Innovations in the News and Around the World |
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Apply Now: Southern and Central Africa Call for Innovations
The Southern and Central Africa Regional Innovation Hub (S/CA RIH) is proud to announce its Call for Innovations. The S/CA RIH supports innovative companies and organizations that work in the Southern Africa and Central Africa and whose solutions produce more food while using less water and energy.
The hub is looking for companies, nonprofits with a for-profit program, and other organizations who have innovative technologies and business models to provide sustainable water or energy solutions for agriculture. Up to 20 organizations will be selected organizations to receive customized support in the form of technical assistance, investment facilitation, enabling ecosystem support, and grants up to $200,000 USD.
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WE4F's Semi Annual Report: 36 Supported Innovations, $4 million USD Raised in Investment, First Quality of Service Survey Results
Our semi-annual report shares updates from the Middle East and North Africa Regional Innovation Hub and the South and Southeast Asia Regional Innovation Hub. Learn about the innovators we work with, their current progress, and how we're using their feedback to pivot and move the program forward.
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Next Step Accomplished: 15 Innovators in West Africa Selected!
From September 27-29 2021 in Grand Bassam, the final selection bootcamp of the Water and Energy for Food (WE4F/PEEPA) West Africa Regional Call for Innovations (CFI) took place. By the end of the call, 171 applications was submitted. Among these 171, 88 applications were eligible and 30 candidates were shortlisted for the bootcamp. Under the guidance of several specialists, the bootcamp provided a framework for reflection and experience sharing by the candidates before 15 innovators were selected for the WE4F/PEEPA acceleration program.
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WE4F West Africa Joins Côte d’Ivoire’s Ecological Transition Movement
The third edition of the Journées africaines de la transition écologique et du changement climatique (JFAC 2021) took place from October 21 to 23 in Abidjan. During the event in Abidjan, WE4F participated in a panel on “Agriculture and climate change: How to produce without destroying,” sharing our expertise on digital innovations. The panel also featured Agri’Ub and ONG350 Côte d’Ivoire, two innovative organizations with which WE4F partners. By highlighting both organizations’ work on agroecology, WE4F was able to show real technical solutions that are supported by practical experience.
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Relief for Lake Victoria Fisherfolk: WeTu and WE4F Sign a Cooperative Agreement on Innovative Cooling Solutions
It’s early in the morning when Salim Ahmed (name changed), a Nile perch fisherman on Remba Island in Lake Victoria, waits on the beach to flag off his large fleet of over forty fishing boats. The boats hit the choppy morning waves as they set off, one after another for a twelve-hour deep lake fishing escapade, locally known as tembea. Though Salim is considered wealthy by locals, a sad look written all over his face overshadows the big smile expected to grace the it. His worry, which has robbed him of happiness, is the projected losses should he not get enough ice to cool his catch. His supplier has informed him of the impending closure of his ice production business due to the high cost of electricity, coupled with frequent power outages.
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HAF President Yossef Ben-Meir on CNN Newsroom w/ Rosemary Church for Call to Earth Day
On Wednesday, November 10, 2021, HAF President Ben-Meir appeared live on CNN Newsroom with Rosemary Church to speak about HAF's work on #CallToEarth Day, calling in from the community-managed interfaith nursery in Akrich, Morocco.
Call to Earth is a CNN initiative dedicated to conservation, environmentalism, and sustainability.
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Is compost the future of agriculture?
One-third of the food we produce ends up as waste, according to the UN's FAO. One waste-management startup in Lebanon saw this predicament as an opportunity to repurpose the country’s biowaste into fertilizer.
CNN's Becky Anderson spoke to Marc Aoun, CEO of Compost Baladi, about the benefits of using compost to fuel the future of agriculture.
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Turning Waste to Wealth for Indian Farmers
In the midst of a range of green mountains lies Nilgiris, a small district in Tamil Nadu in Southern India that is home to over 80,000 farming families. Currently the district faces three major sanitation and environmental challenges that affect agriculture: 1) chemical fertilizers have contaminated the plants, soil, and water1; 2) Nilgiris was only declared open defecation free in 2018 when the community gained full access to proper toilets; and 3) fecal sludge from the toilets has been discharged into the forest and river.
