Growing Together: Transforming Food Systems in East Africa
Growing Together unites farmers, SMEs, and partners across East Africa to build resilient, climate-smart food systems that boost jobs, incomes, and nutrition.
Across East Africa, growing cities and climate pressures are changing what food systems need to deliver: affordable, nutritious food, stable rural incomes and resilient landscapes. Growing Together (GT) brings key stakeholders, partners, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and farming communities together to meet the challenge of strengthening local processors and the smallholders they source from, so markets deliver better food, more jobs, especially for women and young people, and healthier, climate-smart foodscapes.
Growing Together proves that local food systems work best when actors work in partnership. By supporting SME growth, improving farmers’ practices and connecting both to finance and buyers, the programme helps create sustainable supply chains that raise incomes, diversify production and restore landscape health. The aim is practical and shared: stronger local businesses, fairer market access for farmers and foodscapes that produce for people and the planet.
“Africa has an urgent need to cultivate its own fast-moving agrifood companies. With Growing Together, IDH is committed to scaling SMEs into leading food processing companies that can transform rural economies.”
Programme Ambition
•Supporting 26 SMEs.
•Ethiopia: 50,000 farmers under the NICFI programme; 60,000 farmers under the Growing Together programme.
•Tanzania: 60,000 farmers under the Growing Together programme.
•Main value chains: staples and oilseed crops (maize, beans, sunflower, soybean) with a focus on local processing.
•Geographic focus: Ethiopia,
•Key donor: NORAD.
To learn more about the achievements and opportunities of this programme download the full article here