Join Magnitude.io from October 4-10 as we celebrate the on-going work of our partners and NGOs through World Space Week! With this year’s theme of sustainability, we will introduce some of our partners and the work they are doing in preparation for our next mission, ExoLab-10: Carbon Farmer. (You still have two weeks to join us!)

Opportunities For Youth in Africa (OYA)

For the first day of World Space Week 2022 we’re showcasing Opportunities for Youth in Africa (OYA) with our Zambian partner SensXAfrica and the inaugural institutions Banani International School, Lusaka International Community Schools, and Natural Resource Development College.

Supported by the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Opportunities for Youth in Africa strives to create accelerated agribusiness opportunities, inclusive value chains and food systems, social protection measures to increase resilience of communities to shocks and crises, economic competitiveness of youth-led small and medium-sized agricultural enterprises, and sustainable private investment leveraged for agri-food systems and specific value chains.

Scheduled to launch this November aboard the SpaceX-26 resupply mission to the International Space Station, ExoLab-10 investigates carbon sequestration, soil rejuvenation, and the challenge of developing working knowledge of what will be required to grow food in situ on deep space missions. ExoLab-10 is strongly anchored in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and contributes to several Sustainable Development Goals namely:

Zero Hunger: ExoLab compares crop growth conditions on our planet and in orbit to raise awareness about the necessity of sustainable soil conservation for food production.

Quality Education: ExoLab enrolls students from Kindergarten to University by offering educational material, global researchers, scientists, and engineers providing hands-on experiments to reinforce their scientific curricula.

Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure: ExoLab gives access to state-of-the-art technology to the young generation in order to raise interest in agriculture innovation and the importance of R&D.

Climate Action: ExoLab investigates the unique role plants have in sequestering carbon here on Earth. The Moon and Mars have dust and rock, and perhaps a bit of water ice. If we plan to live off world, perhaps plants and living soil hold the key.

Partnerships for the Goals: ExoLab brings together public institutions, research organisms, private sector and INGOs to encourage knowledge transfer.

The OYA ExoLab initiative will be extended to other countries in order to create a network of educational institutions fostering specialized and digital skills for the youth. Seven institutions should soon join the OYA ExoLab consortium which will then include 11 institutes in 6 African countries: Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa and Zambia! Fostering knowledge exchange and south-south cooperation between our partners will beyond any doubt strengthen the project impact!

OYA ExoLab also lays the ground for the development and rejuvenation of the agribusiness sector by introducing key issues related to agriculture today and the importance of innovative (digital) solutions. Moving forward, OYA ExoLab will partner with the private sector in each country of action to make sure that the success of this initiative is translated into entrepreneurship development by developing concrete innovative solutions for agribusinesses.