Game Based Learning Apps Win in Youth Competition

The culture of food safety in Senegal leaped forward recently with the announcement of the winners of the youth competition on “Smart Food Safety.” The competition solicited innovation smart phone applications to assist small business owners to adopt safer food handling practices. “Samba the Fisherman from Soumbédioune” took first place at $10,000 and second and third-place winners claimed $5,000 and $3,000 respectively.

In April 2021, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)-funded Feed the Future Business Drivers for Food Safety (BD4FS) launched the Youth Food Safety Application Competition. The competition sought out young software developers to develop innovating learning approaches about food safety, especially among young entrepreneurs. BD4FS, implemented by Food Enterprise Solutions (FES), and its partner Feed the Future Youth in Agriculture (YiA), implemented by Virginia Tech University, worked with technical judges chosen from among Senegal’s finest professionals in the field. A total of 14 young developers entered the competition, from which 10 finalists were invited to pitch their concepts to the panelists.