UNESCO REF SIP-ALPHA, Federal Republic of Nigeria
A sovereign national programme of UNESCO REF SIP-ALPHA to train and certify 12 million young women across the 36 States and the Federal Capital Territory in kenaf cultivation, hydroponic food production and agribusiness leadership: one integrated response to food insecurity, foreign exchange dependence and youth unemployment.
Un programme national souverain de UNESCO REF SIP-ALPHA pour former et certifier 12 millions de jeunes femmes à la culture du kénaf, à la production hydroponique et au leadership agro-entrepreneurial.
Sommaire de l'édition publique
Le parcours du programme, de 2023 à 2030
From launch to national delivery: where the Young Women in Agriculture Programme stands today, and what follows.
UNESCO REF launches the Young Women in Agriculture Programme under SIP-ALPHA, with its Champions initiative and first institutional partnerships.
Federal and State institutions, research bodies, development partners and the private sector are engaged to secure national ownership of the programme.
The 12 Million National Mobilisation Campaign is launched across the Federation, together with a pilot of the hydroponics training, in which a first cohort of beneficiaries tests the curriculum and the hydroponic production systems ahead of national scale-up. The campaign is documented in the Campaign Report.
Mobilisation continues across the six geopolitical zones. The lessons of the hydroponics pilot are applied as State structures, institutional partnerships and the consortium are consolidated ahead of delivery.
Training, certification and production across the 36 States and the FCT. Sequencing by zone, State and site is set out in the full programme dossier.
Un instrument national pour la sécurité alimentaire, les recettes hors pétrole et l'emploi des jeunes
The Young Women in Agriculture Programme (YWA) is the agricultural pillar of UNESCO REF SIP-ALPHA. It will train and certify 12 million young Nigerian women across the 36 States and the Federal Capital Territory in three enterprise disciplines: hydroponic food production, kenaf cultivation for industrial and export markets, and agribusiness leadership.
Its National Secretariat is the Maryam Babangida National Centre for Women Development, a Federal Government institution. The programme answers three national questions with one architecture. It raises household food production where hunger begins. It builds a non-oil export commodity in a country whose export earnings still depend largely on crude petroleum. And it offers the largest single cohort of young Nigerians a credentialled profession in place of informal and insecure work.
La Vice-Secrétaire générale des Nations Unies au lancement de la Campagne de mobilisation des 12 millions
This programme is exactly what Africa needs, a concrete, measurable, nationally owned initiative that connects women to land, to income, and to their rightful place in the economy. When we invest in women in agriculture, we invest in the entire nation.
Amina J. Mohammed, Deputy Secretary-General, United Nations
« Ce programme est exactement ce dont l'Afrique a besoin : une initiative concrète, mesurable et d'appartenance nationale, qui relie les femmes à la terre, au revenu et à la place qui leur revient de droit dans l'économie. Investir dans les femmes de l'agriculture, c'est investir dans la nation tout entière. »
Traduction française, UNESCO REF
Amina J. Mohammed is the fifth Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations, appointed in January 2017 and reappointed in January 2022. She chairs the United Nations Sustainable Development Group, which guides the work of the United Nations development system in 162 countries and territories.
Her standing carries particular weight for this programme. She served as Minister of Environment of the Federal Republic of Nigeria from 2015 to 2016, and earlier, as Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on Post-2015 Development Planning, she was among the principal architects of the process that produced the 2030 Agenda and its seventeen Goals. She attended the Flag-off of the 12 Million Mobilisation Campaign as the most senior Nigerian in the United Nations system, carrying the authority of the office that oversees the implementation of the Goals worldwide.
The development effectiveness principles of Paris (2005), Accra (2008) and Busan (2011), restated in the 2030 Agenda, hold that external endorsement acquires meaning only where it attaches to national ownership. YWA meets that test by design: it is conceived, owned and governed within Nigeria, anchored in a Federal Government institution, and delivered through a consortium in which international partners contribute specialised competence rather than direction. Her statement is to be read in that light, as an assessment of substance by the Chair of the body that coordinates the United Nations development system.
SourcesUnited Nations, Biography of the Deputy Secretary-General. United Nations Sustainable Development Group, mandate and membership. OECD, Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness (2005) and Accra Agenda for Action (2008). Busan Partnership for Effective Development Co-operation (2011). United Nations General Assembly Resolution 70/1 (2015). UNESCO REF, YWA 12 Million Mobilisation Campaign Report.
Pourquoi le Nigeria ne peut pas attendre : l'impératif national de transformation agricole
On 13 July 2023 the Federal Government declared a state of emergency on food security, raising agricultural production from a sectoral priority to an obligation of national security. Three years later the evidence confirms the gravity of that declaration.
L'urgence de la sécurité alimentaire
The regional Cadre Harmonisé analysis published in July 2026 projects that 36.3 million Nigerians will face acute food and nutrition insecurity during the 2026 lean season, close to two thirds of all people in that condition across the Sahel, West Africa and Cameroon. About two million are projected to be in Emergency, and pockets of Catastrophe are projected in Borno State. These figures are the product of converging structural pressures: insecurity in food-producing areas, the degradation of arable land, the high cost of inputs, climate variability and the erosion of extension services. A crisis with structural causes cannot be resolved by episodic relief. It requires a production system that is itself structurally resilient.
L'écart entre les sexes dans l'agriculture
In sub-Saharan Africa, 66 per cent of women's employment is in agrifood systems, yet women farm with less land, less credit, fewer inputs and fewer extension services than men. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations finds a 24 per cent productivity gap between women and men farming plots of equal size. Its 2023 report on the status of women in agrifood systems estimates that closing the gaps in farm productivity and agricultural wages would raise global GDP by nearly USD 1 trillion and reduce the number of food-insecure people by 45 million. The gender gap is therefore not a marginal inefficiency. It is the largest unexploited productivity reserve in African agriculture, and the United Nations has marked 2026 as the International Year of the Woman Farmer.
