Climate change is one of the challenges facing the practice of agriculture as a business as well as the food systems. With this challenge, weather patterns are becoming increasingly unpredictable with the onset of extreme weather events like floods and droughts. Adversely, this compounds the problems facing farmers and other players in the food systems to thrive. This has brought to the forefront discussions on digital climate advisory services being promoted as a helpful tool in facilitating the navigation of the complexities of climate change by farmers and governments.
It is therefore an exciting opportunity for the four YPARD from Southern Africa to have been invited to participate in a two-day training session with other key public and private sector change makers from Southern Africa. They are Angellah Chitanje of YPARD Malawi, Nkosephayo Manyatsi of YPARD Eswatini, Victoria Hauwanga of YPARD Namibia and Winston Ndebele of YPARD Zimbabwe. These young professionals are well poised to implement and scale up digital climate advisory services.
This session being organized by the African Development Bank on behalf of the Global Center on Adaptation by Weather Impact and Aqualinks comes off on the 27th and 28th of September 2023. This is an opportunity for the YPARD representatives as well as other participants to share knowledge and best practices and explore the latest innovations and approaches that promote the adoption of digital climate advisory services in the region. The workshop will showcase practical applications, challenges, and opportunities in developing, marketing and maintaining these advisory services.
Meet the YPARD members attending the Digital Climate Advisory Services (DCAS) Training for Southern in Africa!
Angellah Chitanje of YPARD Malawi
Angellah Chitanje is a very passionate farmer who is the founder of Chipatso farms initiatives, Country representative for YPARD Malawi and a farmer business school national master trainer certified in 2023 by the Agribusiness facility for Africa (ABF) working as a freelance consultant on farmer business schools.
Nkosephayo Manyatsi of YPARD Eswatini
Nkosephayo Manyatsi is a young Food Science and Technology Specialist who is passionate about nutrition. This resulted in her venturing into bean production from basics to value addition.
Victoria Hauwanga of YPARD Namibia
Victoria Hauwanga is a small-scale farmer, holding an MBA in natural resource management from Namibia Business School (UNAM), a Bachelor's (honours) degree in food science and Technology and a High diploma in agriculture from the University of Namibia. She has a certificate for successfully managing a project from Namibia Business School (UNAM) and five years of experience as a quality controller/ Lab Technologies with Namibia Dairies Company. Her master's dissertation was based on the impact of climate change on crop productivity in subsistence farming: a case study in the Omusati region.
Winston Ndebele of YPARD Zimbabwe
Winston Ndebele is a Field Officer at DanChurchAid with 4 years of experience helping rural and urban communities with cash-based assistance and livelihood projects for income generation to address socioeconomic shocks and stresses. Winston is also a country representative for YPARD Zimbabwe capaciting youths to empower themselves through agricultural enterprises that are problem solving. Specializing in Agricultural Economics and pursuing a master’s degree in that field, Winston uses that experience to leverage available opportunities that he hopes will fuel his dream of having fodder feed produced for livestock and hydroponically grown produce for humans at a sustainable and competitive scale thus reducing the cost of producing a kg of beef and ensuring that households have an affordable diverse and nutritious food.
