04.20.2026
Power for Food Partnership launches at Africa Food Systems Forum
The Africa Food Systems Forum (31 August - 5 September) 2025 in Dakar brought together partners, practitioners, and policymakers from across Eastern Africa and beyond for the official launch of the Power for Food Partnership. Coordinated by SNV and supported by the IKEA Foundation, the Partnership unites a diverse coalition committed to one shared goal: making regenerative agriculture and renewable energy work together, and making that combination the everyday reality for smallholder farmers and agri-enterprises.
The launch was more than a formal announcement. Partners gathered around a commitment wall, sharing their visions for what resilient, renewable, and regenerative food systems can look like: a symbol of the collective dedication that underpins the Partnership. Discussions across the day reflected a growing consensus: the challenges facing Eastern African food systems are deeply connected, and the solutions must be too.
This partnership is an opportunity to think differently about how systems can work together, and who gets to shape them. In a time of increasing fragmentation, values-driven partnerships like this are a way to build the kind of enabling environment that long-term, inclusive and sustainable development actually requires.
Annemieke Beekmans, Director of Technical Expertise, SNV
This partnership is rooted in trust and shared purpose. It’s about standing alongside communities who are leading change from within. By connecting regenerative agriculture and renewable energy, we’re supporting locally driven innovations that respond to real needs and lived experiences. We’re proud to partner with SNV and local leaders in building systems that are resilient, inclusive, and shaped by those most affected.
Marilia Bezerra, Chief Programme Officer of IKEA Foundation
The Power for Food Partnership works across Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, and Ethiopia: four countries where the convergence of soil degradation, energy poverty, and climate change is most acutely felt, and where the conditions for integrated solutions are strongest. By coordinating action across partners, sharing evidence, and strengthening markets for both regenerative agriculture and productive renewable energy, the Partnership aims to build locally owned systems that endure.
This is the beginning of a movement. Read more about the launch in the SNV article "IKEA Foundation and SNV partner to strengthen food and energy systems in Africa". For the thinking behind the Partnership, explore the join article by SNV and the IKEA Foundation: "Five reasons to connect the dots for resilient food systems."
About the organisations
SNV is a global development partner, rooted in the African and Asian countries where it operates. With 60 years of experience and a team of approximately 1,600 people, it is SNV's mission to strengthen capacities and catalyse partnerships that transform agri-food, energy, and water systems to enable sustainable and more equitable lives for all. Learn more at www.snv.org.
The IKEA Foundation is a strategic philanthropy that focuses its grant-making efforts on tackling the two biggest threats to children’s futures: poverty and climate change. It currently grants more than €200 million per year to help improve family incomes and quality of life while protecting the planet from climate change. Since 2009, the IKEA Foundation has granted more than €1.5 billion to create a better future for children and their families. In 2021, the Board of the IKEA Foundation decided to make an additional €1 billion available over the next five years to accelerate the reduction of Greenhouse Gas emissions. Learn more at www.ikeafoundation.org.