World Food Prize Foundation Recognizes African Agri-food Innovators with Three Major Awards

The recognitions were announced at their landmark DialogueNEXT event in Nairobi to celebrate those leading the continent’s food-secure future

NAIROBI, KENYA, June 30, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- The World Food Prize Foundation announced three major awards at DialogueNEXT in Africa today, celebrating African innovators shaping the future of the continent's food systems.

The awards – the Norman E. Borlaug Medallion, the Norman Borlaug Award for Field Research and Application, Endowed by the Rockefeller Foundation, and the Inspiring the Next Generation Award – were announced before an audience of ministers, agricultural leaders, agripreneurs, scientists and farmers gathered under the conference’s theme, “Born to Feed the Future.”

“Dialogue is where consensus is built, and dialogue is where positions begin,” said Akinwumi Adesina, 2017 World Food Prize Laureate and Member of the World Food Prize Foundation Council of Advisors in his opening address to the conference. “Today, our conversation leads to one defining question: what kind of Africa do we choose to build?”

The Norman E. Borlaug Medallion was presented to AGRA in recognition of twenty years of work supporting smallholder farmers across the continent. Presented by Mashal Husain, President, World Food Prize Foundation, the award acknowledges AGRA's role in building the systems, partnerships and farmer networks that underpin African food security.

“Thank you, President Mashal, and the World Food Prize Foundation for this generous and deeply meaningful recognition. I receive it with great humility and gratitude,” said Alice Ruhweza, President, AGRA. “I want to thank those who have walked the journey with us over the past 20 years, as well as our founders who have helped us ‘take it to the farmer.’”

The Recipient of the Norman Borlaug Award for Field Research and Application, Endowed by The Rockefeller Foundation, was announced as Pamela Afokpe, a plant breeder at East-West Seed whose work professionalizing indigenous crops has transformed smallholder farming across West Africa. Combining rigorous plant breeding with farmer training and market engagement, Afokpe developed the Sika Gboma variety of a traditional West African leafy vegetable, scaling it to thousands of farmers across Benin and beyond.

The World Food Prize Foundation's Inspiring the Next Generation Award was presented by Foundation President Mashal Husain to Kenneth Monjero, Coordinator of the Kenya Youth Institute and Founder of the Fun & Education Global Network, which provides hands-on STEM education, mentorship and career development for children and youth. Conferred to educators and implementing partners who play a critical role in the Foundation's youth programs – including the Borlaug-Ruan International Internship, regional Youth Institutes and the Global Youth Institute – the award recognizes those whose mentorship and dedication are inspiring the next generation to pursue careers in agriculture and food security.

“I am very humbled by this award because there are so many across the world who are doing excellent work to inspire the next generation,” said Monjero. “Food security needs young people on board, so - in the spirit of Norman Borlaug - we need to engage all young learners to understand and empower them to act.”

DialogueNEXT in Africa is the third destination in a series of annual events convened by the World Food Prize Foundation to retrace the legacy of Dr. Norman E. Borlaug, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and father of the Green Revolution. Dr. Borlaug called Africa "the last frontier," and he dedicated much of his energy in the latter years of his life to the continent.

The event also featured the launch of a new white paper from the MENA2050 Food Systems Committee, a coalition of senior food systems leaders working to develop long-term strategies for sustainable agriculture across the Middle East and North Africa. The white paper offers a rare regional analysis of agrifood systems across the Middle East and North Africa. Moving beyond country-by-country perspectives, it examines the shared pressures shaping the region’s food future: climate stress, water scarcity, import dependency, market volatility and social inequalities, through the critical Food-Water-Energy Nexus.

Following the conference, attendees will continue their DialogueNEXT in Africa experience with a series of immersion events putting participants in direct contact with the researchers, technologies and farming systems shaping Africa’s food system. This includes visits to the Alliance of Bioversity and CIAT, CIMMYT, Hello Tractor, International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology, International Livestock Research Institute, International Potato Center, International Rice Research Institute and WorldFish.

DialogueNEXT in Africa comes ahead of the Norman E. Borlaug International Dialogue, to be held in Des Moines, Iowa, October 20-22, 2025.

Harvey Presence
Marchmont Communications
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