Rikolto is an international network organisation with over 40 years of experience in partnering with food chain stakeholders in Africa, Asia, Europe, and Latin America. We build bridges of trust and trade between the food industry, governments, research institutions, financial institutions, and farmers’ organisations around one central question: ‘What will we eat tomorrow?’
Rikolto in East Africa has secured funding from the European Union to implement part of a four-year project called AfriFOODlinks, implemented by 35 partners and led by ICLEI Africa which aims to improve food and nutrition security, while delivering positive outcomes for climate and the environment, and building social and ecological resilience in 65+ cities, focusing on 5 African hub cities.
The project will:
apply an urban food systems lens to promote shifts to healthy, sustainable diets
transform urban food environments through real-world socio-technical experiments.
promote inclusive multi-actor governance to empower public officials, small businesses, and communities with ownership and agency to shape their food systems; and
accelerate innovative, women- and youth-led agri-food businesses to support local value addition and inclusive economic participation.
AfriFOODlinks invests in direct food system change in 5 African Hub Cities which include Mbale city in Uganda and invites 10 African and 5 European Sharing Cities to join the Hub Cities on a mutual-learning journey and to codesign specific pilot projects for implementation in each sharing City.
Rikolto is co-leading the project’s Work Package (WP) 3 with Shona and is responsible for coordinating partners and subcontractors in Mbale city. Key partners in Mbale include SHONA, Food Rights Alliance, and Mbale City Council. WP3 is one of 7 work packages implemented across the 5 hub cities and focuses on promoting inclusive and circular agribusiness & innovation. The AfriFOODlinks Mbale and WP3 Coordinator is responsible for the delivery of a program of activities and partner engagement within Mbale city, as well as guiding partners in the five other hubs for the implementation of WP3. The coordinator will be responsible for the design and delivery of activities in Mbale, working with the WP leads and partners also drawing on best practices from other consortia members across Africa. The coordinator is part of the East Africa Good Food For Cities (GF4C) team and will work closely with Rikolto’s East Africa Good Food for Cities programme Director (based in Arusha) and Uganda’s programme coordinator (based in Mbale),
Work package 3 activities include:
Assessing the barriers to the development of profitable and sustainable small scale and informal agri-food businesses in hub cities and identifying entry points to strengthen the small-scale circular entrepreneurial ecosystem in hub cities
Incubating innovative women- and youth-led businesses that contribute to the transition to sustainable urban food systems in the 5 hub cities with a specific focus on businesses with a circular business model at their core
Co-creating accessible financial models targeted at micro (informal), start-up, and scale-up food businesses
Coaching food companies on circularity and inclusive business
Documenting business and investment cases along key food value chains contributing to nutrition and circularity.
Facilitating technical and knowledge exchanges between agri-food MSMEs; This position requires interest and expertise in sustainable entrepreneurship, urban food systems, multi-stakeholder facilitation, inclusive & circular business, food governance, as well as other issues such as climate change, urban planning, and supply chain management. The coordinator will play an important role in creating suitable conditions for local governments to engage with the private sector, civil society and academia in planning and delivering sustainable and resilient food systems.
The successful candidate will report to: East Africa Programme Director - Good Food for Cities Collaborate with: Good Food for Cities programme team in Uganda, Uganda-Country representative, Finance Officer. Geographic scope: Country Regional Level Duty Station: Mbale, Uganda