La jeunesse, l'informalité et l'abandon de l'agriculture
The National Bureau of Statistics records that 92.7 per cent of employment in Nigeria is informal and that 15.6 per cent of young people are not in employment, education or training. The challenge is less the absence of work than the absence of secure, productive and recognised work. Over two decades, young Nigerians left agriculture for a reasoned purpose: the sector offered subsistence income, no assured market, no qualification and no professional standing. YWA changes those terms for the generation that left.
La réponse du programme
YWA operates under UNESCO REF SIP-ALPHA and is aligned with the Renewed Hope Agenda, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the African Union's Agenda 2063. Its enterprise disciplines were selected by evidence. Hydroponic production gives households food throughout the year, independent of rainfall. Kenaf gives producers a commercially demanded industrial crop for which Nigeria's agroclimatic conditions are well suited. Enterprise leadership converts competence into durable businesses. The structural innovation is one of sequence: the market relationship is secured through off-take arrangements before training and planting begin, so that income is predictable from the first cycle.
Théorie du changement
A young woman with secure access to a demanded crop and an identified buyer gains a predictable income.
Predictable income and weather-independent food production improve nutrition and keep children in school.
Production organised across certified clusters builds a recurring non-oil export stream.
Measured and published results attract the capital that sustains the next cohort.
SourcesCILSS and partners, Cadre Harmonisé analysis, July 2026. National Population Commission and ICF, Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey 2023-24. UNICEF Nigeria and UBEC, out-of-school children estimates. National Bureau of Statistics, Consumer Price Index, September 2026, and Nigeria Labour Force Survey (2023 annual report and Q2 2023). FAO, The Status of Women in Agrifood Systems (2023). Presidency of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, declaration of 13 July 2023.
La déclaration souveraine du Gouvernement fédéral du Nigeria
At a national press conference at the Presidency, the Federal Government announced its commitment to broker and mobilise structured financial support for the Young Women in Agriculture Programme. The declaration affirmed the national target of 12 million beneficiaries across the 36 States and the Federal Capital Territory by the close of the programme, and confirmed the Presidency's engagement in mobilising the blended finance architecture.
In the political economy of development finance, durability is priced. Lenders and guarantors discount programmes that depend on a single sponsor or a single electoral cycle, and they favour programmes embedded in the institutions of the state. The declaration at the Presidency, the designation of a Federal Secretariat and the alignment with the Renewed Hope Agenda place YWA in the second category. That placement is what makes concessional and commercial capital available on terms that a free-standing initiative could not obtain.
A Federal declaration converts an institutional initiative into a national programme, and alters its risk profile for every development finance institution that reviews it.UNESCO REF assessment
The declaration also positions Nigeria as a continental reference in the national operationalisation of the Sustainable Development Goals through agricultural policy. For the 55 member states of the African Union, the YWA model offers a replicable institutional architecture for integrating gender-responsive agricultural enterprise into national development strategy.
Secrétariat national : l'ancrage institutionnel souverain du programme
The designation of the Maryam Babangida National Centre for Women Development as National Secretariat is an act of institutional anchoring.
The Centre is the Federal Government's principal institution for the advancement of women, established to coordinate and resource the socioeconomic empowerment of Nigerian women at national scale. Its selection places YWA within the development architecture of the Nigerian state and confers on it a standing, a reach and a durability that no non-governmental initiative can achieve alone.
Through its standing liaison with state ministries, women's affairs commissions and local government administrations, the Centre gives the programme an existing system through which enrolment, training coordination, yield monitoring, income reporting and off-take facilitation can be administered with the authority that a target of 12 million requires.
The Secretariat also supplies the dimension of credibility that weighs most in international finance: public accountability. Contributors do not entrust their capital to an isolated project unit. They partner with a programme whose Secretariat answers to the Federal Government and, through it, to the National Assembly, the Office of the Auditor-General for the Federation and the Nigerian people.
Correspondence for the Secretariat is received through the YWA programme office.
Le lancement officiel : l'activation souveraine d'un programme national d'envergure continentale
The Flag-off marked the point at which a sovereign commitment became an operational programme, with a confirmed Secretariat, an implementation calendar, an enrolment architecture and an off-take framework engaged across the six geopolitical zones. The presence of federal ministers, United Nations officials, civil society leaders and the first champions was the public activation of an institutional structure months in construction.
The United Nations Food Systems Summit of 2021, the African Union's Malabo Declaration of 2014 and successive assessments by the World Bank and the Food and Agriculture Organization each identified the exclusion of women from agricultural resources as a decisive and insufficiently remedied constraint on food security in sub-Saharan Africa. The Flag-off converted that recommendation, repeated across a decade, into a national programme with a Secretariat and a timetable.
Cinq mécanismes activés ensemble
Programmes that activate their mechanisms in sequence tend to lose momentum between stages. Programmes that activate them together generate the early evidence on which subsequent financing depends. The full account of the mobilisation is published in the 12 Million Mobilisation Campaign Report.
Ampleur, ambition et preuves : le registre des données du programme
A programme presented to governments and finance institutions must distinguish clearly between what it commits to deliver and the national conditions it addresses. The first table records the programme's parameters. The second records the independently published indicators against which its contribution will be measured.
