Press Release — The SDG Zero Hunger Event
London Business School. 13.09.2018–500 million small farms worldwide provide up to 80% of food consumed in a large part of the developing world and provide livelihoods for 40% of today’s global population. This makes agriculture the single largest employer and source of income for poor rural households according to research by United Nations (UN). Agriculture players including both entrepreneurs, investors and policy-makers from across Sub-Saharan Africa gathered in London to discuss the possibilities of transforming agriculture in Africa during the SDG Zero Hunger Agriculture Event hosted by the Royal African Society, Dalberg, Devex, the Africa Club at London Business School and Uhusiano Capital.
“How each individual can contribute towards the success of all Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), especially SDG Two: Zero Hunger was front and centre tonight,” emphasised Shushan Tewolde-Berhan, Corporate Partnerships Manager of the Royal African Society. Mr. Alistair Boyd, CMG, Vice-Chairman at Royal African Society, opened the event to a full house at London Business School as the evening event examined the different approaches in financing agriculture projects, how project developers aim to transform agriculture in Africa and what the SDGs mean for investments in agriculture.
Keynote speaker, Mr. Daudi Leijeveld, DFID Impact Accelerator at CDC Group, challenged the audience to get bolder when it comes to investing in agriculture. This was followed by an engaging Pitch Challenge where four projects from Uganda, Ivory Coast, Malawi and Namibia were given 2 intense minutes to “pitch” their projects to a panel of judges and the audience
“For the projects — this was a stressful event. They had 2 minutes, to get the audiences’ and judge’s attention to showcase what they were doing in Africa and how they could revolutionise the agriculture sector,” explained moderator and host, Ruby Alcantara, Senior Advisor to Uhusiano Capital. “From speaking to everyone here, these projects managed to wow and inspire the audience.”
The four projects were a soya farm and agro-processing facility in Uganda from World Food Bank, a rice production in the Ivory Coast from ViFAD, superfood moringa from Moringa Miracles, Malawi and lastly an agriculture fund managed by Königstein Capital in Namibia. These agribusinesses aimed to impress judges: Lisa Conibear, Business Manager at Shell Foundation, Joseph Ssentongo, Senior Evaluator at Global Innovation Fund, Eren Kelekci, Chief Private Sector and Blended Finance at African Development Bank, and Mariana Graça, Investment Manager at African Agricultural Development Company.
All participants had two minutes to pitch their projects, followed by a three-minute Q&A from the judges and the audience. Afterwards the judges privately discussed which project they thought stood out among the others, while the audience got a chance to anonymously vote on which project they found most intriguing.
“We had a very agile discussion and it was tough for us to come to a conclusion, but ultimately we decided that Chris Daplet with his project ViFAD should be the winner”, stated Eren Kelekci, who announced the judges’ decision. The audience vote results, announced by Christelle Kupa, CEO and Founder of Uhusiano Capital, were very close as well. Moringa Miracles took top spot in first, ViFAD in second, World Food Bank in third and Königstein Capital in a close fourth place.
The Pitch Competition was followed by the panel ‘What do the SDGs mean for investments in agriculture?’ moderated by Aly-Khan Jamal, Partner and Global Head of Agriculture and Food Security at Dalberg. The panellists included thought-provoking speakers working towards agricultural transformation in developing and emerging economies across the world — Harry Davies, Senior Associate at Ceniarth Family Office, Jean-Marc Debricon, General Manager at Alterfin and Mariana Graça, Investment Manager at AgDevCo.
Moses Gatonye Richu, Co-President of Africa Club at London Business School closed the formal portion of the event by leaving the audience and all participants and speakers with the question,
“How can each individual contribute to the success of the SDG Zero Hunger, or all SDGs for that matter?”
The event ended with the organising partners inviting all guests for wine and snacks for networking and further discussions.
The Uhusiano Capital Team, on behalf of all organizing partners, would like to express a big thank you to everyone participating, attending and organizing the event to make it possible!
To learn more about the partners and their work, follow them on social media
- Uhusiano Capital: @uhusianocap, LinkedIn
- Royal African Society: @royafrisoc, LinkedIn
- Dalberg: @DalbergTweet, LinkedIn
- Africa Club, London Business School: @LBSAfricaClub
- Devex: @devex, LinkedIn
To read more about why SDG 2 — Zero Hunger matters, click here.
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