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How to Invest in Southern and Central Africa through WE4F
For investment partners interested in countries like South Africa, Mozambique, Angola, and nine others, but unable to pursue growth or expansion due to unfamiliarity with the national policies or inability to conduct the necessary due diligence, the Water and Energy for Food Grand Challenge (WE4F) is here to help. Due to the Southern and Central Africa Regional Innovation Hub (S/CA RIH), based in Pretoria, South Africa, investment partners can specifically target their focus countries – and potentially expand to new environments.
By joining WE4F’s investor pool, you can help innovative water-energy-food nexus companies scale their business and reach affected smallholder farmers and food value chains, while benefiting from attractive social and economic returns on your investments.
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Everything You Need to Know for the S/CA EOI from Service Providers
The WE4F Southern and Central Africa Regional Innovation Hub invites eligible service providers to respond to the Call for Expressions of Interest (EOI) by December 14th, 2021 at 5:00 PM GMT+2.
The qualified applicants will become part of the pre-vetted service providers pool to deliver a variety of services to the hub’s innovators across the region. The service categories include, but not limited to investor facilitation, business and product development, gender integration, base of pyramid (BOP) impact, environmental sustainability, organizational capacity development, public relations and communications, market research and analysis, marketing and sales, legal services and grant agreement compliance.
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Open Now: GSMA Innovation Fund for Climate Resilience and Adaptation
Do you know any start-ups working on climate adaptation and resilience solutions for low-income and vulnerable populations?
Sweden supports the GSMA Innovation Fund for Climate Resilience and Adaptation which will provide grants, technical support and facilitation of partnerships with mobile network operators to for-profit small and growing enterprises (including start-ups) that leverage digital technology to deliver climate resilience and adaptation solutions for low-income and vulnerable communities.
The fund is open for applications until January 9th and applicants from Africa, South and Southeast Asia, Pacific Islands, the Caribbean, Latin America, Moldova and Albania are eligible to apply. More information about the objectives, eligibility, the intended impact of the fund, type of funds and other support available, as well as requirements on matching contributions are included in the Terms and Conditions.
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Nominate an Ambitious, Sustainable Food Planet​ Heroe
The Food Planet Prize is the largest monetary award in the global food arena. It rewards innovative solutions that can help us shift to sustainable food systems within a ten-year timeframe. The Prize is the Curt Bergfors Foundation’s primary tool to encourage agents of change and promote game-changing initiatives. We award two prizes of 2 Million USD annually.
We invite you to spread the word about the Food Planet Prize in your networks.
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Join the WE4F Team as a M&E External Surveyor
WE4F is seeking current or recent graduates students based in Egypt to conduct four to six weeks of in-the-field surveying. Candidates should have a background in agriculture, water, energy, technology innovation, environmental studies, research methods, international business, or international development. They must also speak Arabic.
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S/SEA RIH is Hiring an Environmental Sustainability Advisor
Tetra Tech is recruiting an experienced Environmental Sustainability Advisor to support the implementation of the USAID-administered Water and Energy for Food South and Southeast Asia Regional Innovation Hub through July 2024.
This is an independent consulting engagement estimated to be about 70 to 100 days per year. Finalization of the consultant agreement is subject to USAID approval. The consultant has to be a legal resident of one of the following countries: Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Timor Leste, or Vietnam.
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Beyond traditional financing models for smallholders and other end-users in the water-energy-food nexus: challenges and innovative solutions
How can local businesses and financial institutions empower end-users and smallholder farmers to access water, energy, and for innovations? Join the FAO, WEF Nexus in Africa Initiative, and WE4F on December 14 at 13:30PM CET to discuss financial solutions that empower smallholder farmers' access to water-energy-food innovations and other approaches to overcome the end-user financing gap.
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Share the December Newsletter |
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