| Parameter | Value | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Young women to be trained and certified | 12,000,000 | Federal declaration at the Presidency; 2,000,000 in each geopolitical zone |
| Implementation period | 2023 to 2030 | Concluding with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development |
| Kenaf income per acre per off-take cycle | ₦400,000 | Structured off-take arrangements concluded before planting |
| Production windows a year | 4 | Short-duration varieties on a staggered, partly irrigated calendar set by OAU IAR&T |
| Annual income baseline per acre | ₦1,600,000 | Four off-take cycles on one acre; excludes hydroponic income |
| Direct employment projected | 450,000 | Programme projection, before indirect effects |
| Languages of instruction | 5 | English, Hausa, Igbo, Yoruba and Nigerian Pidgin |
| Consortium partners | 15 | Institutions in Nigeria, the United Kingdom, the United States and Israel |
| Indicator | Latest value | Source and period |
|---|---|---|
| People in acute food insecurity, Phase 3 or worse | 36.3M | Cadre Harmonisé, June to August 2026 projection |
| People already in Crisis or worse, October to December 2025 | 27.2M | Cadre Harmonisé, November 2025 analysis, 27 States and the FCT |
| Nigeria's share of all people in Phase 3 or worse across the region | 66% | Cadre Harmonisé, Sahel, West Africa and Cameroon, July 2026 |
| Children under five who are stunted | 40% | Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey 2023-24 |
| Children under five who are wasted | 8% | Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey 2023-24 |
| Under-five mortality, per 1,000 live births | 110 | Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey 2023-24 |
| Children out of school | 18.3M | UNICEF and UBEC: 10.2M primary, 8.1M junior secondary |
| Agriculture's share of GDP | 25.8% | NBS rebased national accounts, 2024 |
| Food inflation, year on year | 19.6% | NBS Consumer Price Index, September 2026 |
| Agricultural products' share of merchandise exports | 6.8% | NBS Foreign Trade Statistics, first half of 2025 |
| Crude oil's share of merchandise exports | 51 to 63% | NBS Foreign Trade Statistics, quarterly range in 2025 |
| Informal share of employment | 92.7% | NBS Nigeria Labour Force Survey, Q2 2023 |
| Young people not in employment, education or training | 15.6% | NBS Nigeria Labour Force Survey, 2023 annual report |
| Productivity gap, women and men on equal plots | 24% | FAO, The Status of Women in Agrifood Systems, 2023 |
| Share of women's employment in agrifood systems, sub-Saharan Africa | 66% | FAO, The Status of Women in Agrifood Systems, 2023 |
| Wage earned by women in agriculture for every dollar earned by men | 82¢ | FAO, The Status of Women in Agrifood Systems, 2023 |
| Global gain from closing the gender gaps in agrifood systems | USD 1 trillion | FAO, 2023: about 1 per cent of world GDP, and 45 million fewer food-insecure people |
| Global kenaf fibre market | USD 0.8 billion | Market Intelo, Kenaf Fiber Market Research Report, base year 2025 |
Note on presentationIncome figures are programme parameters under off-take arrangements and are presented conservatively. Additional income from larger areas, better grading, processing and hydroponic produce is not included in the baseline.
Trois piliers de transformation agricole, économique et entrepreneuriale
The three pillars are not independent modules. They form one enterprise architecture: hydroponics secures household nutrition and technical confidence; kenaf secures income and export earnings; enterprise leadership turns competence and income into a durable business.
Climate-smart, controlled-environment food production that operates throughout the year, independent of rainfall.
An industrial fibre crop produced against off-take arrangements concluded before planting, under the technical supervision of OAU IAR&T.
The ENTILEAD curriculum in negotiation, contract literacy, financial management, quality assurance and market positioning.
Without the third pillar, champions would hold production skills without the commercial competencies that decide whether training becomes an enterprise or a temporary activity. That gap explains why many agricultural training programmes in sub-Saharan Africa have produced capable growers who could not sustain commercial viability beyond a first or second season. The graduate of YWA is not simply a trained farmer. She is a certified agribusiness operator, equipped to produce, to contract, to account and to grow.
Objectif 2, Faim zéro : le mandat mondial derrière les trois piliers de YWA
Sustainable Development Goal 2 commits the international community to end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture by 2030. Each pillar of YWA corresponds to one of its principal targets.
| SDG target | Commitment | YWA contribution |
|---|---|---|
| 2.1 | End hunger and ensure access to sufficient, nutritious food all year round | Hydroponic production through all twelve months, independent of the season |
| 2.3 | Double the productivity and incomes of small-scale food producers, in particular women | Kenaf production under off-take, measured under indicator 2.3.2 |
| 2.4 | Ensure sustainable and resilient food production systems | Enterprise leadership and climate-smart cultivation practice |
Because outcomes are recorded at the level of the individual producer, the programme is measurable against the official SDG 2 indicators and reportable through Nigeria's Voluntary National Reviews to the United Nations High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development. Reportability is what distinguishes a sovereign contribution to the 2030 Agenda from a declaration of alignment.
Le kénaf : une culture industrielle stratégique pour l'exportation hors pétrole
Kenaf is not a subsistence crop and should not be assessed as one. It is an internationally traded industrial fibre with demand from technically sophisticated manufacturing sectors, and a supply base that remains narrow relative to that demand.
Le calendrier de production : quatre fenêtres par an
Kenaf grown for fibre is harvested when its bast is mature, which for short-duration varieties in the tropics comes at about ninety days after planting. The programme parameter of four off-take cycles a year rests on that biology and on three practical arrangements. First, each acre is managed on a calendar in which the field is replanted as soon as a crop is cut, while retting, grading and baling of the harvested stems proceed off the field. Second, rain-fed production in the wet season is complemented by dry-season production under irrigation, drawing on fadama lowlands, river basin schemes and small-scale water systems. Third, varieties are certified for each agro-ecology by the Obafemi Awolowo University Institute for Agricultural Research and Training.
The calendar below illustrates the model for one acre. Months shift with latitude and rainfall, and the number of windows achievable at each site, and therefore its income baseline, is confirmed by soil and water assessment before enrolment. Site calendars are set out in the full programme dossier.
About March to May, rain-fed
Planting follows land preparation with the first reliable rains. Stems are cut at about ninety days for bast fibre, and the field is prepared again the same week.
Illustrative calendar. Each window ends in one off-take cycle of ₦400,000 per acre under arrangements concluded before planting.
L'ancrage scientifique : l'Institut de recherche et de formation agricoles
The Memorandum of Understanding between UNESCO REF and the Obafemi Awolowo University Institute for Agricultural Research and Training, Ibadan, is the scientific foundation of the kenaf pillar. The Institute is one of Nigeria's foremost agricultural research institutions, with a long record of work on kenaf, jute and allied fibre crops, on which it has convened international conferences. The Memorandum commits it to technical oversight, varietal certification, soil assessment protocols and extension advisory support for champions in all participating States.
