Climate Smart Agriculture Youth Network (CSAYN)

What Climate Smart Agriculture Youth Network (CSAYN) does

The Climate Smart Agriculture Youth Network (CSAYN) is a volunteer-based non-profit organization founded in 2018 and headquartered in Yaoundé, Cameroon, with a 19-person team. Its core mission is to raise awareness, sensitize, and build the productive capacity of youth aged 18-35 and people living with disabilities on climate-smart agriculture (CSA) concepts for adaptation, mitigation, and sustainable food productivity. The network operates through a Dgroups online platform that connects volunteers across 26+ countries organized into 7 regional hubs (North Africa, West Africa, East Africa, SADC, Central Africa, Americas, and Europe), enabling cross-continent knowledge sharing on practical CSA projects.

CSAYN delivers its impact through a portfolio of 13 flagship programs, including Climate Smart Agriculture (core), Agribusiness, Climate Finance, Climate Information Services, Energy Efficient Farming Systems, Zero Hunger Challenge Pledge, African Continental Free Trade Area (ACTFA), ICT for Agriculture, Gender Mainstreaming, and Disaster Risk Reduction. The underlying technology is a basic online community platform (Dgroups) with no proprietary AI or data science components; the organization's core distribution relies on regional hub coordinators and country-level coordinators who implement activities at local levels.

CSAYN operates as a freemium non-profit — participation is free and volunteer-driven, with no pricing models or membership fees. The revenue model is entirely grant-funded: the network was initially developed with financial support from the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA) for pilot projects in sub-Saharan Africa, and it subsequently seeks additional climate finance and donor support from institutional partners including the FAO and GACSA. The organization's customer segments are youth personas, people living with disabilities, and institutional partners (schools, universities, ministries), with no enterprise or commercial customers.

Name

Climate Smart Agriculture Youth Network (CSAYN)

Legal name

Climate Smart Agriculture Youth Network

Website

https://csayn.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2018

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

The Climate Smart Agriculture Youth Network (CSAYN) is a volunteer-based non-profit that raises awareness and builds capacity among youth and people with disabilities on climate-smart agriculture across 26+ countries through 7 regional hubs and 13 flagship programs.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Grant Funding: The network was initially developed with financial support from FARA (Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa) for pilot projects in sub-Saharan African regions. Additional climate finance and donor support are sought for implementation of climate-smart agricultural activities.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

CSAYN is a volunteer-based network that raises awareness, sensitizes, and builds the productive capacity of youth and people living with disabilities on Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) concepts for adaptation, mitigation, and sustainable food productivity. It delivers this through 13 programs spanning CSA adoption, agribusiness, climate finance access, climate information services, energy efficient farming, gender mainstreaming, ICT for agriculture, and disaster risk reduction, coordinated via 7 regional hubs across 26+ countries and an online knowledge-sharing platform.

