H.E Ambassador Dr. Andrew Karanja was one of the panelist during the Smart City Business Brazil Congress event that tackled the topic “Brazil and Africa as a Powerful Solution in the fight against Global Hunger” on 3rd June 2025.
Other Panelists were H.E Lawrence Manzi, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Rwanda to Brazil; Ambassador Carlos Sérgio Sobral Duarte, Secretary for Africa and the Middle East, Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Mr. Antonio Martins, Director of the Africa Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Dr. Angela Gandra, Municipal Secretary for International Relations, City of São Paulo; Mr. Samo Tosatti, Head of International Affairs, Government of the State of São Paulo; Mr. Renato Solano, Head of International Desk, Planner Global Food Security Fund; Mr. Rui Mucaje, President of AfroChamber and Mr. Paulo Pan, Senior Business Advisor for Africa Global Food Security Fund as the moderator.
Food security is a core pillar of the Bottom-Up Economic Transformation Agenda (BETA) National Development Plan and the Kenya Vision 2030, all aligned to the international conventional agreements that Kenya is party to and therefore the discussions were very strategic geared towards aligning proposals for collaboration with Brazil.
The discussions were very timely noting that Kenya and Brazil had just signed the Landmark Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Crops and Livestock Development in May 2025 during the 2nd Brazil-Africa Dialogue on Food Security, Fight Against Hunger and Rural Development held in Brasilia.
It was highlighted that the MoU is the key instrument of cooperation between the two countries outlining key areas that will guide the framework for implementing projects and programs in crops and livestock development.
Ambassador Karanja made a call to action that there was need to partner with Brazil in the transfer of agricultural technologies including food processing for value addition, genetics technologies for increased animal productivity and addresing market access possibilities for agricultural produce in order to elevate the lives of many communities in Kenya and Brazil.
Other key proposed areas to boost agricultural cooperation with Brazil include financing, logistics and foreign direct investments in Kenya to leverage on the incentives available in the Special Economic Zones (SEZs) and the Export Processing Zones (EPZs).