Pourquoi le Nigeria dispose d'un avantage
Three conditions explain Nigeria's position. The first is land: the savannah and derived savannah belts of the Middle Belt, North West and North East offer extensive areas suited to the crop without displacing food production. The second is people: a young and growing population, of which the programme mobilises 12 million women. The third is institutional: a national research base, a Federal Secretariat and a market relationship established before production begins. Where most producing countries hold one or two of these conditions, the YWA architecture assembles all three.
Demande et applications industrielles
Kenaf bast fibre is used in technical textiles, rope, geotextiles and paper; its core fibre in composite panels, automotive insulation, absorbents and bioenergy. The European Union's Directive 2019/904 on single-use plastics and the shift towards bio-composite materials in automotive manufacturing have sustained demand for natural bast fibres in the European Union, Japan, the Republic of Korea, the United States and China. Industry market research values the global kenaf fibre market at about USD 0.8 billion in 2025, with projected growth of about 8 per cent a year to 2034, led by automotive, building and construction, textile, and pulp and paper applications. The market is specialised rather than vast, and that is precisely why quality, consistency and organised supply decide who captures it.
Organiser des millions de productrices en une base d'approvisionnement
International experience with fibre crops shows that the decisive constraints on smallholder participation are rarely agronomic. They lie in aggregation, grading, retting capacity and access to buyers who require consistent volumes. YWA addresses these constraints collectively. Champions are organised in production clusters, so that harvests are pooled, graded to common standards and presented to buyers in commercially meaningful quantities. The programme thus captures economies of scale otherwise available only to large estates.
For readers new to the crop, the films below show what kenaf is, how it is harvested and retted, how its fibre is processed and graded, and where it is used in industry, together with the research institution that supervises the programme's kenaf pillar.
SourcesMemorandum of Understanding between UNESCO REF and OAU IAR&T, Ibadan. FAO, publications on jute, kenaf and allied fibres. Directive (EU) 2019/904 of the European Parliament and of the Council. Market Intelo, Kenaf Fiber Market Research Report 2034 (base year 2025). Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Agribusiness, kenaf crop profile.
La diversification des recettes en devises du Nigeria par l'agriculture industrielle
Nigeria's foreign exchange challenge is not solely a question of monetary policy. It is a question of production. Kenaf organised at national scale is a production-based response with a measurable effect on non-oil earnings.
I. Une concentration structurelle du risque
The National Bureau of Statistics recorded crude oil at between roughly half and almost two thirds of Nigeria's merchandise exports in each quarter of 2025, while non-oil products accounted for about one sixth. That concentration ties the country's hard currency earnings to a commodity that is volatile in price and exposed to the global energy transition. Its consequences appear in the instability of the naira, in the periodic thinning of reserve buffers when oil prices fall, and in cycles of import compression that constrain industry. The International Monetary Fund has consistently placed export diversification among the reforms most relevant to Nigeria's external stability.
II. Le kénaf, produit d'exportation hors pétrole
Every tonne of graded fibre sold to an international buyer is a hard currency inflow independent of the oil price. Aggregated across certified producers and repeated across annual cycles, those transactions form a recurring and predictable stream of non-oil earnings, built on a crop for which Nigeria's agroclimatic conditions are well suited and its present share of world supply is negligible.
III. De la fibre brute à la transformation
The contribution does not end with raw fibre. As champions progress through enterprise leadership, the programme creates the conditions for processing within Nigeria: decorticated and graded fibre, composite panels, technical textiles and bio-based packaging, each of which earns more foreign exchange per tonne of crop than raw kenaf. The literature on export upgrading is consistent: countries that move from commodity export into processing capture a larger and more stable share of value.
IV. Les conditions du succès
Two conditions strengthen rather than weaken the case. The benefit depends on quality, because fibre must meet the grading standards of international buyers, which is why varietal certification and post-harvest training are built into the curriculum. And it depends on logistics, because aggregation, transport and export documentation must function at scale, which is why the off-take framework and the enterprise leadership pillar are designed together. A programme that names its conditions of success, and builds the institutions to meet them, is a more credible fiscal instrument than one that assumes them.
The instrument for non-oil reserve diversification does not need to be invented. It can be cultivated, graded and exported by Nigerian women.UNESCO REF policy position on non-oil foreign exchange
SourcesNational Bureau of Statistics, Foreign Trade in Goods Statistics, Q1 to Q4 2025 and H1 2025. International Monetary Fund, Nigeria Article IV Consultations. World Bank, Nigeria Development Update. Central Bank of Nigeria, Annual Reports.
Ce que l'État reçoit en retour : l'argument des finances publiques
A government weighing its support for YWA is entitled to ask a direct question: what does the public purse receive in return? The answer runs through six channels, each measurable, each reported through the programme's national dashboard and Nigeria's Voluntary National Reviews.
| Channel | Mechanism | Measured by |
|---|---|---|
| Formal tax base | Champions trade under written off-take contracts and registered enterprises, drawing income out of an economy in which 92.7 per cent of employment is informal | Enterprise registrations and contracted income |
| Foreign exchange | Graded kenaf fibre sold to international buyers earns hard currency independent of the oil price | Export volumes and receipts |
| Food prices | Hydroponic output reaches local markets in every month, moderating off-season price spikes | Local market supply and price records |
| Social protection | Regular income through the year reduces household reliance on emergency food and cash support | Household income records |
| Human capital | Household nutrition and stable income keep children in school, interrupting the chain from hunger to dropout | School attendance in champion households |
| Employment | 450,000 direct positions projected, with demand created for inputs, transport, processing and export services | Verified employment records |
| Cohort | Annual income generated | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| 1 champion | ₦1,600,000 | Four off-take cycles of ₦400,000 |
| 1,000 champions | ₦1.6 billion | One cultivation cluster |
| 10,000 champions | ₦16 billion | Several clusters across local government areas |
| 100,000 champions | ₦160 billion | An early stage of roll-out in one geopolitical zone |
Note on presentationThe figures are arithmetic on the programme's published income parameter and are presented as illustration, not forecast. They exclude hydroponic income, processing margins and the indirect effects of employment, each of which would raise the total.
