Empowering Women: Innovative End-User Financing Mechanisms in Celebration of International Women's Day
We are celebrating International Women’s Day #IWD2024 by bringing you a webinar highlighting innovative end-user financing mechanisms for women end-users!
On March 8th at 10 AM Beirut/Cairo time (8 AM UTC) for an insightful introduction by Noura Abdelwahab, MENA Hub Gender Specialist, as she addresses the challenges rural women face in accessing loans and end-users' financing schemes. Topics include issues like access to land, assets, information collaterals, interest rates. Further, we will look into innovative co-guarantor schemes as some of our WE4F innovators are promoting to ease access for women to financial products.
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Innovations in the News and Around the World | |
Smart Farming in Kenya: Increasing Food Security by Empowering Marginalized Women
By the end of 2022, Kenya had experienced its fifth consecutive failed rainy season, exacerbating the existing drought – the most severe one in 40 years. The prolonged dry spell severely impacted 98% of Kenyan farmers who depend on rain-fed agriculture for their food and income. Among these farmers, women in the West Pokot region rely on rain-fed agriculture to provide for their families as they typically lack a formal income. Their reliance on rainy seasons makes their crops highly susceptible to the effects of climate change. To increase their resilience, Lydia Kendi and fifteen other women in Kabichbich, West Pokot, came together in 2011 to form the Ewan Kiror women’s group. Under the leadership of Lydia Kendi, the women’s group acquired a greenhouse to optimize their use of the limited available water. This is where WE4f supported innovator Synnefa comes in with their innovative water technologies.
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Revolutionizing Fresh Produce Farming in Rwanda with Solar Cold Storage
Introduced by Munyax Eco, a WE4F-supported solar technology enterprise based in Kigali, the solar-powered cold storage solution has the potential to revolutionize the post-harvest management practices of local farmers in and around the cooperative, helping them to secure better prices for their produce.
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Increased Production and Community Cohesion in Malawi through Solar-Powered Irrigation
Across Malawi’s central and southern regions, inconsistent dry and rainy seasons have persisted over the last five year. Malawians experienced extreme precipitation in a short period through cyclones followed by prolonged drought. Most notably, the 2019 drought which reduced agricultural production by 50% and left more than six million people food insecure.
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Empowering Farmers in Uganda: George Mbanju’s Powerful Transformation
George Mbanju, a dedicated member of the Kinyogoga Dairy Cooperative, resides in Kinyogoga, a rural area of Uganda with his wife and 12 children. Together they maintain a herd of 80 cows on his 200-acre piece of land, which is above the rural Ugandan average of 100 acres per farmer. George faced numerous challenges in his farming enterprise before the intervention by Emata, an innovative enterprise supported by the WE4F initiative. Farmers like George that live in the region must endure harsh climatic conditions leading to drought, which severely limits milk production and financial stability.
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Organic Fertilizers: Guavay’s Avocado Revolution for farmers in Tanzania
With a hot and wet climate that makes it ideal for agriculture, Tanzania’s Njombe region has become known as the food basket of Tanzania. One crop popular amongst farmers is avocado due to its profitability and compatibility with other crops. A favorable climate, however, does not stop farmers from experiencing hardship. has. Erasto Ngole, a farmer from Njombe, faced several challenges in his avocado farming venture. He struggled with low weight per fruit and high transportation costs for inorganic fertilizer which he had to source from distant locations. Thankfully his situation improved when he was introduced to Hakika Avomax, a biofertilizer solution specifically designed for avocados and produced and provided by Guavay Limited, an innovator supported by WE4F.
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South and Southeast Asia Regional Innovation Hub 2023: Reflecting on Achievements and Looking Ahead
As we welcome the spirit of the new year, the Water and Energy for Food South and Southeast Asia Regional Innovation Hub (S/SEA Hub) takes a moment to reflect on a year filled with triumphs, learnings, and impactful collaborations. In this comprehensive review, we delve into the key achievements that have laid the foundation for our ambitious 2024 plans.
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East Africa Hub Showcases 13 Innovators in a Digital Exhibition
After 3 years of successful and fruitful collaboration, the WE4F East Africa Hub proudly announces the launch of its first digital exhibition showcasing 13 innovators from five implementation countries: Rwanda, Malawi, Tanzania, Uganda, and Kenya. The interactive exhibition allows the viewer to explore the East African innovations and companies up close, helping them visualize the context, countries, and environments in the region where the innovators operate.
