Tarisai Kanyepi is a Senior Programme Associate at UNU‑VIE, specializing in the intersection of green entrepreneurship, innovation and digitalization. Her work centers on enabling youth and women to become climate solution leaders and drivers of inclusive climate action.
Tarisai Kanyepi is a Senior Programme Associate in the Pan-African Cooperation and Educational Technologies (PACET) division at UNU-VIE. Her work focuses on the intersection of green entrepreneurship, innovation and digitalization in Africa.
She currently leads the Greenovations project, which supports young entrepreneurs and leaders – particularly women – in transforming innovative climate solutions into sustainable business ventures. The project addresses barriers to climate finance for young green entrepreneurs in Africa and Latin America by providing funding, mentorship and practical skills training. Tarisai also leads the co-design of training modules for entrepreneurs, and supports the scaling of green innovators and entrepreneurs across the continent.
In addition to her work on Greenovations, Tarisai manages the project Co-developing Innovations for Sustainable Land Management in West African Smallholder Farming Systems (COINS). Through this initiative, she leads research and the co-development of accessible learning materials on sustainable agricultural practices for smallholder farmers, including communities with literacy limitations.
Before joining UNU-VIE, Tarisai was a water policy research intern at WASCAL, and previously interned at the National Agricultural Research Institute (NARI) in The Gambia. Her research interests include the green economy, entrepreneurship, green technologies, climate adaptation, and water and agricultural policy.
She holds an MSc in Water Policy from the Pan-African University Institute of Water and Energy Sciences (PAUWES) and a BSc in Geography and Environmental Studies from Zimbabwe Open University.