La culture hydroponique : reconquérir l'agriculture pour le XXIe siècle
Hydroponics is the cultivation of plants in nutrient solutions without soil. It is among the most resource-efficient systems of commercial food production, and a principal method for high-value vegetables and herbs in the Netherlands, Japan, Canada, the United States and Israel.
The pillar was chosen because it fits three realities of Nigerian development. It operates in the urban and peri-urban settings where much of the young population lives. It produces food throughout the year, whatever the rainfall. And it presents agriculture, for the first time in the experience of most young Nigerians, as a technology-enabled and internationally recognised profession.
The programme does not treat the technology as self-executing. Hydroponic systems depend on water quality, a dependable supply of nutrient inputs and, in many configurations, power for circulation. YWA addresses these conditions through low-power and gravity-fed designs suited to local energy realities, through supply arrangements for inputs, and through training that weighs system maintenance as heavily as cultivation. Adoption is sustained only where the supporting institutions are built alongside the technology.
Enclosed systems are insulated from drought, flooding, pest migration and erratic rainfall. Year-round capacity is secured by design rather than by the weather.
Recirculating nutrient solution reduces water use by up to 90 per cent, an argument of national resource security in a country where water scarcity affects tens of millions.
Leafy vegetables, herbs and selected fruiting crops combine short cycles, high nutritional value and dependable urban demand, so that champions learn quickly and earn early.
Production that responds to data and rewards technical discipline is agriculture that resembles a career in the digital economy, and it changes who is willing to enter the sector.
SourcesFAO, guidance on soilless and controlled-environment production. World Vegetable Center, comparative studies on protected cultivation. BBC Stories; Channels Television; CGTN Africa.
Pourquoi les jeunes Nigérians ont quitté l'agriculture, et comment YWA les ramène
The departure of young Nigerians from agriculture was not a failure of ambition. It was a reasoned response to a sector that offered low income, heavy labour, no assured market and no professional standing.
Research across the CGIAR system and the International Food Policy Research Institute converges on three determinants of youth exit from African agriculture: the unpredictability of income, the low social status attached to farming, and the absence of technology-mediated pathways into enterprise. YWA addresses all three together.
The buyer is identified before the seed is planted and the price agreed before the cycle begins. For a generation raised in economic uncertainty, predictability is the decisive incentive.
Hydroponic production is managed through data and dashboards. Agriculture that resembles the digital economy changes who is willing to walk through the door.
Co-certification by the London School of Management, ISO/IEC compliance and alignment with UNESCO ISCED turn agricultural training into an internationally benchmarked professional qualification.
The emphasis on young women is analytically deliberate. Research on intra-household allocation consistently finds that income controlled by women is more likely to be spent on food, health and the education of children. A programme that raises the earnings of young women therefore produces returns that reach the next generation. YWA is at once an employment programme, a nutrition programme and an investment in human capital.
SourcesCGIAR research on youth in African agrifood systems, 2022 to 2023. International Food Policy Research Institute, studies on youth engagement in African agriculture. FAO, The State of Food and Agriculture 2010-11 and The Status of Women in Agrifood Systems 2023. National Bureau of Statistics, Nigeria Labour Force Survey.
La faim, la malnutrition infantile et l'enfant qui ne peut pas aller à l'école
Household food insecurity, child malnutrition and school exclusion are links in a single chain. Public policy has tended to act at its end, through school feeding and enrolment drives. YWA acts at its origin.
Women farm with less land, credit, inputs and extension support than men, and the FAO records a 24 per cent productivity gap on plots of equal size. The household's food and income fall short across the agricultural calendar.
The Cadre Harmonisé projects 36.3 million Nigerians in acute food insecurity during the 2026 lean season. For many farming households this is not an exceptional crisis but a recurring condition that deepens every dry season.
The Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey 2023-24 records stunting in 40 per cent of children under five. The Lancet series on maternal and child nutrition establishes that stunting is associated with lasting deficits in cognition, schooling and adult earnings.
Hungry children learn less and leave earlier; households under pressure draw children, girls first, into labour; and school costs are the first expenditure sacrificed. Nigeria counts 18.3 million children out of school.
A champion with a hydroponic system closes the seasonal food gap in her household. A champion with off-take income at regular intervals removes the volatility that forces the school-fee sacrifice. The programme does not claim to solve the problem of education. It removes two of its most powerful structural barriers: hunger and poverty.
The gendered dimension deserves emphasis. When households withdraw children from school, girls are most often withdrawn first and returned last, and the education of girls is among the best documented determinants of later outcomes in maternal health, child nutrition and household income. Stabilising the food and income of young women protects the schooling of their daughters, and through them the prospects of the following generation.
SourcesNational Population Commission and ICF, Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey 2023-24. CILSS and partners, Cadre Harmonisé, July 2026. UNICEF Nigeria and UBEC, out-of-school children estimates. The Lancet, Maternal and Child Nutrition Series (2013). FAO, The Status of Women in Agrifood Systems (2023).
12 millions de championnes réparties équitablement dans les 36 États et le Territoire de la capitale fédérale
The target is distributed in equal shares across the six geopolitical zones, so that no region experiences the programme as the property of another. Equality of allocation is a principle of national cohesion, and it builds the broad political ownership on which a national programme of this duration depends. Within each zone, allocation proceeds to the State and the local government area. Kenaf suits the extensive land of rural savannah districts; hydroponics suits dense urban settings. The programme therefore follows the distribution of Nigeria's young women rather than the distribution of existing infrastructure.
| Geopolitical zone | States | Zonal target | Average per State | Share |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| North West | 7 | 2,000,000 | 285,714 | 16.67% |
| North East | 6 | 2,000,000 | 333,333 | 16.67% |
| North Central | 6 and the FCT | 2,000,000 | 285,714 | 16.67% |
| South West | 6 | 2,000,000 | 333,333 | 16.67% |
| South East | 5 | 2,000,000 | 400,000 | 16.67% |
| South South | 6 | 2,000,000 | 333,333 | 16.67% |
| National total | 36 and the FCT | 12,000,000 | Equal by zone | 100% |
L'ossature des données
A geotagged national system records every training completion, harvest cycle, off-take transaction and income payment at the level of the local government area. State Governors receive quarterly dashboards for their States, and consolidated national reporting is provided to the Office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on the Sustainable Development Goals. The data generated by each cohort become the evidence that attracts the capital required for the next.
