GEO-6 for Youth: Africa
Divine Agborli
Youth Action 13: Youth entrepreneurship in waste disposal, Malawi
Malawi’s Mzuzu City Council promotes involvement of different stakeholders to work together with the city council in fighting waste through privatizing waste management. One of the private players is a youth-led company known as ComFert Limited, a waste management and composting company situated in Blantyre at the Zingwangwa Sanitation centre also known as the “Zing San Center”. The company aims at encouraging sustainable waste management practices which are eco-friendly. Some of the practices include: compost made from organic waste such as food leftovers, and production of briquettes and biogas used for cooking and heating. These practices are not only eco-friendly but also solve community challenges by creating employment opportunities for youths.
Food for thought
• Because inherited or gifted land is too small to power sustainable livelihoods, it is critical for African governments to enact policies that will expand land access for youth.
• Land reclamation may not only result in improved natural resource management and environmental practices, but could also create direct jobs for youth. Besides agriculture, properly reclaimed land can be used for recreational purposes, grazing land, wildlife habitat, wetlands, bricks and blocks making, swimming pools, forestry and aquaculture, amongst others.
• Climate Smart Agriculture reinforces the livelihoods of smallholders by equipping them with more effective ways of managing natural resources and deploying technologies that will help them produce and sell more.
• Use of precision agriculture, and predictive technologies like climate forecasting tools, remote sensing and satellite imaging can allow for faster responses, thus fostering CSA.
Youth Action 14: Empowering African youth through organic farming, Kenya
Organic farming has greatly benefited young Kenyans from smallholder- farm communities by increasing food and agricultural production and productivity using cheaper organic inputs originating from within the farms. The youth have come together and unified in making Smallholder Farmer Youth Groups. Through this, they have provided greater opportunities for themselves. Below are some of their success stories.
Watema AIC Candet and Battalion Youths in Makueni County are among the youths tapping the potential of organic farming. The youths have been supported by Biovision Africa Trust (Farmer Communication Program) through training and are now practicing and reaping big from organic poultry keeping projects. The youths are managing their poultry using agro-ecological methods to control pests and diseases as well as produce feeds. Through this, they have managed to get cash income from the sale of eggs and indigenous poultry which has greatly improved their livelihoods.
Bottle sculpture used to educate students in Accra about waste management
Sylvia’s Basket, founded by a female youth called Sylvia, is a young organic farm based in Limuru, Kiambu County. Sylvia’s Basket sells fresh organic vegetables which it supplies to its customers at their doorsteps upon order within 24 hours of harvest. The organization also sells to traders, restaurants, and local markets. Through this, it has employed five staff who manage the farm. It has also created a website for the Half-Acre Movement where they show people how to plant and manage their own food organically on a small portion of land like the kitchen garden. After realizing that many farmers in the local community are practicing mono-cropping, the company is currently working with the local women’s group to train them on how to farm varieties of vegetables in their farms.
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