Early this month, the Lab of Tomorrow (LoT) in Rwanda, ended the first phase of its implementation. LoT is a multi-stakeholder innovation sprint workshop that brought together a diverse group of individuals from different backgrounds and with unique experiences. Over 5 days, the team discussed, challenged, co-created and developed entrepreneurial solutions to foster food system transformation in Rwanda.
Nestlé is one of the main sponsors of the LoT along with the City of Kigali, the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) as well as the University of St Gallen’s Competence Center for Social Innovation.
Nestlé’s participation in LoT, Rwanda provides the company the opportunity to advance its efforts to improving livelihoods within the coffee supply chain in Africa through its coffee brands such as Zoégas in Sweden,” said Minette Rosén, Green Coffee Specialist, Zoégas.
Rwanda’s rapid population growth and accelerated urbanization however is increasing pressure on land, water, and food resources. It urges the need to collectively transform the current food system into a circular food system, regenerating natural systems, keeping products and materials in use and designing out waste by turning by-products that otherwise could go wasted into valuable ingredients.
“Nestlé relies on people and communities within our region to produce the ingredients we use and in turn we are committed to building resilient communities. We are honored to partner with recognized organizations and to foster solutions that can promote a just transition toward a regenerative food system for the farmers,” said Saint-Francis Tohlang, Corporate Communications and Public Affairs Director at Nestlé East and Southern Africa Region (ESAR).
Committed teams that emerge with innovative solutions from the workshop, will have the opportunity to be selected to participate in an incubation phase of LoT to take place in October of this year.
“As SDC, through the Innovation workshop, we look forward to the emerging entrepreneurial solutions that can contribute towards a circular food system in Rwanda, are climate friendly and offer possibilities for people to find a way out of poverty. Our priorities are the creation of employment opportunities, the propagation of decent work conditions and fair salaries. For the SDC, the collaboration with the private sector opens up opportunities to develop potentially relevant solutions and identify suitable new partners that can effectively implement these solutions, in the present case within the food system of Kigali as well as the export commodities supply chain in Rwanda,” concluded Peter Lindenmann, Deputy Regional Director of SDC Cooperation office in Kigali.
Nestlé is the world’s largest food and beverage company. It is present in 187 countries around the world, and its 291,000 employees are committed to Nestlé’s purpose of unlocking the power of food to enhance quality for everyone, today and for generations to come. Nestlé offers a wide portfolio of products and services for people and their pets throughout their lives. Its more than 2,000 brands range from global icons like Nescafé or Nespresso to local favorites like NIDO. Company performance is driven by its Nutrition, Health and Wellness strategy. Nestlé is based in the Swiss town of Vevey where it was founded more than 150 years ago.
The Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) is Switzerland’s international cooperation agency within the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA). In operating with other federal offices concerned, SDC is responsible for the overall coordination of development activities and cooperation, as well as for the humanitarian aid delivered by the Swiss Confederation. The goal of Switzerland’s international development cooperation is that of reducing poverty. It is meant to foster economic self-reliance and state autonomy, to contribute to the improvement of production conditions, to help in finding solutions to environmental problems, and to provide better access to education and basic healthcare services. (End).