Proscovia Alando, founder of Samaky Hub, a for-profit social enterprise in Kenya dedicated to empowering women and youth and aquaculture.
What is your vision of a sustainable aquatic food systems?
After studying in the UK, my initial goal was to establish a fish farming enterprise. Africa has a lot of resources, yet hunger and poverty remain pressing challenges. I come from a fishing community and thought I would pursue sustainable fish farming. However, as a young woman, starting my enterprise proved difficult due to cultural and financial barriers.
Despite these challenges, I continued sharing my vision, discussing the opportunities in fish farming, and highlighting the obstacles I faced. Soon, I began receiving a lot of inquiries from diverse groups, which led me to start a consulting company. Today, I collaborate with multiple stakeholders to make sustainable and profitable fish farming more accessible for women and youth.
There is a need for capacity building and education in fish farming – understanding how to farm fish effectively while preserving the environment is essential. There is also a need to understand that it's a business. As a leader of this business, I believe it is possible to be profitable and work for a good cause. What is needed is capacity building and funding opportunities.
These multistakeholder networks. How do you think they should be organized and what challenges do you see?
It's very important for networks to be inclusive, ensuring that the voices of women and youth are heard and valued. To give them opportunities to speak and share their perspectives. How can we involve them in decision-making? When decisions directly impact them, are they involved in that decision? I've been very lucky to get opportunities to be part of panel discussions and critical dialogues that shape the participation of women and youth in aquaculture, and so should others.
Have you had real impact so far in policymaking?
Yes, I have. In 2021, I was selected as part of the inaugural cohort of the African Food Fellowship, under the Aquaculture Impact Area. The Fellowship brings together emerging leaders across various sectors - including aquaculture, horticulture, and agri-finance - who are committed to transforming Africa’s food systems through leadership, innovation, and collaboration.
As the youth representative from the private sector, I worked closely with a diverse group of stakeholders, including government officials, private sector leaders, and development actors, to ensure that policy reforms meaningfully addressed the needs of women and youth in Kenya’s aquaculture sector. Our team developed actionable policy recommendations focused on strengthening the representation and participation of women and youth, which we shared with relevant government bodies.
A key factor in the success of this initiative was the presence of a government representative within the Fellowship itself, creating a direct link between our work and policymakers. This experience reinforced my belief in the power of multi-stakeholder engagement and collaborative leadership to drive inclusive, systemic policy change.
I can share another example. Towards the end of 2024, the Kenyan government introduced two new licensing fees affecting the fisheries and aquaculture sector:
These fees posed a serious risk to the livelihoods of small-scale fishers and aquaculture farmers, as they were introduced without proper stakeholder engagement and disproportionately burdened smallholders.
As an active member of the Lake Victoria Aquaculture (LVA) Association, I was involved in efforts to challenge these policies. The association filed a legal petition against the government, advocating for the rights and sustainability of smallholder fishers and farmers. This action led to the formation of a government-led task force to engage stakeholders and collaboratively review the regulations.
We are optimistic that by June 2025, revised, fairer licensing guidelines will be introduced that support sector growth while safeguarding small-scale producers' interests.
What are the main challenges you're facing?
One of the main challenges I’m facing is capacity limitation. There is growing interest from a diverse range of stakeholders, - private sector actors, international organizations, NGO’s etc - to collaborate with us. However, scaling to meet this demand while maintaining quality and meaningful impact is stretching our current resources. I recognize the need to refine our business model and strengthen our internal capacity to sustainably support more communities and amplify positive outcomes.
Another key challenge is the data gap. While various institutions collect data, discrepancies often exist, and the realities of smallholder fish farmers, particularly women and youth, are not always accurately represented. Reliable, localized, and farmer-driven data is essential to inform policy, guide investments, and ensure interventions are effective. One of my goals is to build systems that can collect, validate, and share actionable data and real stories, ensuring decisions reflect actual conditions on the ground. An important part of this is also sharing stories from African aquaculture with a global audience. Through platforms like The Fish Site, I aim to highlight the status, challenges, and opportunities within African aquaculture, giving visibility to smallholder farmers and helping shift perceptions internationally.
Additionally, ensuring that the voices and needs of women and youth remain central to these efforts is critical. Empowering them through capacity building, market access, and value chain inclusion continues to be a key priority.
Ultimately, my vision is to build stronger systems and partnerships that enable us to scale sustainably, empower more women and youth, and contribute to long-term, positive change.
The interview was made during the Global Science-Policy Lab on Aquatic Food Systems in Brussels 3-4 March 2025 (SASi-SPi project funded by the European Union).