African Women in Agricultural Research and Development (AWARD) and the African Agribusiness Incubator’s Network (AAIN) signed an agreement to collaborate on enhancing gender responsiveness across the agribusiness incubation sector on the continent. The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signing happened two days before the North and West Africa Gender in Agribusiness Investments for Africa (GAIA) launch.

The agreement was represented by AAIN’s CEO, Dr Alex Ariho and AWARD’s Director, Dr Wanjiru Kamau-Rutenberg during the signing ceremony that took place at the AAIN headquarters in Accra, Ghana. “AWARD is excited to partner with AAIN, an organisation that is working across the African continent, to address the various needs of agribusiness development in Africa. Our partnership will foster AAIN’s efforts to integrate critically important gender components into their work, and to reach all African farmers, including women,” said Dr Kamau-Rutenberg.

“This partnership is about much more than signing an MoU”, said Dr Ariwo. “We have been working closely with AWARD even before signing this agreement by supporting and facilitating Gender in Agribusiness Investments for Africa (GAIA), a new AWARD initiative. Through GAIA, AWARD and AAIN will identify and make available practical gender-responsive technological solutions in agriculture and build an enabling environment for gender-responsive agribusiness. This work will deliver long-lasting impacts on job and wealth creation.”

The MoU paves the way for common initiatives by both institutions to promote gender-responsive agribusinesses. Under the agreement, AAIN will make technical skills and expert advisory services available to AWARD in the area of agribusiness incubations. AAIN will also involve AWARD in their four core investments to promote agribusiness incubations.

“The MoU between AAIN and AWARD is very timely. It promotes deliberate gender actions and informs the direction of the African Agribusiness Incubation Programme (AAIP),” echoed Peter Kuria, AAIN’s Director of Business Strategy Development & Innovations.

The Africa Agribusiness Incubators Network (AAIN) works to create a business environment for the private sector, universities, governments, financial institutions, research organisations, development partners and umbrella bodies, both continental and global, to contribute to agribusiness development in Africa. AAIN invests in nurturing member incubators to respond to the needs of incubatees in an ever-changing agribusiness environment to create more jobs and wealth using proven models of agribusiness incubation.