Nma Agada Speaks at Graft Africa's Common Grounds Forum at DC Climate Week (2026)
- Nma of Africa
- Apr 25
- 2 min read
The excerpt you just listened to conveys my final words at the second edition of Graft Africa's Common Grounds Forum, where investors, researchers, agricultural and food systems practitioners, and institutional leaders in global development convened to discuss the urgent matter of unlocking diaspora-linked capital and non-financial capabilities to transform Africa's agricultural and food systems.
As the founder of Graft Africa, leading strategy and programs across four domains of change, this particular event was monumental: apart from being our first in-person installment of the forum, the theme explored sits right at the center of two of our domains of change - knowledge aggregation and dissemination, and partnership acceleration. Moreover, the caliber of partnerships we secured to bring this forum to DC Climate Week was a nod to the role that collaborative institutional thought and action must play in mobilizing the diaspora to deploy its capabilities into Africa's agri-food systems and adjacent sectors.
The key question was what it would take to mobilize alternative capital and diaspora participation in fuller terms: patient and catalytic forms of finance, diaspora angel and syndicate participation, market-facing capital for infrastructure and value-chain businesses, and the broader set of non-financial assets that often determine whether capital becomes usable at all. Those assets include knowledge, technical skills, professional and institutional networks, access to buyers and standards regimes, and the long-term relationship infrastructure through which trust, coordination, and opportunity are sustained.
As a member of the African Diaspora myself, who straddles global development scholarship and practice, I was elated that the conversation unraveled with precision, nuance, and, surprisingly, humor and heart, revealing insights and questions with deep personal and system-level implications. A few things stayed with me:
That trust, not capital, is the binding constraint on the deployment of diaspora-linked capabilities in Africa.
The need to preface the deployment of capital or the implementation of diaspora-driven interventions with a deep understanding of diaspora segments, interests, needs, resources, and motivations, and of how they are situated within local imperatives.
The need for effective and efficient policy reforms and government interventions that enable the aggregation, adoption & adaptation of technology and dynamic inputs, and investment in adjacent sectors, such as energy, manufacturing, transportation, pharmaceuticals, and cosmetics.
There needs to be concerted efforts by multiple actors to derisk the landscape and unlock more private and institutional capital - and this can be done by reconfiguring funding mechanisms to absorb first losses, integrating technology at the right nodes, etc.
Transnational organizations and trusted actors across the continent and diaspora must create convenings and strong communication channels to amplify efforts, demonstrate the possibilities that exist, and instantiate momentum for changemaking, while bridging knowledge gaps and creating opportunities to pool resources.
The breadth and depth of insights that emerged from the forum, as well as personal stories that can serve as maps for us, are inexhaustible in this post. For fuller, experiential insight into the forum, watch the complete video below:
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