Heifer International engaged Lantern Comitas in early 2023 to raise the profile of Heifer Africa’s work—particularly with decision makers, donors, influencers and young people. The multi-year programme has generated more than 1,000 news reports, positioned Heifer Africa as a thought leader in smallholder agritech, and expanded by late 2024 into website, newsletter and digital agency work.
The Facts
Headline Results
Heifer International has been a trusted partner of African farmers for more than 40 years. The NGO supports smallholder farmers across Africa through skill and knowledge development, innovation around agritech, and access to innovative finance—helping farmers improve their incomes, resilience and stability.
Heifer Africa, the organisation’s Africa programmes division, is led at senior level by Adesuwa Ifedi, Senior Vice President for Africa Programs, supported by a team including Dayo Aduroja (Youth and Innovation Lead, Africa) and country directors across the continent. The organisation’s flagship youth-and-technology programme—the AYuTe Africa Challenge (Agriculture, Youth and Technology), established in 2021—has become one of Africa’s most ambitious agriculture competitions, identifying and scaling youth-led agritech innovations that serve smallholder farmers.
Heifer International approached Lantern Comitas in early 2023 to raise the profile of its operations across Africa and increase awareness among key stakeholders. Heifer Africa wanted to grow its visibility with four specific audiences: decision makers (policymakers, ministries of agriculture, development partners), donors (institutional and private funders supporting Africa’s smallholder agriculture), influencers (the voices shaping the African agritech conversation), and young people—the generation Heifer Africa needs to attract back into agriculture if the continent’s food systems are to transform.
The brief had to operate at scale. Heifer Africa runs across multiple African countries—Kenya, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Uganda, Nigeria and beyond—and its agritech work intersects with policy, donor relations, youth engagement, the climate-smart agriculture agenda, and the rapidly expanding African agritech ecosystem of more than 2,000 startups currently operating across the continent. The communications had to be coherent across that geography and audience set without losing the on-the-ground specificity Heifer’s work depends on.
Lantern Comitas built a comprehensive communications strategy for Heifer Africa covering media coverage, the growing use of digital channels, and event presence across Africa. The brief was sustained presence—not one-off announcements—designed to establish Heifer Africa as a recognised authority on smallholder agritech, climate-smart agriculture, and youth-in-agriculture conversations.
Lantern Comitas supported Heifer’s communications around its own annual flagship event—the AYuTe Africa Challenge and AYuTe NextGen—including the 2025 edition held at Speke Resort, Munyonyo, Uganda in June 2025 under the theme “AgTech Generation Rising”. The annual competition awards cash grants to young agritech innovators reimagining smallholder farming across Africa—past winners include ThriveAgric in Nigeria (now connecting over 500,000 smallholder farmers), DigiCow in Kenya and Brastorne in Botswana, alongside regional cohorts in Tanzania and Ethiopia.
Beyond AYuTe, Lantern Comitas supported Heifer Africa’s comms presence at three major external gatherings—the African Food Systems Forum in Dar es Salaam (Tanzania) and Kigali (Rwanda), AFSIC: Investing in Africa in London, and AWIEF (African Women Innovation and Entrepreneurship Forum) in Cape Town. These platforms are where the African policy, finance and entrepreneurship audiences Heifer Africa needs to reach actually convene. Being present at all of them with a coherent narrative was the difference between sporadic visibility and sustained authority.
The programme also included the launch of new social media channels for Heifer Africa and sustained thought leadership content positioning the organisation as an authority on smallholder agritech. Throughout, Lantern Comitas worked alongside the Heifer International senior team—including Adesuwa Ifedi (Senior Vice President, Africa Programs) and Dayo Aduroja (Youth and Innovation Lead, Africa)—to ensure the public voice reflected the organisation’s substantive programmatic work.
Over the last two years, Lantern Comitas has built a comprehensive communications strategy for Heifer Africa that includes media coverage, growing use of digital channels and event presence at both Heifer’s own flagship event and major external African convening platforms. The programme has generated more than 1,000 news reports, established Heifer Africa as a recognised thought leader, and expanded materially in scope.
More than 1,000 news reports generated across the engagement window—coverage of Heifer Africa’s smallholder agritech work spanning international, continental and country-level African media. Heifer’s experts and senior leaders are now used regularly to comment on the African agritech conversation; the AYuTe Africa Challenge and NextGen programme have been carried into mainstream African media including The Guardian Tanzania and the pan-African allAfrica platform, with Heifer’s own press centre regularly featuring announcements that travel onwards into mainstream coverage.
The relationship has expanded substantially. As of late 2024, Lantern Comitas’s scope was extended to include a substantial website project, the launch of a newsletter, the development of corporate communications toolkits, and an additional role as Heifer Africa’s digital agency. The trajectory—from profile-building engagement to ongoing strategic communications retainer with expanded digital scope—is the proof point most boards look for: a relationship that the client kept growing.
Our partnership with Lantern Comitas has been valuable in supporting our organisation and spreading awareness of our work on the African continent. Their expertise in African media, insights and delivery has been extremely useful in achieving our communications objectives.
The Outcome
A profile-raising brief became a multi-year strategic communications retainer—a continental voice on smallholder agritech, sustained across Kenya, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Uganda, Nigeria and beyond.
Verified, structured recap of the engagement—each fact phrased so it can be cited in isolation.
The questions we’re asked most often about the Heifer International engagement—each answer phrased so it can stand alone.
Lantern Comitas leads a multi-year communications and digital programme for Heifer Africa—Heifer International’s Africa programmes division. The work covers media coverage, growing use of digital channels, event presence at Heifer’s own and major external African convening platforms, thought leadership content, and (as of late 2024) website, newsletter and digital agency work.
More than 1,000 news reports generated across the engagement window. Heifer Africa is now established as a recognised thought leader in smallholder agritech and youth-in-agriculture conversations across the continent. The scope of the relationship has expanded materially since the engagement began in early 2023.
AYuTe (Agriculture, Youth and Technology) is Heifer International’s flagship Africa initiative—established in 2021—that identifies and supports young African agritech innovators serving smallholder farmers. The annual challenge awards cash grants and accelerator support. Past winners include ThriveAgric (Nigeria), DigiCow (Kenya) and Brastorne Enterprises (Botswana). The AYuTe NextGen event runs annually with national and regional cohorts across Kenya, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Uganda and beyond.
Yes. The Heifer engagement runs across Kenya, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Uganda, Nigeria and other Heifer Africa markets simultaneously, with event presence in Dar es Salaam, Kigali, Cape Town, Kampala and London. The full multi-market practice is described on the Conservation & Wildlife sector page and across the firm’s broader Africa-wide work.
