This INFoCAT booklet is a summary report that gives an overview of the Innovate for Clean Agricultural Technologies(INFoCAT) project, from its inception to end, where 6 young agritech innovators across Sub-Saharan Africa( Ghana, Senegal and Côte d'Ivoire) were awarded with climate finance grants to scale up their innovations.
The Innovate for Clean Agricultural Technologies (INFoCAT) project was implemented from 2023 to 2025 in Ghana, Senegal, and Côte d’Ivoire. This initiative was designed to address persistent barriers facing women and youth at the intersection of agriculture, energy, and technology.
These include limited entrepreneurship opportunities, unfavourable policy environments for women-led MSMEs, restricted access to finance, inadequate skills development and mentorship, and under-representation of women and youth in decision-making roles.
Recognising the close link between energy access and food systems transformation, INFoCAT strategically targeted systemic challenges in rural crop production and processing. These include the impacts of climate change, limited access to appropriate technologies, heavy physical labour and related health risks, high energy costs, and continued dependence on fossil fuel-powered equipment. By promoting clean, small-scale agricultural technologies, the project aimed to reduce drudgery, improve productivity, strengthen resilience, create jobs, and advance gender equality.
The report also covers the number of agritech innovations supported, capacity and skills trainings provided, the challenges, achievements, profiles of winning innovators impacts of the project, policy and other recommendations.
INFoCAT is an initiative sponsored by IDRC under the Clean Energy for Development: A Call for Action programme and is partnered by Enda Energie and UNU INRA.
Suggested citation: Report: Promoting Women and Youth-Led Clean Agritech Innovations in Africa : UNU-INRA, 2026.
