As a project accountant at Numa Feeds, Ltd., Eudine Awuzu Asara conducts financial reporting for the Ugandan grains producer and distributor, and works closely with farmers teaching them recordkeeping skills. 

"When I was young and growing up, I looked at farming as a thing for people who have not gone to school. But as a CPA (certified public accountant), my perception has changed. I know it can be done by any person, in any profession," said Asara, who plans to work with Numa Feeds to develop a nutrient-rich product made from locally available ingredients. "I would like to change other people's mindsets, especially young people, because I think that's how I've been empowered, and I'd like to pass it on."

Asara is one of 11 East African agribusiness professionals participating in the first cohort of the Professional Fellows Program: Advancing Young Women Agribusiness Entrepreneurs and Innovators, which brought together individuals from Tanzania, Kenya, and Uganda. Hosted at Michigan State University, the program is implemented in partnership with Sokoine University of Agriculture (Tanzania), University of Nairobi (Kenya), and Kyambogo University (Uganda) and is sponsored by the U.S. State Department, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. Focused on women's economic empowerment, leadership skills, and business development, the program builds capacity and facilitates connections.

While in Michigan this May, fellows participated in four weeks of internships, seminars, site visits and project development. Fellows then spent one week in Washington, D.C. for the Professional Fellows Congress, where they met fellows from 14 other host institutions. Over the next year, the fellows will continue their careers in agribusiness while implementing individual projects that build on what they've learned. This fall and winter, MSU faculty and staff, as well as representatives from internship sites, will travel to East Africa to visit the fellows and continue the exchange of knowledge, ideas and skills.

"This is an example of how Michigan State University can draw across the varied expertise on campus and bring seemingly different disciplines together," said Amy Jamison, associate director for the Center for Gender in a Global Context and the Alliance for African Partnership. "The Professional Fellows Program connects MSU's extensive work in agriculture, women's empowerment, and capacity building, while building deeper connections with our partners in Africa."

While the fellows bring diverse expertise and work experience, all share the desire to help young African women harness the confidence and skills to start a business, earn an income and recognition for the labor they do, and improve the health of families and communities. 

Overcoming obstacles

Fellow Christa Muzanila, a business development trainer in Morogoro, Tanzania, works with farmers to find business solutions to poverty. Muzanila was motivated to start her own business as a way to provide a secondary source of income.

"I decided to get into business and utilize the resources I had. I had a farm and it was just laying there so I decided to put it to use," she said. "I started with tomatoes and now have several other crops on my farm-- bell pepper, okra, an orchard of mangoes, cabbage, spinach. I sell to the local community, individual households, a couple restaurants, but mainly to the local market."

As an entrepreneur herself, Muzanila can relate to the challenges facing farmers and innovators who she works with during her day job.

"I've overcome one of the challenges-- getting start-up capital-- which is one of the largest challenges we face, especially as young people who haven't been in the industry for long. I didn't get a loan or a grant to start my business," said Muzanila, "I just saved up a little money, Tsh 500,000 (Tanzanian shillings), and then invested in growing quick-growing crops in the short term. I already started generating income, which has grown my business. I encourage my fellow young people to look at business in a different perspective."

This is an attitude many of the fellows have in common, including Oliver Nabiryo, a program officer at an extension organization in Uganda. Recognizing the potential of agriculture to provide livelihoods for many un- or underemployed youth, Nabiryo plans to connect experienced farmers with youth.

"Starting a mentorship program whereby people that have succeeded in agriculture, people who have succeeded in entrepreneurship, people who have succeeded in agribusiness, are able to talk to the young farmers and persuade them to see agriculture as a business—it would be a very good thing," she said. "I have learned that mentorship is very important, and mentorship is not a one-time thing, it's supposed to be lifelong."

Engaging locally

Based on the interests of the fellows, MSU selected eight local organizations to host internships for a fellow or two. Sites included the Michigan Biotechnology Institute, Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, GreenStone Farm Credit Services, Swallowtail Farm, Bee Wise Farms, Michigan Farmers Market Association, Allen Neighborhood Center, and the MSU Product Center. This hands-on opportunity to connect on a shared goal benefitted both the fellows and the hosts.

"When we got this opportunity to work with MSU on this fellowship program, we thought this is such a good opportunity to not only educate our employees locally, but to educate internationally," said Elana Fata, legal operations specialist at GreenStone Farm Credit Services where Asara interned. "Eudine spent a lot of time with all the departments in our corporate office. She spent time with our CEO learning about GreenStone and asking about our challenges, and asking him advice about her challenges at Numa Feeds in Uganda. This hasn't just been education for Eudine—we have learned so much from her and it has been an invaluable experience."

