enhance the connectivity between our ecosystems.

In preparation, I am reviewing reports including:

• Kenya Vision 2030 development blueprint ,
• the Bottom-Up Economic Transformation Agenda ,
• the National Digital Master Plan ,
• the Kenya Innovation Outlook Report,
• Kenya startup ecosystem reports , and
• various agriculture reports including farmer financial inclusion , sector growth strategies , compar ative digital agriculture reports , agtech market reports and mapping.

These are considered against comparable work in Australia related to national and local innovation, entrepreneurship, and agriculture.

How can I help?

I am posting this before I go to raise awareness of exemplar case studies we can all learn from and to ensure we maximise value across our collective portfolio of impact areas. The challenges we address are complex and shared. It is only through collective effort that we might realise systemic change.

It is also my first trip to Kenya and I don't know what I don't know. As always, I aim to build in public, will share as I go, and capture lessons in a follow-up post. I am keen to learn and share as much as possible.

• If there are people you feel I should connect with, please pass on this post or make an introduction.
• Please let me know if there are particular questions or opportunities you would like me to explore while I am there that might benefit your work.

Feedback and insights are welcome as we work together for impact.