Overview

What Is In Your Hand? This question, first posed to Moses, anchors the central message of this book: transformation often begins not with what we lack, but with what we already have. Through moving stories drawn from across Africa, from Gokwe's farmlands to Nakonde's bustling border and Kitwe's university hostels, the book explores how ordinary people create livelihoods, nurture ideas, and build futures from limited means. It celebrates women who combine caregiving with entrepreneurship, young professionals daring to start over, and communities using their networks to create opportunity. Each story reveals the quiet power of resilience, innovation, and connection. The book challenges conventional economic thinking, shifting focus from complex theory to lived experience. It's a call to rethink what growth truly means: not just personal gain, but giving back, creating space for others, and investing in community. Accessible, practical, and deeply human, it invites readers to look within, to start where they are, use what they have, and take bold steps toward meaningful change.

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9798233710360

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Valerie Chanda Chibuye is a seasoned international development professional, agricultural economist, and sustainability specialist with more than twenty years of experience working across Southern Africa. A multi-disciplinary practitioner, she has built her career at the intersection of agricultural policy, livelihoods strengthening, gender equality, youth development, and rights-based community programming. Her transformative work spans Zambia, Malawi, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe, where she has led large-scale programmes focused on food security, sustainable agriculture, climate resilience, financial inclusion, and market systems development. Valerie has worked extensively with government ministries, farmer organisations, private companies, civil society networks, and community-based groups - always championing evidence-based policy advocacy, inclusive development, and locally driven solutions. Valerie's expertise covers agricultural value chains, public-private partnerships, adolescent and youth programming, decent work, land rights, and women's economic empowerment. She has led regional initiatives on cotton, dairy, horticulture, and other value chains, mobilising tens of thousands of smallholder farmers - especially women and young people - to access markets, finance, and skills. As a writer and practitioner, Valerie believes deeply in the power of ordinary people to transform their lives when equipped with the right knowledge, opportunities, and supportive environments. Her work is grounded in human-centred approaches, conflict sensitivity, and a commitment to strengthening agency, dignity, and resilience. She holds a Bachelor of Agricultural Sciences, a Master of Communication for Development, and a Master of Science in Agricultural Economics (University of London).

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