Grad Gallery: Ify Umunna

LinkedIn: bit.ly/3xjCCTd

Current Position:

Programme Lead at Nourishing Africa

Past positions:

Research Analyst at Sahel Consulting

Research Officer at African Philanthropy Forum

Academic history:

2017 Master of International Development at University of Warwick,

2016 Bachelor of Social Science Honours specialising in Gender and Transformation at UCT,

2015 Bachelor of Social Science with majors in International Relations, Gender Studies and Sociology at UCT

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How did you obtain your position?

I had interned at Sahel Consulting prior to doing my Masters at Warwick. After obtaining my Masters, and a year of work experience in other organisations, I returned to Sahel as an analyst to work on a ‘Nourishing Africa’ project. This project grew into being a standalone company that was then incubated by Sahel and my colleague and I became co-leads of the organisation.

Today, Nourishing Africa is an independent organisation – a digital knowledge and membership platform focused on supporting African agriculture and food entrepreneurs to scale their businesses through the provision of critical resources, tools and opportunities, including funding, capacity building, data, networking events, e-learning, local and global nominations, and mentoring. Currently, Nourishing Africa supports more than 800 agri-food SMEs through these entrepreneurs, with membership from across the continent.

What are the key skills that have contributed to your success so far?

For me, it’s important to access your environment and understand the people you’re engaging with, prior to delivering whatever it is you aim to provide. When ‘selling’ anything to an individual or a group of people, whether it’s an idea, vision or a product, you have to ensure that you know where your audience is coming from and their needs so that your pitch is tailored to their requirements. In order to do this, you have to listen and understand them first.

What are your day-to-day responsibilities at Nourishing Africa?

I manage partnerships, communications, ICT and governance and policies. Given that we are a start-up, tasks vary, and responsibilities shift but in a ‘regular’ week I would work with the ICT team to ensure that all aspects of the Hub are optimised and the content is accessible and user friendly, we would also strategise on new features and additions to the platform. I would engage the Comms team to ensure that we have disseminated information about Nourishing Africa to our members, stakeholders and general users and informed them on all ongoing and future activities. I liaise closely with our Board of Directors and partners to ensure that they are up to date with our work and for us to discuss matters arising and lastly, I would typically have a range of discussions with new and potential partners.

What value do your qualifications add to your work?

Interestingly, I strongly believe it is the soft skills and critical thinking skills that I picked up from taking a range of social science courses that have really played a pivotal role in my work. Undoubtedly, sociology is my most utilised degree – understanding intention and human reactions and impulses; understanding why people do what they do and what they require given their background and life experiences. It has truly helped me shape my views of how to engage various stakeholders, target audiences, and communication strategies.

I also believe that having a focus on women throughout university has helped in understanding the nuances of women-participation in any aspect and the requirements and flexibility needed for this to happen. This has directly impacted how we structure many activities at Nourishing Africa as it is imperative for us to ensure that women are engaged and included on our platform.

When ‘selling’ anything to an individual or a group of people, whether it’s an idea, vision or a product, you have to ensure that you know where your audience is coming from and their needs.

What impact has COVID-19 had on your role at Nourishing Africa?

Prior to the outbreak of the pandemic, we conducted training and workshops across the continent. This had to change, and we became a fully digital company, taking these workshops online. We have been fortunate and deliberate in the way we engage virtually. Using various technological tools and innovations, we have been able to continue operations digitally and actually reached far more people than we would have otherwise.

How do you see African agriculture evolving in the next few years?

There has been a general consensus that agriculture across Africa has the ability to transform economies. With this comes a great opportunity to transform the sector, ensuring that we truly optimise our natural resources in a sustainable way while creating millions of meaningful jobs for our population. I hope to see more young people get involved in the sector, and this will only happen when those in the sector showcase the various opportunities and areas of engagement within agriculture; from ag-tech, to research, to financing and marketing and processing – the sector is broad and open. It is simply a case of getting involved. I also hope to see more women engaged in agriculture at decision-making levels and financially-uplifting areas of the value chain.