As much as it's been an idea-generating experience for many of the fellows, the local hosts have had their views of agribusiness widened, as well.

"I've never run into a beekeeper here that literally makes everything that they do!" said Lacey Ingrao, co-owner of Bee Wise Farms on Lansing's Eastside, where Kenyan Joan Watheri Kinyanju interned. "Joan's resourcefulness has been a gigantic eye opener for me. If someone asked me to find a place to build a bee smoker, I'd be like 'I don't know who to go to!' Her ability to see a product and decide to make that—she's been taking pictures and measurements—it's just been really huge for me."

Founder of Yatta Beekeepers, Kinyaju has been selling honey products and wax plus equipment like centrifuges, smokers, wooden hives, and cloth beekeeping suits. The business is run by Kinyanju and her husband, and she contracts with people to help build the equipment.

"I have people who help me make the beehives, the smokers, the bee suits, and I have people who help me harvest when I need to, and I have people who help me package," said Kinyanju. "[Lacey and Adam Ingrao] taught me about variety honey, I don't have to grow the plants that bring the variety honey, but I can partner with the people who grow the plants and I can take the hives to their farm. Then I can have sunflower honey or mango tree honey or watermelon honey in that specific season. I can label my honey with the different varieties, which would make it fetch a higher price."

Expanding expertise

In the afternoons, seminars and workshops were held by MSU faculty and staff as well as external partners, including Tom Emigh, Acorn Leadership Consulting; Peter Lemmer, CEO of GreenStone Farm Credit Service; Gretchen Neisler, director of MSU's Center for Global Connections in Food, Agriculture, and Natural Resources, and many others. Topics included innovation and entrepreneurship, gender in agri-food systems, personal development and success, and finance, marketing and governance in agribusiness industries.

"This program is set up so that it's interactive and everything you learn is actually applicable in what you're doing right now," said Kinyanju. "We have learned so much, from entrepreneurship to negotiations to networking, to the amazing things that farmers are able to do—demonstration gardens, farmers markets, and value addition from the back of their farm, and the certified kitchen, how you bring farmers together to use the same kitchen to produce their product and sell it—that's good take home for me."

To experience what Michigan organizations bring to the world of agribusiness, fellows visited various parts of the state. Site visits included the Women in Agriculture Development Center in Flint, the Hantz Farms in Detroit, the Kalamazoo Community College Food Hub in Kalamazoo, and more.

Fellows were also able to catch spotlight events, such as the discussion led by Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, president of the African Development Bank, a performance of the Dance Theatre of Harlem at MSU's Wharton Center for the Performing Arts, and a visit to the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History.

"The African fellows received both theoretical and practical training, in some cases directly related to their businesses. They also got to better appreciate the value of concepts such as networks, negotiation and resilience-- key when setting up a new business," said Jose Jackson-Malete, associate director for operations and research management at the Alliance for African Partnership. "The group left MSU energized, with a new determination to implement much of what they learnt and with a new network of friends and support system for when they get back home."

Ambassadors of change

Fellows' stay in the U.S. wrapped up with the Professional Fellows Congress in Washington, D.C., which brought together a total of 285 fellows from over 50 countries. They shared their experiences with the exchange program, and discussed the best ways to implement the lessons learned in their home country context.

"Congress week was great as I got to meet many fellows," said Nabiryo, of Uganda. "We got to share our passions, experiences and issues pertinent to our work and how we can identify solutions to the problems we have back home, especially problems that young people face in all sectors."

While the fellows returned home, the exchange continues. The first group of representatives from internship host organizations will travel to Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya in August 2018, with the second group slated to travel to Africa in January 2019. Then, a second group of fellows will arrive at MSU in October of 2018 to begin the program anew. 

"The most valuable asset is the exchange of cultures and worldviews, learning from each other as colleagues and newfound friends," said Wynne Wright, assistant professor in the departments of Community Sustainability and Sociology and one of the coordinators for the exchange program. "This program is transformative for both our visitors and our Michigan-based hosts."

The Advancing Young Women Professional Fellows Program is sponsored by the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs Professional Fellows Division and administered by MSU (U.S.), Sokoine University of Agriculture (Tanzania), University of Nairobi (Kenya), and Kyambogo University (Uganda).

Supporting units and centers within MSU include the Alliance for African Partnership, Center for Gender in a Global Context, Center for the Advancement of International Development, and the Center for Global Connections in Food, Agriculture, and Natural Resources.

In addition to the internship hosts and additional MSU units, the program's external partners include Kalamazoo Community College Food Hub, TuBer Marketing LLC, Acorn Leadership Consulting, Michigan Food and Farming Systems and its project, WIA Farm Development Center.