Meet the innovators transforming food systems in South Sudan

Cissy Apio Mario's business in South Sudan produces locally sourced cooking oil in a country that has traditionally imported the product (Photo: WFP/Machrine Birungi)

Every harvest season, Cissy Apio Mario saw the same thing happen. 

She and countless other South Sudanese farmers watched the oilseed crops they worked hard to produce go unsold or to waste, even as the country remained heavily dependent on imported cooking oil.

To her, the paradox made little sense. Why import a product that could be produced locally?

That changed in 2024, when Mario’s women-led food-processing business, Africa Cornerstone, began sourcing and processing oilseeds domestically. What started as a small Juba-based operation now connects 90 farmers to markets, reflecting a broader effort to strengthen food security and build more resilient food systems in South Sudan.

“Lasting solutions to hunger begin with strong local food systems. By investing in local entrepreneurs, we are helping build a more resilient and self-reliant future.” – Mutinta Chimuka, WFP Country Director in South Sudan

For decades, the country’s story of hunger has largely been told through emergency assistance. But today, a World Food Programme (WFP) initiative is seeing entrepreneurs smash that legacy, as they turn raw ingredients like oilseeds, sorghum, millet and eggs into thriving businesses that improve nutrition, create jobs and strengthen local food systems.

“Lasting solutions to hunger begin with strong local food systems,” says Mutinta Chimuka, WFP Country Director in South Sudan. “By investing in local entrepreneurs, we are helping build a more resilient and self-reliant future.”

Igniting food security solutions

WFP'S IGNITE initiative empowers local entrepreneurs and startups in East Africa to address food insecurity and transform local food systems. Photo: WFP

Mario’s business counts among 11 selected by WFP’s Nairobi-based IGNITE Innovation Hub, an East Africa-wide initiative empowering local entrepreneurs, startups, and small-and-medium enterprises to tackle food insecurity, strengthen South Sudan food systems and support food security in the country and across East Africa.

Across the region, IGNITE challenges have supported more than 100 enterprises with over US$2 million in grants, catalysing more than US$20 million in impact investment. Together, they are turning ideas born in their communities into practical solutions to build food security. 

The initiative goes beyond financing, by also providing training, mentorship and market access that helps promising ideas become sustainable enterprises. The 11 businesses selected across five South Sudanese states received grants and business support in 2025 worth a combined US$544,000 – helping to fuel a new generation of food systems innovators.

“The innovations emerging from small and medium enterprises show how local solutions can address national challenges,” says Tito Awen Bol, Director for Food Security Analysis at South Sudan’s Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security.

Mario's business now works with 90 South Sudanese farmers to process oilseeds like these. Photo: WFP

When Mario launched Africa Cornerstone in South Sudan's capital in 2024, her oil production was entirely manual, limited to 10 to 20 litres a week from crops sourced from just 15 farmers. After successfully applying for an IGNITE grant a year ago, she mechanized her processing, received business support and increased her production to as much as 120 litres weekly. 

The company now works with 90 oilseed farmers and plans to expand to 150. Training through IGNITE also strengthened her financial management, marketing and digital skills.

“Before, we didn't even have a website,” she says. “Now we're receiving enquiries outside Africa from people interested in visiting and learning about our work.”

Yet Mario measures success not only in oil production, but in the lives she changes. ”Some of the women I employed were struggling to survive,“ she says. ”Today, some have gone back to university and are paying their own tuition.“

Cooking up new opportunities

Juba-based bakery owner Helen Foni (L) sees how paychecks are empowering women, who account for 80 percent of her staff. Photo: WFP/Machrine Birungi

The smell of freshly baked bread drifts through the production room at popular Juba bakery Lulu Bakes.

Workers prepare loaves made from locally grown sorghum and millet – nutritious grains that have long been staples for South Sudanese families but are seldom used in commercial food production. For founder Helen Foni, the business began in 2023 with two concerns: poor nutrition and unemployment.

”Diabetes is affecting many people,“ she says. ”That inspired me to produce healthier food” using grains experts say can help manage the condition. 

Like Mario, Foni wanted to create opportunities for women – notably single mothers and girls who had dropped out of school. Her bakery also offered a key link in the food systems chain, as a reliable buyer for local producers. 

Foni's bakery uses healthy ingredients like locally grown sorghum and millet. Photo: WFP/Machrine Birungi

Growing the business, however, proved difficult. Ageing equipment regularly broke down, disrupting production and often requiring technicians from neighbouring Uganda to repair it. 

A US$25,000 IGNITE grant allowed Lulu Bakes to purchase industrial baking and juice-processing machinery that significantly increased productivity, helping the business meet growing demand. Foni’s workforce has since doubled from an initial 2 to 14 employees, with women accounting for 80 percent of staff.

She also sees how the bakery’s paychecks can be empowering. “When women earn their own income, they can educate their children and support their families,” says Foni, who hopes to establish a skills training centre so other women can launch businesses of their own. “That is the change I want to see.”

Cracking the protein gap

Through his poultry business, Alfred John Galeo hopes to tackle malnutrition in South Sudan by supplying locally produced, protein-rich eggs. Photo: WFP/Machrine Birungi

Yet another Juba-based entrepreneur, Alfred John Galeo, is enacting change in a different way: through eggs. 

Every day, the veterinary science student watched trucks of eggs arriving from Uganda. But with the imports too expensive for the poorest South Sudanese, many local children lacked access to this basic and rich protein source. 

“If you walk through some communities, you can see the effects of malnutrition,” he says of a condition that affects more than 2 million young South Sudanese children. “Some of these cases can be prevented when families have access to affordable eggs.”

Determined to change that reality, Galeo and his partners established Dream Farm Agribusiness Cooperative in 2025. Starting with around 500 birds and limited infrastructure, the business struggled to meet growing demand. Water supplies were unreliable, disease outbreaks posed constant risks. 

Dream Farm has expanded its business thanks to a WFP IGNITE grant. Photo: WFP/Machrine Birungi

But later last year, the partners secured a US$40,000 WFP IGNITE grant. They used the money to expand poultry housing, establish vaccine storage facilities, strengthen protection against disease outbreaks, install a reliable water system and purchase 1,500 additional chicks. For Galeo, however, IGNITE’s training offered one of the most valuable investments.

“Before this, we didn't really understand poultry farming,” he says. "The training taught us about disease management, biosecurity and proper poultry practices.”

Today, Dream Farm supplies between 600 to 720 eggs daily to markets across Juba. The initial two-person operation now employs six staff and, for a fraction of the price, provides families with a locally produced, affordable alternative to imported eggs.

“Food insecurity is not only a Juba problem,” Galeo says. “It is a national challenge. If we can expand, we can create jobs and help improve nutrition across the country.”

WFP's IGNITE initiative is funded by Denmark and Germany through KfW. 

Learn more about WFP's work to improve food security and nutrition in South Sudan.

Source: https://www.wfp.org/stories/meet-innovators-transforming-food-systems-south-sudan