Scaling for Inclusion: A Conversation with Inga Jacobs-Mata, 2025 Top Agri-food Pioneer

by Maherin Ahmed

In celebration of its 39th anniversary, the World Food Prize Foundation has announced the 2025 cohort of Top Agri-food Pioneers (TAP)—39 visionary leaders transforming agriculture and food security worldwide. Among them is Dr. Inga Jacobs-Mata, Deputy Director of the CGIAR Scaling for Impact (S4I) program and Director of Water, Growth and Inclusion at the International Water Management Institute (IWMI).

Through her leadership in the Ukama Ustawi Initiative, which means ‘partnerships for prosperity,’ Inga has helped shape a new paradigm for agricultural innovation—one rooted in co-creation, local ownership, and evidence-based scaling. From empowering African farmers to influencing policy reform across East and Southern Africa, her work demonstrates how science can drive equitable growth and climate resilience.
 

We sat down with Dr. Jacobs-Mata to learn more about her journey, her philosophy on inclusive innovation scaling, and her vision for the future of food systems transformation. 

1. Inga, congratulations on being named one of the 2025 Top Agri-Pioneers. What does this recognition mean to you personally, and what message do you hope it sends to women and young professionals working in agrifood systems? 

It’s a profound affirmation that inclusive, locally led science can shift whole systems. Personally, it honors the communities and partners who co-create with us—farmers, youth, women’s groups, private enterprises, and public institutions. To women and young professionals, my message is simple: claim your seat and build a bigger table. Technical excellence matters, but so do empathy, courage, and coalition-building. Your lived experience is not a “soft skill”; it’s a strategic asset for transforming food systems. 

2. You’ve played a key role in shaping the Ukama Ustawi Initiative, which is now a flagship model for inclusive innovation. What inspired its creation, and how has it changed the way agricultural research is designed and delivered in Africa? 

 Ukama Ustawi is a deliberate, “made-up” combination of two African languages: from Shona, Ukama—humanity’s relatedness to each other and to our biophysical world; and from Kiswahili, Ustawi—prosperity and well-being. The name captured the essence of our initiative: to grow and develop together. We tried to honor that principle in practice, working with 150+ partners across 11 countries. 

The initiative was born from listening to farmers describe climate risk, market volatility, and policy bottlenecks as a single, intertwined problem. We reoriented research from “technology push” to “problem-pull,” co-designing solutions with national programs, private actors, and communities across East and Southern Africa. That shift changed everything: multidisciplinary teams, shared ownership of evidence, and delivery pathways planned from day one—so innovations don’t stall at pilot; they scale with purpose. 

 3. Scaling locally grounded innovations is central to your work. How do you balance the need for scientific rigor with the realities of local culture, politics, and lived experience on the ground? 

 By treating rigor and relevance as inseparable. We pair strong methods—clear theories of change, power-aware stakeholder mapping, costed scaling pathways—with participatory diagnostics that surface social norms, incentives, and risks. Evidence is iterated in short learning loops: test, apply scale, learn, adapt – and repeat. But if innovations can’t survive a village meeting, a cabinet briefing, and a lender’s due diligence, they’re not ready. 

 4. One of your signature approaches is co-creation with farmers, private sector actors, and policymakers. Can you share an example where this approach led to tangible, transformative results for a community or region? 

A vivid example is the CGIAR Food Systems Accelerator (CFSA) inside Ukama Ustawi—where science-led co-creation with the private sector, farmer collectors, and enablers really clicked. Working with Forest Africa (Zambia) in Cohort 1, our teams paired research-grade technical assistance (on climate-smart sourcing, product development, and investment readiness) with catalytic, de-risking grants and investor access. That partnership helped Forest Africa prototype what may be Zambia’s first vegan, lactose-free baobab “nut” milk—building on a value chain that engages rural community collectors and supports sustainable use of indigenous wild fruits. CGSpace+2Agrinnovators+2 

CFSA’s design—coaching + science-backed technical assistance + curated pitch events—was intentional: bring farmers’ realities, SME execution, and policy/permit considerations into one scaling pathway, not three separate conversations. It’s why the program convened investors and partners at pitch days and bootcamps, giving SMEs like Forest Africa direct routes to capital while aligning with local governance for sustainable forest product use. 

 In practice, Cohort 1 concluded with grant awards to every SME (top three at US$20k / US$18k / US$12k, and US$10k to the remaining seven) and generated 14 live connections between SMEs and capital providers—evidence that technical assistance plus small catalytic grants can open investor pipelines. Cohort 2 further expanded deal flow: a pitch day convened 59 participants, including 11 impact investors, 2 financial institutions, and 14 Accelerator Partners; and our Kenya bootcamp convened 40 SMEs with investors and experts to sharpen both science and financing asks.  

