Women Food Entrepreneurship
Women Food Entrepreneurs (WFE)
The women Food Entrepreneurs (WFE) research is a project under the Dutch Food & Business Knowledge Platform (http://knowledge4food.net/) that aims to strengthen women’s food entrepreneurship in city slums of Kenya and Burkina Faso. It builds on an inclusive business model for food security based on an integrated undertaking of the complex interactions between soil quality, food production, quality and nutrition for vulnerable groups.
This project has a transdisciplinary team of social and natural scientists namely Dutch, Kenyan and Burkinabe collaborating with local stakeholders and community-based women groups.
Through a comparative analysis between Kisumu and Ouagadougou, this research addresses the constraints faced by women as:(i)food producers in (peri) urban gardens, (ii)food processors and (iii) food marketers within diversified physical, environmental, social and policy contexts
The project co-designs and undertakes field tests for hybrid food production, processing and marketing technologies, enhancing and promoting women’s business knowledge and skills through inclusive business models.
Our aim and objectives
The project WFE aims to strengthen women’s food entrepreneurship in city slums in Kenya and Burkina Faso, by building inclusive business models for food security.
Its objectives are:
- Boosting women’s production, processing and trading of quality foods in Africa’s growing cities to improve food and nutrition security to vulnerable populations.
- Field-testing innovative food production and processing methods, and
- Designing inclusive business models for women food entrepreneurs
In November 2015, the project kicked off with a meeting in Kenya. Two social science PhDs (one for Kisumu and one for Ouagadougou) teamed up with one natural science PhD (studying in both locations). Collaboration was sought in each location, through participatory workshops, with three urban WFE groups.
The WFE research projects have developed research-based outputs through co-creation with the WFE groups and local stakeholders, including:
- Two seasonal calendars 2016 and 2018
- Rock dust analysis report 2017
- Soil sample test results 2017
- Food and nutrition survey Nyalenda and Obunga 2017
- Released a publication on inclusive business titled Governance and Inclusive Development programme group (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877343517300428)
University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam Institute of Social Science Research (UvA-AISSR) & Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics (IBED), the Netherlands
Centre for African Bio-entrepreneurship (CABE), Kenya
Victoria Institute for Research on Environment and Development (VIRED) Kenya
Etudes Actions Conseils (EAC), Burkina Faso
Dresden University of Technology (TUD), Germany
Royal Tropical Institute (KIT), the Netherlands
Institute de Recherché en Science de la Santé (IRSS), Burkina Faso
Netherlands Agro, Food and Technology Centre (NAFTC Africa)
Bodembergsma, the Netherlands
Food & Business Knowledge Platform, the Netherlands
Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research WOTRO Science for Global Development (NOW-WOTRO), the Netherlands