The Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN), in partnership with the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), and the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement, has launched the NourishNext West Africa 2026: Youth Agrifood Innovation Challenge. NourishNext is a regional innovation challenge that will identify, support, and showcase youth-led solutions that improve the availability, accessibility, affordability, and consumption of fruits and vegetables across Benin, Nigeria, Senegal, and Côte d’Ivoire. Official challenge documentation and guidelines can be downloaded via APO Group Document Repository.
Participants will progress through a series of evaluation stages, including application screening, expert assessment, mentorship, and national pitch events, before selected finalists advance to a regional finale in Dakar, Senegal, later this year. Along the way, innovators will receive opportunities to strengthen their innovative solutions, gain visibility, connect with experts and partners, and compete for seed funding to help scale their solutions. Comprehensive updates regarding regional nutritional frameworks are also tracked through the Scaling Up Nutrition Movement Portal.
The Challenge is designed to provide a structured pathway that not only identifies promising innovations across the fruit and vegetable value chains but also equips young innovators with the support and exposure needed to accelerate their impact.
West Africa’s agrifood system employs over 60 percent of the workforce and contributes nearly a third of the GDP, yet fruit and vegetable consumption across the region remains far below recommended levels. At the same time, young people and women continue to face high levels of unemployment and underemployment, despite being one of the region’s strongest sources of innovation and enterprise.
“At the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), we believe young people are among the most powerful drivers of innovation and sustainable development across West Africa. The NourishNext West Africa 2026 innovation challenge is important because it provides a platform for mentorship, expertise, and partnerships that turn promising solutions into scalable ones, for building stronger food systems and better nutrition” said Amanda Ammann – Ambassade de Suisse au Senegal and Programme Manager Food Systems, Swiss Agency for Development & Cooperation (SDC). Background initiatives associated with Swiss development projects can be reviewed on the FDFA Switzerland Official Site.
Empowering Youth to Transform Food Systems
Young innovators understand the challenges facing their communities firsthand and are uniquely positioned to develop practical solutions that improve how fruits and vegetables are processed, marketed, and consumed. NourishNext is designed to harness that creativity and entrepreneurial drive by supporting innovations that address key bottlenecks across the fruit and vegetable value chain.
The Challenge is seeking youth-led enterprises and innovators developing solutions in four key areas:
- Value addition and processing;
- Integration of locally produced fruits and vegetables into public nutrition and social protection programmes, such as school feeding;
- Market and supply chain solutions; and
- Consumer demand and healthy diet behaviour change.
Applicants must be based in Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Nigeria, or Senegal and should have progressed beyond the idea stage, and should be having at least a prototype, pilot, field-tested solution, or early market traction. The platform is particularly interested in innovations that reduce post-harvest losses, improve cold storage and logistics, help expand market access, and increase consumption of nutritious fruits and vegetables.
“NourishNext is designed for youth-led enterprises that are already beyond the idea stage, with prototype, pilot or early market traction. It builds on GAIN Nigeria’s ongoing work to strengthen nutritious food value chains, support small and medium enterprises, and create the market linkages and ecosystem support that help promising solutions become scalable businesses,” said Dr. Michael Ojo, Country Director, GAIN Nigeria.
NourishNext is not just a competition, it is a platform designed to help promising youth-led innovators grow and scale their impact. Throughout the Challenge, participants will have opportunities to strengthen their business models or programmes, enhance the nutrition impact of their innovations, and connect with mentors, partners, investors, and new markets. By fostering collaboration, peer learning, technical support, and investment opportunities, NourishNext aims to strengthen the regional innovation ecosystem and accelerate solutions that make healthy diets more accessible across West Africa.
In Benin, the initiative is expected to help connect youth entrepreneurship with the country’s broader nutrition priorities and policy commitments. “Benin’s food and nutrition architecture, from the Food and Nutrition Council to dietary guidelines, means we are ready to translate commitment into action. The NourishNext West Africa innovation challenge, will help young Beninese innovators commercialise value-added produce, plug into school feeding and public procurement, and reduce barriers that keep nutritious food out of households,” said Françoise Sayi, Country Director, GAIN Benin.
Applications for the NourishNext West Africa Youth Agrifood Innovation Challenge 2026 officially opened on 8 July 2026. Young innovators aged 18–35 years, and women-led enterprises with women leaders up to 40 years of age, from Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Nigeria, or Senegal, are invited to apply and showcase their innovative solutions for strengthening nutritious fruit and vegetable value chains.
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