Deadline: September 30, 2023
Applications are open for the Africa Women Leaders in Agro-ecology (AWOLA) Initiative 2023. AWOLA (Africa Women Leaders in Agro-ecology) is a leadership career development initiative of the PELUM network, with the aim of equipping women working on agroecology, sustainable agriculture and food systems with leadership skills. Through the AWOLA initiative, the PELUM network envisions strengthening leadership capacities and the active participation of women in agro-ecology institutions.
AWOLA aims to put women at the heart of transforming African agriculture. The 3 year leadership program aims to create high level women leadership in agroecology, sustainable agriculture and food systems transformation, who will influence and negotiate for the space of agroecology in policies and programs across African countries. The many years of PELUM work have proved that women are at the forefront of ecological agriculture, and hence need to be at the centre of influence by forming a connected and committed movement of Africa women leadership in agroecology.
Benefits
- Mentorship: The actual mentorship will entail a process where mentee and mentors who are at different scales and career levels develop supportive relationships around their professional and personal capacities. The process will entail a matchmaking session based on the gaps and skills across mentees and mentors.
- Training: AWOLA will support mentees in a 1 year program (through virtual and face to face sessions), who will be trained to become leaders and effective negotiators, in influencing policies and programming while building collaborations with different stakeholders for desired outcomes. Through AWOLA mentees and mentors will be supported to participate in structured learning to build up on the agroecology and leadership knowledge base.
- Development of leadership innovation ideas: The mentees and mentors will be supported to develop networks and work on innovation ideas. The innovation ideas will be shared with PELUM networks for integration across programs, where possible the coalition members will be encouraged to fundraise and further supported through the PELUM network to implement their ideas with the aim of supporting transformation of agriculture and food systems.
Eligibility
Mentees
The AWOLA mentorship fellowship targets practitioners who can meet a range of criteria.
- The fellowship targets women African nationals, current citizens of Kenya, Zimbabwe and Uganda.
- Applicants need to have at least a degree and 5 years’ experience in agriculture, food systems, land based sectors or working on agro-based livelihoods with farming communities.
- Applicants need to be affiliated to an institution, with either government organizations, non- government, private sector, development, civil society, regional and sub- regional communities, or academia.
- Applicants will be drawn from the fields of Natural resource management, Climate change, Agri-business, Livelihoods, advocacy on policy work, etc).
Ideal AWOLA fellows should:
- Show commitment to investing in your personal growth and participation for the full 12 months program.
- Be able to articulate top leadership challenges in scaling up agroecology and sustainable agriculture practices.
- Need to show how they play or intend to undertake leadership roles in transforming agriculture, food systems or livelihoods of farming communities using agroecology principles/approaches.
- Be able to access reliable internet and to commit time to a maximum of 5 hours a week towards the mentorship.
Mentors
They are looking for mentors with 10+ years’ experience in leadership and working to transform agriculture, food systems and community livelihoods working in different types of institutions including business persons and farmers. Mentors should be experts in a variety of fields including but not limited to:
- Governance
- Food systems: agriculture, sustainable value chains, agroecology, sustainable agriculture
- Natural resources: environment, climate change
- Startups and scaling of businesses
- Attracting funding and/or investors
- Human Rights
- Food processing and Nutrition
- Youth and Women Economic Empowerment
- Agribusiness
Ideal AWOLA mentors should:
- Show commitment to investing your time in supporting mentees growth for a period of 12 months program, meeting at least twice a month.
- Be able to articulate top leadership challenges in scaling up agroecology and sustainable agriculture practices.
- Need to show how they play leadership roles in transforming agriculture, food systems or livelihoods of farming communities using agroecology principles/approaches.
- Be able to access reliable internet and to commit time to a maximum of 5 hours a week towards the mentorship.
Application
For more information, visit AWOLA.