Objectifs de développement durable et Agenda 2063 de l'Union africaine
YWA addresses ten of the seventeen Sustainable Development Goals and the aspirations of the African Union's Agenda 2063 through one architecture of production, income, nutrition, gender equality and environmental stewardship. Each contribution is anchored in an official indicator, and because outcomes are recorded for every champion and her household, results aggregate directly against the global indicator framework.
Carte d'alignement mondial
The map reads each component of the programme against the ten Goals it addresses. A filled mark denotes a primary contribution, measured directly against an official indicator; an open mark denotes a contributory effect that the programme records but does not claim as its principal result.
| Programme component |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pillar I, hydroponics enterprise | Contributory effect to SDG 1 | Primary contribution to SDG 2 | Primary contribution to SDG 3 | Contributory effect to SDG 4 | Contributory effect to SDG 5 | Contributory effect to SDG 8 | No direct contribution | Primary contribution to SDG 12 | Contributory effect to SDG 13 | No direct contribution |
| Pillar II, agro-kenaf enterprise | Primary contribution to SDG 1 | Contributory effect to SDG 2 | No direct contribution | Contributory effect to SDG 4 | Primary contribution to SDG 5 | Primary contribution to SDG 8 | Contributory effect to SDG 10 | Primary contribution to SDG 12 | Primary contribution to SDG 13 | Contributory effect to SDG 17 |
| Pillar III, enterprise leadership | Contributory effect to SDG 1 | No direct contribution | No direct contribution | Primary contribution to SDG 4 | Primary contribution to SDG 5 | Primary contribution to SDG 8 | Primary contribution to SDG 10 | No direct contribution | No direct contribution | Contributory effect to SDG 17 |
| Off-take and blended finance | Primary contribution to SDG 1 | Contributory effect to SDG 2 | No direct contribution | No direct contribution | Contributory effect to SDG 5 | Primary contribution to SDG 8 | Contributory effect to SDG 10 | No direct contribution | No direct contribution | Primary contribution to SDG 17 |
| National Secretariat and governance | No direct contribution | No direct contribution | No direct contribution | No direct contribution | Contributory effect to SDG 5 | No direct contribution | Primary contribution to SDG 10 | No direct contribution | No direct contribution | Primary contribution to SDG 17 |
| Instrument | Provision | How YWA responds |
|---|---|---|
| 2SDG 2 | Target 2.3: double the productivity and incomes of small-scale food producers, in particular women | Off-take income for certified producers, measured under indicator 2.3.2 |
| 5SDG 5 | Target 5.a: equal rights of women to economic resources and to ownership and control over land | Assets, income and credentials for 12 million young women, tracked under indicator 5.a.1 |
| 8SDG 8 | Target 8.6: reduce the proportion of youth not in employment, education or training | A certified profession and 450,000 projected direct jobs, tracked under indicator 8.6.1 |
| 13SDG 13 | Target 13.1: strengthen resilience and adaptive capacity to climate-related hazards | Climate-independent food production and a high-biomass fibre crop |
| 17SDG 17 | Target 17.17: effective public, public-private and civil society partnerships | A governed consortium of fifteen institutions in four countries |
| AUAgenda 2063 | Aspirations 1 and 6: inclusive prosperity, and development driven by women and youth | A national model replicable across African Union member states |
| AUCAADP | Kampala CAADP Declaration (2025): the African agrifood systems strategy for 2026 to 2035 | Investment in women and youth from production to processing and trade |
| AUMaputo Protocol | Article 15, the right to food security; Article 19, sustainable development, including access to land and credit | Women's access to land, inputs, markets and finance at the centre of the programme |
| UNCEDAW | Article 14: the rights of rural women to training, credit, marketing and appropriate technology | Certified training, off-take markets and technology in every State |
| NGNigeria | National Gender Policy in Agriculture (2019); National Agricultural Technology and Innovation Policy 2022 to 2027; food security emergency of 13 July 2023 | A Federal Secretariat, with reporting to the Office of the SSAP-SDGs |
Parcours de formation et de certification : de l'inscription à la qualification internationale
The certification architecture serves one purpose: that a qualification earned by a young woman in Sokoto or Calabar should carry the same authority in London, Nairobi and New York. ISO/IEC compliance, alignment with UNESCO ISCED Level 4 and co-certification by the London School of Management secure that standard. In the economics of signalling, a credential is valuable to the extent that it is trusted by those who did not issue it; the architecture is built to earn that trust.
Orientation in English, Hausa, Igbo, Yoruba or Nigerian Pidgin, online and in person.
Modules aligned with UNESCO ISCED, covering hydroponics, kenaf and enterprise.
Supervised practical training in Nigeria, with an international practicum option in partner countries.
Capstone assessment, then an ISO/IEC compliant qualification co-certified in the United Kingdom, with a UNESCO REF credential.
Each stage is recorded on the national dashboard, so that the credential at the end is supported by a verifiable record of the competence it attests. Graduates proceed to agribusiness roles, their own ventures, membership of Women's Space USA, cross-border mentorship and production under off-take.
Des moyens de subsistance prévisibles, une prospérité mesurable : le modèle économique de YWA
The income model is transparent in its assumptions. The baseline of ₦1.6 million represents four off-take cycles on a single acre, each concluded in advance, on the managed production calendar described in Folio IX. It does not depend on speculative prices, and it excludes the separate income from hydroponic produce. Where the soil and water assessment of a site supports fewer windows, its baseline is set accordingly before enrolment. Income above the baseline grows as champions extend their area, improve their grading and progress into processing. Presenting the baseline conservatively, and naming the conditions on which further income depends, is the practice expected by development finance institutions and the standard to which the programme holds itself.
Fibre sold into international markets earns foreign exchange independent of the oil price, a recurring contribution to reserve diversification.