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WE4F at Arab SMEs Summit: On (a Green) Track towards a Sustainable MENA Region
In our quest for a brighter, more sustainable, and inclusive future, the second edition of the Arab SMEs Summit, held in Marrakesh, emerged as a beacon of innovation and collaboration. At the heart of the summit lay a special track dedicated to green and sustainability solutions, perfectly aligning with the overarching theme of prosperity and resilience. Proudly representing the Water and Energy for Food (WE4F) MENA Regional Innovation Hub, our team had the honor of co-leading this transformative track, igniting a pursuit of a greener and more resilient economy across the Arab Region. As we reflect on the event, we are excited to share some of the main results and valuable lessons learned from the panels and workshops.
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The EEP Africa Call for Proposals is Now Open
Are you a clean energy company doing business in Southern or Eastern Africa? Are you interested in grant financing for innovative clean energy solutions?
EEP Africa provides risk tolerant early-stage grant financing for locally driven innovative clean energy projects, technologies, and business models through a competitive call for proposals process. Project financing is supplemented by technical support, investment facilitation and knowledge sharing.
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Water and Energy for Food Launches Open Calls for Innovations
Current, WE4F has three regional Open Calls for Innovations (OCFI) in the Middle East and North Africa, South and Southeast Asia, and Southern and Central Africa. WE4F’s O-CFIs will foster innovations that enhance food security, water security, renewable energy usage, and sustainable water usage in their respective regions. Individual OCFI awards will receive support in the form of technical assistance, investment facilitation, enabling ecosystem support, and grants. The awarded innovators will match the grant amount by at least 100%. All O-CFIs are now accepting applications on a rolling basis.
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Zimbabwe Biogas Open Call for Innovations
For biogas innovations based in Zimbabwe, WE4F has an Open Call for Innovations that will support selected Zimbabwean biogas innovators, helping increase their capacity and productivity. Scaling these selected small and medium-sized enterprises will improve farmers’ access to climate-resilient technology that can increase food production. WE4F will provide the biogas innovators with grants, technical assistance, and help to facilitate the activity.
The Zimbabwe Biogas Call for Innovations awards range from US$10,000 to $30,000. The awarded innovators are expected to match the funding amount in cash or in-kind contributions. The period of performance for individual awards is up to 1.5 years, however the actual period of performance for each award will be determined at the time of award.
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Scaling Nexus Innovations in Vietnam’s Agricultural Ecosystem through End-user Financing
Vietnam’s policy environment has promoted a boom in renewable energy investment. In 2019, Vietnam overtook Thailand as the country with the largest installed capacity for solar and wind power in Southeast Asia. Additional capacity estimated at 17.6 GW was added in 20211 alone. The country has also introduced innovations in financing such as green credit and preferential loan support for solar power system installation. However, Vietnam’s renewable energy policy only supports large-scale, grid-connected infrastructure, not household-level, off-grid renewable energy investments for using solar energy in agriculture production (e.g.,solar dryer domes (SDDs), solar water pumps or solar lights).
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Empowering Change: WE4F’s Carbon Finance Guide for a Greener Future
In recent years, there has been a rising demand for voluntary carbon markets. These markets are platforms where carbon emitters (e.g., an entity with a large carbon footprint) can purchase carbon credits from carbon offsetters (e.g., an entity that might reduce carbon emissions or remove carbon emissions). For the emitters, if they cannot prevent their carbon emissions, it is a way to fund carbon emission reductions elsewhere. For the offsetters, it can act as a financing vehicle to expand, or scale their work. In 2021, the voluntary carbon market experienced a fourfold growth compared to 2020, reaching a value of $2 billion. By 2030, the market is expected to reach between $10 billion and $40 billion1.
This presents an opportunity for innovators to harness these markets for various advantages:
- Secure additional funding for the services offered to farmers, thereby reducing costs to enhance affordability;
- Evaluate their environmental impact using a structured and widely accepted approach to effectively communicate impact to investors and other stakeholders; and
- Address business gaps to enhance climate resilience.
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