Helen Weldemichael of Ethiopia is a business innovator addressing Africa’s long-term food security needs.
As a child she enjoyed enset bread. The enset, similar to a banana, is a staple food for about 20 million Ethiopians. She created a process that is safer and faster than traditional methods, which relied on women using their bare feet and hands to prepare the plant for consumption.
Weldemichael won the U.S. Agency for International Development Feed the Future 2022 EatSafe Innovation Challenge, earning a $10,000 prize. She patented her fermentation process and is seeking to expand the venture by attracting investors.
“We need to bring more awareness of food safety from the farm level to the urban areas,” she said.
Local partnerships
Weldemichael’s innovation highlights how local solutions can improve the region’s food supply. An estimated 140 million people in Africa struggled with food insecurity during 2022.
The U.S. announced in December 2022 that it will provide an additional $2.5 billion to address food security in Africa.
“This is a global food security crisis, and we need to solve it together,” President Biden said during the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit in December.
The U.S. government announced in March that it will send additional humanitarian aid to several African countries, including:
- $331 million to Ethiopia to offset drought and conflict.
- $289 million to South Sudan to counter hunger.
- $150 million to West and Central Africa and the Sahel to overcome food shortages.
Ongoing partnerships between the U.S. and African countries boost local agriculture and aquatic systems so farmers can build their businesses through increased exports.
“We’ve also heard loudly and clearly from African partners that emergency aid cannot be the only solution,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said March 15.
Boosting exports
Advancing two-way trade and investment through the Prosper Africa Initiative is one way to boost domestic food production, food security and job creation.
In partnerships with Prosper Africa and USAID:
Ghana and Liberia: 8 Degrees North received $1.1 million to access the U.S. market for its palm oil exports. Exports are expected to create over 6,000 new jobs in Ghana and Liberia. Another project supports the Savannah Fruit Company’s 21,000 mostly female entrepreneurs in Ghana’s shea butter sector.
West Africa: Red River Foods in Virginia will work with 11,000 cashew farmers, processors and suppliers in Nigeria, Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire and Benin to expand value-added processing across West Africa and increase exports to the United States.
Zambia: AfricaGlobal Schaffer, Bechtel and the Export Trading Group of South Africa are working to increase maize trade in Zambia by constructing 23 centers, which will support 1.5 million people.
“African-led solutions are increasingly making the difference on the challenges of the 21st century,” Blinken said.