Youth Challenge Fund: Training on entrepreneurship and business plan development

In an effort towards promoting youth entrepreneurship in agriculture and transforming the country’s food system, Resilient Agriculture for Inclusive and Sustainable Ethiopian Food Systems (RAISE-FS) Programme in collaboration with Shayashone (SYS) and Bahir Dar University (BDU) successfully ran a five-day intensive training programme focused on entrepreneurship, design thinking, business plan development and pitching.

Twenty-three final-year undergraduates, MSc, and PhD students who had advanced to the proposal writing stage participated in the training programme. Trained students will further compete at the national level for the Youth Challenge Fund from four national universities: Bahir Dar, Haramaya, Hawassa, and Mekelle.

Participants will receive further coaching and selected innovators will be awarded seed funding to bring their business ideas to reality and contribute to the food system. The winning proposals will also receive technical support from experts in their respective universities.

Trainees actively participated in the training sessions and appreciated the coordinating bodies for giving them the invaluable opportunity to attend such an important training.

“I have gained new ideas from this week’s training and feel inspired. I am glad to have had this chance. The training and the mode of delivery were very nice. Including the experiences of successful entrepreneurs and discussing all participants’ business ideas would have made it even better.” Belayneh Biazen, was one of the enthusiastic participants of the training.

“This week has been special. I have gained much from the training. I was not as such active in the formal classes but in this training, I liked all the contents and have been actively participating in the activities given. I would like to thank the project and all the facilitators.” Alemtshay Girma is one of the two female participants.

The Youth Challenge Fund not only helps to support and empower students/youth innovators in bringing their innovations to practice, but it also contributes to promoting creative solutions that address the country’s agricultural sector and overall food system.