Product overview

The Climate Smart Agriculture Youth Network (CSAYN) is a volunteer-based network (not a commercial product company) that operates a portfolio of climate-smart agriculture programs and initiatives. The organization functions as an umbrella platform with 13 flagship programs including Climate Smart Agriculture (core), Agribusiness, Climate Finance, Climate Information Services, Energy Efficient Farming Systems, Zero Hunger Challenge Pledge, African Continental Free Trade Area (ACTFA), African Youth for Sustainable Development Training, Disaster and Risk Reduction, ICT for Agriculture, Gender Mainstreaming, and Livestock/Fisheries/Aquaculture initiatives. These programs work together to raise awareness, build capacity, and empower youth and people living with disabilities across Africa and globally on climate-smart agricultural practices for food security, adaptation, and mitigation.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) Core CSAYN program enhancing agricultural systems' capacity to support food security through climate change adaptation and mitigation, promoting sustainable agriculture development via community-based extension, agroforestry, soil management, irrigation and cropland management for youth, smallholder farmers and partner institutions.
• Agribusiness Business-focused program applying business principles to agricultural production across the entire value chain - including the agricultural input sector, production sector, and processing-manufacturing sector - to stimulate youth employment and poverty reduction in climate-smart agriculture.
• Climate Finance Program focused on financial flows to developing countries for low-carbon development and climate adaptation, including capacity building for accessing climate finance and technical support for rural farmers implementing CSA activities.
• Climate Information Services Program packaging and disseminating climate information - covering temperature, rainfall, wind, soil moisture, ocean conditions, and extreme weather indicators - to help policymakers, governments, and farmers make informed agricultural decisions.
• African Continental Free Trade Area (ACTFA) Continental trade initiative focused on creating a single African market for goods and services with free movement of business persons and investments, expanding intra-African trade through harmonized trade liberalization.
• Energy Efficient Farming Systems Program teaching farmers to reduce electricity and fuel use through energy conservation measures, including tractor maintenance, field practices such as no-till/minimum tillage, and the use of farm energy calculators and audits.
• Zero Hunger Challenge Pledge Initiative addressing zero stunted children under 2 years, a 100% increase in smallholder productivity and income, and zero food loss/waste through mobilization campaigns, capacity building, and sustainable income approaches for family farmers, piloted in Kenya, Cameroon and Nigeria.
• African Youth for the Sustainable Development Goals Training (AYSDGT) Training program for African youth focused on sustainable development goals related to climate-smart agriculture, supporting capacity building and youth engagement around the SDGs.
• Mainstreaming Gender in CSA Program ensuring gender equity and the mainstreaming of gender considerations into climate-smart agriculture initiatives across CSAYN's portfolio.
• Livestock, Fisheries, Aquaculture and Apiculture Program enhancing youth contribution in livestock, fisheries, aquaculture, and apiculture activities within the climate-smart agriculture framework.
• ICT for Agriculture Program utilizing information and communication technologies to support agricultural development and the dissemination of climate-smart practices among youth and partner institutions.
• Disaster and Risk Reduction Through Climate Smart Agriculture Program addressing disaster preparedness, recovery, reconstruction and risk reduction through climate-smart agriculture practices, with focus on vulnerable populations including youth and people living with disabilities.
• Knowledge Management Assets within Country-level RAS Program establishing country-level knowledge management assets and online databases to share information on climate-smart agriculture issues nationally, regionally and globally via the network's online presence.

Quantifiable outcome

• Doubling of food production needed by 2050 to feed 9 billion population

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

Three partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerFARA provided initial financial support for pilot projects from sub-Saharan African countries in three regions (East, West and Central Africa) through media sensitization, which led to the development of CSAYN.
• Global Alliance for Climate-Smart Agriculture (GACSA)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCSAYN is an institutional member of GACSA, which brings together governments, businesses, farmers' organizations, civil society groups, producer organizations, research bodies and intergovernmental entities to advance climate-smart agriculture globally.
• FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCSAYN collaborates with FAO through its dgroups.org community platform for youth CSA events and maintains alignment with FAO's food security and climate change objectives.

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Broad incumbents

• One Acre Fund: Large-scale African agricultural services provider serving smallholder farmers with inputs, training, and financing. Overlaps with CSAYN's end-beneficiary (smallholder farmers) but is a direct service provider rather than a volunteer network.
• Heifer International: Large, well-established NGO working on sustainable agriculture and youth livelihoods across Africa. Operates an overlapping mission (climate-smart farming, youth inclusion) but with much greater financial scale and a wider portfolio.
• 4-H (Africa programs): Global youth development organization with a strong agricultural 4-H programming track, including Africa-based programming for rural youth skills. Comparable youth-in-agriculture capacity-building mission at much larger scale.

Direct peers

• YPARD (Young Professionals for Agricultural Development): YPARD is a global volunteer network for young professionals in agriculture, structurally identical to CSAYN: youth-led, grant-funded, and focused on youth capacity-building in agricultural development. Closest direct peer in mission, structure, and demographic.
• AWARD (Association for Women in Agriculture Research and Development): Pan-African fellowship program that builds the capacity of African women in agricultural research. Analogous to CSAYN in targeting a specific demographic (women vs. youth/PLWD) for capacity-building in African agriculture.
• FANRPAN (Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources Policy Analysis Network): African policy network working on agriculture and climate across multiple countries, with a similar hub-based model and youth engagement focus. Comparable structure and overlaps with CSAYN's policy and advocacy work.

Others

• Climate Action Network (CAN): Global network of civil society organizations working on climate change. Less agriculture-specific than CSAYN but operates with a similar network-and-collective-advocacy model and shares donor pools.
• Global Alliance for the Future of Food: Philanthropic alliance funding sustainable food systems and climate-resilient agriculture. Operates upstream of CSAYN as a potential funder, not a direct competitor, but thematic overlap on CSA capacity-building.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/climate-smart-agriculture-youth-network-csayn

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles12 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Climate Smart Agriculture Youth Network (CSAYN)