Tuesday, September 13, 2022 —African Women in Agricultural Research and Development (AWARD) is excited to release a new publication featuring a collection of inspiring stories from select One Planet Laureate Candidates working to develop solutions to help African smallholders cope with the changing climate and transform the continent’s food systems.

AWARD is a convener and partner that, among other priorities, invests in building a pool of African researchers leading agricultural research and developing innovations to improve smallholders’ productivity. Our mission calls for sustained investments in equipping African researchers with the tools and skills to connect, communicate with, and convince a wide range of stakeholders in agricultural research and development.

That is why, toward our mission, we implement bold solutions to enhance African researchers’ visibility, influence, and ability to engage and inspire stakeholders in agricultural research and development.

Communicating in concise, compelling ways has become one of the most critical skills of the 21st century. Storytelling provides a natural method of allowing others to connect with what matters to you – an idea, a process, or a new product. Stories firmly grounded in universal human principles provide an ideal conduit to building coalitions, gathering compatriots, and communicating change.

In April and May 2022, we trained selected researchers participating in the One Planet Fellowship on the art of storytelling to communicate their research. The immersive two-month training course focused on building an appreciation of the foundational skills in the art of storytelling using the public narrative methodology. Participants gained practical tools, skills, and confidence to develop and share narratives around their research.

In this publication, we are delighted to share a collection of stories featuring the researchers who participated in the training. These are some of the One Planet Laureate Candidates working to develop solutions to help African smallholders cope with the changing climate and transform the continent’s food systems.

These stories will take you on a journey through 12 countries, from Africa’s most western point to a land-locked country whose borders are home to one of the world’s largest waterfalls. You will meet researchers working to ensure no child goes to bed hungry; develop solutions to improve soils, ensure women fish traders have safer, better processing of their produce, and smallholders are included in research to utilize their knowledge, among others.

We hope you enjoy the stories as you get to discover some of the leading researchers across the African continent.

We encourage our readers to quote or reproduce material from this publication. As the copyright holder, AWARD requests acknowledgment and a copy of the publication where the citation or material appears. Please send this to the Communications Department through the email address above.

You can download it here for further offline reading.