Creating Jobs with Young People Through Cooperatives
We design practical training, bring the institutions that deliver it, and back young people as they build their own businesses inside our network.
We don’t replace. We activate.
Shirikiana is a project engine, not a parallel organisation. We design the concept, bring the right partners together, organise the funding and run the coordination. The work itself is delivered by the institutions already doing it — schools, cooperatives, churches, universities. What we build and maintain is the backbone that holds the network together.
We're an organisation, university, or funder
Explore partnership opportunities — research collaboration, training licences, land, or investment.
I want to train, work, or build a cooperative
See how to get involved — workshops, the freelancer network, or starting a cooperative with your group.
What's a Cooperative — and What Makes Us Different
The Problem We're Addressing
Behind the numbers are real people — most still living with family, sending out applications that don’t get answered, perceiving cooperative membership as one of the few paths open to them regardless of connections or capital. About 85% of employment across the region remains informal, marked by low productivity and real vulnerability.
15M+
New jobs needed annually to keep pace
10–12M
Entering the labour force in Sub-Saharan Africa annually
3M
Formal wage jobs Africa creates annually
100M+
Young people entering the global job market every year
Four Building Blocks
Four things we actually do — the foundation of how we create jobs with cooperatives.
Handbooks
Two published books on values-based cooperatives — available now, including an ISBN-registered first edition.
Workshops & Freelancer Network
Practical training that leads straight into paid work, backed by the consortium as the professional body behind you.
Sectors We Work In
From permaculture in general, and value addition to natural resources above and beneath the land, to livestock, arts and crafts, building and construction, textiles and healthcare cooperatives.
Research & Land Projects
Land-based initiatives in preparation with universities and agricultural partners, pairing research with training that creates jobs.
The Power of Values-Based Cooperatives for Workers
By Amb. Bramwel W. Kisuya — available now, alongside Youth Inclusion Strategies for Cooperatives, a practical guide for cooperatives to attract and retain young members.
A competitive cooperative sector accounting for 70% of jobs created annually in developing countries — by 2063, in line with the African Union’s Agenda 2063 timeline.
“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”
Delroca Springs Ltd · Innovex Associates Ltd · AIDAL Ltd · Christian Care International Church · Royal Automation System Ltd · Missing Linkk · Oliver Elias
Get occasional updates
Occasional updates on new training, published research, and job opportunities. No spam — we send only when there’s something real to share.
Shirikiana —> to work with one another. The founding values of the cooperative movement, self-help, self-responsibility and solidarity, remain the most practical basis for collective enterprise. We join knowledge, applied action and ethical responsibility in member-owned, member-governed enterprise, guided by the International Cooperative Alliance’s principle of concern for community. We proceed incrementally, attribute every partner by name, and distinguish demonstrated capacity from stated intent.