Leading with Purpose: Mphangera Kamanga’s Impact in Agribusiness

For over eight years, Mphangera Kamanga has been advancing agriculture, food justice, and youth empowerment across Malawi and the broader region. As Founder and CEO of HarvestGlow, she is reimagining smallholder farming through certified seed cooperatives, youth agribusiness incubation, and solar-powered value addition systems that strengthen food sovereignty and rural livelihoods.

Through her work, she has reached more than 19,000 farmers, women, and youth, supported hundreds of rural entrepreneurs, and mobilised significant blended capital to scale climate-resilient seed production. Her leadership sits at the intersection of innovation, data, and justice, designing systems that do not just improve yields, but transform lives.

Alongside her entrepreneurial work, Mphangera has served as the Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Manager at the Palladium Group under the Feed the Future – USAID Malawi initiative. There, she leads data-driven strategy, geospatial analysis, and impact measurement across more than 1,000 villages, strengthening evidence-based agricultural programming and policy engagement.

Her academic accolades from climate modelling research at the University of Pretoria to environmental science at the University of Cape Town has helped shape her systems-level thinking and commitment to climate-smart agriculture.

It was this depth of experience in agribusiness, climate resilience, and youth empowerment that she carried with her to the Regional Leadership and Career Impact Summit hosted in Lusaka, Zambia. For Mphangera,

“The summit reinforced the importance of building strong networks, embracing innovation, and positioning young leaders as key drivers of inclusive and sustainable growth across the continent.”

A key highlight was connecting with fellow experts across agribusiness, climate-smart agriculture, entrepreneurship, and social impact. These conversations sparked meaningful opportunities for collaboration and knowledge exchange particularly in areas aligned with her work at HarvestGlow.

Mphangera’s story is one that shows resilience and hard work and we are proud to spotlight leaders like her who are not just attending conversations about Africa’s future but actively building it.