Most importantly, the CFSA helped secure over US$14 million in private investments—a signal that scientific and evidence-based expertise, delivered hand-in-hand with SMEs, can catalyze real capital at scale. 

 5. You often talk about ‘intentional and equitable scaling.’ What does that look like in practice, and how does the Scaling for Impact (S4I) program help researchers and partners achieve it? 

It means scaling the right things, with the right people, in the right places—so benefits accrue to those historically excluded. In practice: problem-driven prioritization, readiness and risk assessments, inclusive business models, safeguards, and real-time learning. S4I supports teams to build these muscles—embedding scaling plans early, stress-testing pathways with partners and financiers, and tracking who benefits (and who might be harmed) so we correct course before inequities widen. 

 6. Water governance and trade policies are major levers in transforming food systems. How have you used evidence and partnerships to influence these policy spaces across Africa? 

We start with decision-grade evidence—scenario analysis, distributional impacts, and feasibility under climate uncertainty—then convene the right coalition: ministries, basin authorities, farmer reps, private sector, and regional bodies. Translating science into choices (and trade-offs) builds trust. That has helped inform reforms on small-scale irrigation, smart subsidies, cross-border staple trade, and climate-resilient water allocation. The through-line is partnership: co-produced analytics, locally relevant dialogue, and practical policy instruments that fit administrative realities. 

 7. Beyond the technical work, you’re known for building bridges—between research and policy, science and society. What skills or mindsets do you believe are most critical for future leaders who want to create lasting impact? 

Future bridge-builders need mindsets you can see in daily practice. Here’s what that looks like on Monday morning: 

Humility with backbone.
Practice: start every design sprint with a farmer/investor/policymaker pre-mortem (“how could this fail?”), publish what didn’t work, and hold the line on safeguards even when funding is tempting. Define 3–5 non-negotiables (e.g., equity, water integrity) and say no when they’re at risk. 

Systems literacy.
Practice: map who wins, who pays, who decides (incentives, power, timing). Align solutions to budget cycles, input seasons, and permit windows. Pair a 1-page adoption pathway (channels, actors, risks) with simple unit economics so scale is financially real, not aspirational. 

Bias for learning.
Practice: work in short learning loops with explicit stop/go criteria, tiny A/B tests (advisory messages, pricing, delivery), and short “what we changed and why” memos. Shift from perfect pilots to costed prototypes that can be adapted fast. 

Tri-lingual communication (field, finance, policy).
Practice: for every decision, prepare a three-register brief: (1) farmer outcomes and risks, (2) cash flows and payback, (3) regulatory fit and trade-offs. In meetings, let each world speak first in its own terms; your job is to stitch the story so choices are actionable. 

Coalition craft with care.
Practice: build a minimum viable coalition (the few actors necessary for movement) and a clear escalation path. Create psychological safety in the team; invite a rotating “red team” to surface unintended harms (gender, water, land) before they scale. 

These might seem cliche but they aren’t slogans—they’re habits. Leaders who practice them consistently can translate science into choices, choices into coalitions, and coalitions into durable impact. 

8. Looking ahead, what excites you most about the next frontier of food systems transformation? Where do you see the greatest opportunity for African innovation to lead the global conversation? 

 What excites me is the move from isolated pilots to risk-aware, equity-first integration—linking water, seed, soil health, markets, and policy so resilience scales faster than climate risk. Africa can lead on water-smart intensification, regenerative practices that pay, digital public goods for advisory and finance, and regional trade that buffers shocks—turning fragmented efforts into a federated, continental learning system. 

A powerful additional frontier is youth as disruptors. Africa’s young innovators are designing agri-enterprises that are digital, circular, culturally resonant, and investment-ready—from climate services and regenerative inputs to last-mile logistics and nutritious brands. They are not “beneficiaries”; they are builders. 

• A question posed at the World Food Prize Borlaug Dialogues this week was whether youth can end world hunger. And I believe they can bend the curve if we clear the roadblocks:
  Assets: fair access to land and water rights. 

• Capital: risk-tolerant finance (blended capital, revenue-based financing, prize-to-procurement pathways). 

• Skills: TVET + science + entrepreneurship, with paid apprenticeships on real ventures. 

• Markets: youth-friendly procurement and regional trade that rewards nutritious, climate-smart products. 

• Voice: seats at policy tables and in investment committees. 

Give youth the tools and a fair shot, and they won’t just join the agrifood system—they’ll rewrite it. 

9. Finally, on a personal note—what keeps you inspired and grounded in this demanding field? 

 People. A farmer who tries something new and then teaches her neighbor. A policy counterpart who calls back because the evidence helped them govern better. A young scientist who realizes their work can move markets and mindsets. A guiding principle for me: go far by going together, and leave institutions stronger than you found them. That is how impact endures.