Beyond 450,000 projected direct positions, clusters create demand for input suppliers, transport, processing, quality control and export documentation.
Hydroponic output reaches local markets in every month of the year, moderating the off-season price spikes that fall hardest on the poorest households.
Income received at regular intervals through the year replaces a single uncertain harvest, the condition under which school fees, health costs and savings can be planned.
Comment les résultats seront mesurés et rendus publics : le cadre de résultats
Each result is tied to an official indicator, recorded at the level of the individual producer, and reported through the national dashboard, the State focal offices and Nigeria's Voluntary National Reviews to the United Nations High-Level Political Forum.
| Result | Indicator | National baseline | Programme commitment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Young women certified | Champions certified, by State and zone | None at launch in 2023 | 12,000,000 by 2030, 2,000,000 per zone |
| Women producers' income | SDG 2.3.2, average income of small-scale food producers | Women earn 82¢ per dollar earned by men | ₦1,600,000 per acre a year under off-take |
| Producer productivity | SDG 2.3.1, volume of production per labour unit | 24% gap between women and men | Gap narrowed among certified champions |
| Food security | SDG 2.1.2, prevalence of food insecurity | 36.3M in Phase 3 or worse, 2026 projection | All-year hydroponic supply in every participating State |
| Youth employment | SDG 8.6.1, youth not in employment, education or training | 15.6% | 450,000 direct positions |
| Non-oil exports | Agricultural share of merchandise exports | 6.8% | Graded kenaf fibre exports recorded each year |
Sources of baselinesCadre Harmonisé 2026; FAO, The Status of Women in Agrifood Systems, 2023; National Bureau of Statistics, Nigeria Labour Force Survey and Foreign Trade in Goods Statistics.
Une alliance gouvernée réunissant quatre pays au service du Nigeria
No single institution holds every competence that a programme of this scale requires. Each partner was selected for a specific and non-duplicable contribution, and each contribution is linked to defined programme functions and reviewed against delivery. The consortium operates as a coordinated system rather than a collection of endorsements, which allows new partners to join without diluting accountability.
| Institution | Role in the programme |
|---|---|
| UNESCO REF | Global oversight authority, through SIP-ALPHA |
| The Lichfield Partners and Associates | Strategic Advisory and Global Diplomatic Implementation Partner; fiduciary custodian |
| The Lichfield Academy | Curriculum development and training delivery |
| London School of Management, United Kingdom | Co-certification authority |
| Open Labs, United States | International collaboration and experiential capacity-building |
| Onida Agri and Aquaculture, Israel | Seedling production and training |
| OAU IAR&T, Ibadan | Research, varietal certification and technical oversight |
| Women's Space USA | Global networking and advocacy |
| NAOWA Nigeria | Community reach; its National President, Dr Safiyyah Hassan Shaibu, is Strategic Ambassador for UNESCO REF SIP-ALPHA |
| Bank of Agriculture | Development finance and credit facilitation |
| RightsFronts and Equipr Africa | Enterprise leadership training |
| Pulse Engineering and Consultancy | Capstone evaluation and testing |
| TSSDI | Strategic development partner |
| RSD Foundation | Development and community engagement partner |
| The Veronica Foundation | Development and advocacy partner |
Institutions that wish to join the consortium may apply through the Institutional Partnerships page.
Transparent, fiduciaire et axé sur les résultats : l'architecture de responsabilité de YWA
Every naira contributed is traceable, every output independently verifiable, and every claim to Government, donors and the public supported by documentary evidence that exists in real time rather than in retrospect.
Programme funds are held in dedicated accounts legally segregated from operational accounts, subject to KYC and AML protocols, with The Lichfield Partners and Associates as fiduciary custodian accountable to UNESCO REF and contributing institutions.
Funds are released only on verified milestones: enrolment, module completion, practical assessment, yield reporting and off-take records, each geotagged and time-stamped.
A geospatial dashboard aggregates enrolment, completion, yields, quality, payments and off-take performance by local government area, open to the SSAP-SDGs, State Governors and verified finance partners.
Monthly management reporting, quarterly external performance review by an independent monitoring firm, and annual financial audit under International Standards on Auditing, published to stakeholders.
Registre des risques
| Principal risk | Control | Responsible |
|---|---|---|
| Shortfall in yield or fibre quality | Technical supervision, varietal certification and post-harvest training | OAU IAR&T |
| Default by an off-take buyer | Diversified off-take arrangements and escrow | Programme management |
| Fewer production windows than planned at a site | Soil and water assessment before enrolment, irrigation support and site-specific calendars | OAU IAR&T and programme management |
| Delay in disbursement | Milestone-based release against verified triggers | Fiduciary custodian |
| Diversion of funds | Ring-fenced accounts and independent audit | Independent auditors |
| Harm to participants | Safeguarding obligations for every champion and cluster | National Secretariat |
Financement mixte
The finance architecture layers grants for training, concessional loans for infrastructure, Government-backed guarantees for off-take performance and off-take-backed escrow that gives commercial lenders first-loss protection. It includes UNESCO REF's Educational Financial Facility Scheme. The layering lowers the cost of capital for private participants, draws in investment that would not otherwise enter smallholder agriculture, and ensures that no single source of funding determines whether the target of 12 million is met.
Comment un gouvernement d'État participe au programme
YWA is national in scale and local in delivery. Each State Government that takes part does so through five steps, agreed with the National Secretariat and set out in a memorandum of participation.
A State office, usually the SDGs office or the Ministry of Agriculture, acts as liaison with the National Secretariat.
The State identifies land suitable for kenaf and sites for hydroponic units, for technical assessment.
Young women are nominated fairly across local government areas, against published eligibility criteria.
The State provides venues and local coordination for instruction and practical assessment.
The State receives dashboard access and contributes its data to national reporting.
Accéder au dossier complet du programme
This page is the public edition of the Young Women in Agriculture Programme. It sets out what is at stake for Nigeria, the evidence on which the programme rests, and how UNESCO REF proposes to act.
