In Nigeria, the COVID-19 pandemic, persistent conflict, climate pressures, and rising inflation have severely impacted the food system. The result: climbing food prices, hunger, and malnutrition.
To provide rapid support in the face of COVID-19, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID)/Nigeria engaged the USAID Catalyst Project to run an open innovation challenge to foster local solutions for food security. This work complemented USAID’s ongoing Feed the Future (FTF) investments in the country.
The USAID/Nigeria COVID-19 Food Security Challenge moved quickly, identifying 32 promising Nigerian micro-, small-, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) with creative, locally-driven solutions for their country’s food system. These MSMEs— a mix of mid-stage businesses and youth-led startups—worked across 20 different value chains and 33 of Nigeria’s 36 states. Their solutions ranged from field to buyer, with some even piloting entirely new models for domestic food production. Thirty-one of these 32 grantees were new to USAID, 19 were youth-led companies, and 12 were women-owned.
Over 15 months (October 2021–December 2022), Catalyst provided funding and technical assistance to help grantees grow their businesses and achieve their goals. The results have been significant. Together, the grantees impacted 204,430 people in Nigeria, introducing 96 unique innovations, technologies, products, and approaches for food production, processing, storage, and distribution Further, the grantee businesses experienced incredible growth and transformation over the challenge period, with grantees collectively raising nearly $4 7 million in external funding and forging 170 strategic partnerships to advance their models.
This report details the challenge approach, its impact, and lessons learned for open innovation in crisis contexts.