The full programme dossier remains with UNESCO REF. It contains the operational plan, unit costing, sequencing, baselines and targets, partnership and governance instruments, safeguarding provisions and the risk register, and it is shared with accredited governments and institutions so that each component of the programme can be designed, financed and delivered together with them.
Qui peut en faire la demande
The full dossier is made available to institutions with a mandate relevant to the programme: the Presidency, federal ministries, departments and agencies; State Governments and their agencies; diplomatic missions; multilateral and bilateral development institutions and the agencies of the United Nations system; development finance institutions; companies and investors; foundations; universities and research institutes; and civil society organisations.
La procédure d'accréditation
Réserve de discrétion
UNESCO REF reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to grant, defer or decline any request for access to the full programme dossier, and is not obliged to state the reasons for its decision. This reflects the confidential character of the dossier and the care with which it is shared, and implies no judgement on the standing of the requesting institution.
Ce que reçoivent les partenaires accrédités
Modalités de partenariat
Federal and State institutions adopt the programme or a component within their own plans and budgets, with land allocation, State enrolment and policy alignment, and UNESCO REF providing design, technical support and measurement.
Multilateral and bilateral partners co-finance or co-deliver components under shared results frameworks aligned with national priorities.
Development finance institutions and private investors participate in production clusters, processing and off-take escrow through prepared, vetted opportunities.
Universities, research institutes and professional bodies contribute research, evaluation, training and technical cooperation.
Questions fréquentes
The programmeLe programme
The Young Women in Agriculture Programme (YWA) is the agricultural pillar of SIP-ALPHA, the flagship programme of the Read and Earn Federation for UNESCO (UNESCO REF), and is endorsed by the Federal Government of Nigeria. Between 2023 and 2030 it will train and certify 12 million young women across the 36 States and the Federal Capital Territory in hydroponic food production, kenaf cultivation and agribusiness leadership, with the Maryam Babangida National Centre for Women Development as its National Secretariat.
Kenaf is an industrial fibre crop in demand in the European Union, Japan, the Republic of Korea, the United States and China for technical textiles, composites, packaging and bioenergy. Organised through off-take arrangements and sold to international buyers, it earns non-oil foreign exchange in a country where crude oil still accounted for between half and almost two thirds of merchandise exports in each quarter of 2025.
Short-duration kenaf varieties are harvested for fibre at about ninety days. Each acre is managed on a calendar of four production windows: rain-fed windows in the wet season and dry-season production under irrigation, with the field replanted as soon as a crop is cut while retting and grading proceed off the field. Varieties are certified for each agro-ecology by OAU IAR&T, and the number of windows at each site is confirmed by soil and water assessment before enrolment.
Hydroponic systems produce vegetables and herbs throughout the year, independent of rainfall, with up to 90 per cent less water than conventional irrigation. Champions secure household nutrition and sell surplus produce, addressing the household hunger and income instability that lie behind child stunting and school dropout.
YWA is designed as a partner to the institutions of the Federal Republic and of the States. It is anchored in a Federal Government Secretariat, aligned with the Renewed Hope Agenda and the national response to the food security emergency declared on 13 July 2023, and reports through the Office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on the Sustainable Development Goals, so that its results contribute to Nigeria's Voluntary National Reviews.
Participation and incomeParticipation et revenus
Off-take arrangements concluded before planting assure ₦400,000 per acre per cycle. Across four cycles a year, the baseline is ₦1.6 million per acre, with additional income from hydroponic produce, larger areas, better grading and processing.
Training is delivered through The Lichfield Academy. The qualification is co-certified by the London School of Management, United Kingdom, compliant with ISO/IEC standards, aligned with UNESCO ISCED Level 4, and carries a UNESCO REF credential.
Indicators are drawn from the SDG global indicator framework, including 2.3.2 on the income of small-scale food producers, 2.2.1 on stunting, 5.a.1 on women's rights over agricultural land and 8.6.1 on young people not in employment, education or training. Baselines are measured at enrolment, data are reported quarterly and disaggregated by sex, age, location and disability, and independent evaluations apply the OECD criteria of relevance, coherence, effectiveness, efficiency, impact and sustainability.
Finance, partnership and the dossierFinancement, partenariat et dossier
Through a blended architecture of participant contributions, grants, concessional loans, private capital and off-take escrow, including UNESCO REF's Educational Financial Facility Scheme. Funds are ring-fenced, released only on verified milestones, tracked on a geotagged national dashboard and independently audited under International Standards on Auditing.
The Lichfield Partners and Associates is the Strategic Advisory and Global Diplomatic Implementation Partner of SIP-ALPHA and the lead partner of UNESCO REF on the programme, serving also as fiduciary custodian.
The full dossier contains the operational plan, unit costing, zone, State and site sequencing, site production calendars, baselines and targets, off-take, partnership and governance instruments, the blended finance plan, safeguarding provisions and the risk register. Governments and their agencies, multilateral and bilateral institutions, development finance institutions, companies, foundations, universities and civil society organisations with a relevant mandate may request it through accreditation. UNESCO REF reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to grant, defer or decline any request without stating its reasons.
An institution may submit an expression of interest to UNESCO REF at [email protected], proceed through accreditation, receive the full dossier and a consultation with the programme team, and conclude a partnership agreement defining contributions, roles and reporting. Young women seeking enrolment may write to the same address.
Références choisies
The figures and analysis in this public edition rest on the official statistics of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the publications of the United Nations system and the peer-reviewed literature listed below. The programme's own research publication is available through UNESCO REF Peer-Reviewed Research.
Une invitation aux gouvernements et aux partenaires
UNESCO REF invites Federal and State Governments, diplomatic missions, development partners and finance institutions to take part in the Young Women in Agriculture Programme.
Engagement begins with an expression of interest and proceeds through accreditation, access to the full programme dossier and a partnership agreement, as set out in Folio XX. Each form of participation below corresponds to a defined role in the programme.
Policy alignment, guarantees for off-take performance and national reporting.
Land allocation, State enrolment and quarterly dashboards for each State.
Market access for fibre, technical exchange and practicum partnerships.
Concessional capital, escrow participation and co-financing of clusters.