Accelerating Climate Change Solutions in Africa - ACCESS

We cannot wait any longer to find, create and grow the solutions that will tackle the climate emergency head-on. We need millions of changemakers to make it a reality and look forward to engaging directly some of you. This 2-year program launched in January 2019 is aiming at providing social entrepreneurs, some of Africa's brightest climate change fighters, with skills, resources and partnerships to put their big ideas into practice on an even bigger scale.

We are facing a climate emergency that has taken its toll on Africa: four of the ten countries in the world most impacted by climate change are on the continent and over the past 25 years, weather-related disasters like floods and droughts have doubled.

Yet too little is being done, efforts to prepare for the future are underinvested and most projects still focus on mitigation rather than adaptation.

Social entrepreneurs, meanwhile, are forging their own paths, creating new ways to solve urgent environmental problems and engaging communities in the process. Ashoka and iPropeller with the support of Flanders’s Department of Foreign Affairs are harnessing social entrepreneurs’ innovative spirits together with resources from the private sector to help scale proven solutions.

Engage. Support. Connect. Create win-win partnerships to address the climate crisis.

Support selected social entrepreneurs who are deploying innovative, effective, and scalable solutions that address climate change in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Engage and connect relevant private sector actors from Flanders and beyond with these social entrepreneurs to further develop and scale their innovative solutions and create win-win partnerships.
Identify lessons learned and best practices for other co-creation partnerships to emulate, as well as the policy hurdles that stand in their way.

We have selected six social entrepreneurs who are driving new solutions that are helping Africa adapt for the future through a combination of ingenuity, dedication, and impatience for the emergence of bold solutions for climate. Through a three-step journey, we are providing these social innovators a launchpad to rocket their promising ideas into large-scale, replicable solutions, as well as multiple concrete opportunities for the private sector to engage in high-impact actions for climate.

STEP 1: SOCIAL INVESTMENT ACCELERATOR l MAY - DECEMBER 2019

Selected social entrepreneurs went through a structured Social Investment Accelerator program to refine effective financial plans and compelling pitches to a range of impact, philanthropic and institutional investors. They were supported by over 20 experienced business mentors and experts from Flanders and beyond.

STEP 2: CLIMATE CHANGE MARKETPLACE l JANUARY 21-23, 2020

Social entrepreneurs participating in the Social Investment Accelerator met in Brussels from the 21^st to the 23^rd of January 2020 for a series of sessions with different stakeholders: among other things, a Pitch session with investors, a co-creation workshop with corporate players and one-on-one sessions with potential partners.

Please see the Deal Book here

STEP 3: SOCIAL & BUSINESS CO-CREATION l FEBRUARY 2020 - OCTOBER 2021

Two Social & Business Co-Creation projects were selected and awarded 50,000 euros each to support win-win partnerships instrumental to scale proven solutions to climate change in Sub-Saharan Africa. We are harnessing the complementary assets of social entrepreneurs and for profit companies to reach more impact and enable partners to achieve their strategic goals: R&D, market expansion, etc. Lessons and best practices from these co-creation partnerships will then be made available to guide other innovators fighting climate change in Africa.

The emergency Africa faces cannot be solved by social entrepreneurs, businesses, or impact investors alone. It takes a collaborative effort from all of them to properly and effectively align their resources and combine their incentives into a joint mission. Nothing less will bring about the concrete, lasting, and large-scale changes needed to ensure a prepared and resilient Africa of tomorrow.

INVESTORS: Are you interested in investing in innovative solutions that address climate issues in Africa? Please consult the deal book. We are looking for a range of investment – from philanthropic to impact.

COMPANIES: Explore win-win collaborations with leading social entrepreneurs advancing climate solutions in Africa.

MEDIA: Share the social entrepreneurs’ inspiring stories and missions to combat climate change together with local communities.

PRO-BONO EXPERTISE: Contact us to provide your expertise on climate change, climate finance and help social entrepreneurs scale up their ventures.

#Agriculture_waste; #Small_Scale_farmers; #Kenya; #Zambia; #Agriculture; #Forestry; #Food_processing; #Togo; #Environmental_education; #Advocacy; #Youth_entrepreneurship; #Green_jobs; #Reforestation; #Mangrove; #Local_economies; #Collective_action; #Gambia; #Guinea; #Guinea_Bissau; #Senegal; #Regenerative_agriculture; #Grasslands; #Livestock; #Wool; #Meat; #South_Africa; #Eastern_ Cape; #Customized_installations; #Uganda; #Solar_energy; #Women_entrepreneurship; #Community_development; #Tanzania; #Nigeria

Safi Organics

Safi Organics is a social enterprise launched in 2015 with a goal of empowering smallholder farmers in the rural areas and transform their crop waste.

KINOME

Founded in 2005, Kinomé is a social business aiming at improving human beings’ daily lives thanks to forests and trees

Village Energy

Village Energy is a last-mile solar distributor for customized solar installations that enable productive use of energy (PUE)...

COMACO

COMACO is mitigating key drivers of environmental degradation compounded by poverty among the households across a rural landscape...

JVE - Jeunes Volontaires pour l'Environnement

JVE was founded in 2001 by Togolese students deeply troubled by the degradation of their lands and the impoverishment of their people.

OLIVE LEAF FOUNDATION

Olive Leaf Foundation aims at benefitting historically disadvantaged rural communities through empowering all people...

"This program is exactly what I need and I’m looking forward to the learnings, especially on climate financing and creating new networks."

Waringa Matindi

Village Energy

"I joined the Africa Climate Solution Accelerator in order to scale up our innovative collective to preserve and restore mangrove in West Africa. This program is a great opportunity to better structure our business model, to benefit from the Ashoka team and business mentors, and to mobilize carbon finance to scale-up our social impact."

Damien Kuhn

Kinome

Climate change is here and we have to take action to protect the current and future generations. It is Everyone’s role to take positive action to ensure that positive change happens. With the locally available resources, we can turn all the trash into cash for the benefit of the community.

Joyce Kamande

SAFI ORGANICS

Emerging Insights Climate Change & Environment 2018

Africa Climate Solutions Deal Book

Mark Cheng / Anshul Magotra

iPROPELLER

iPropeller is a change agent driven by “Do Good, Get Better” who offers boutique strategy consulting services. It attracts clients who are eager to create innovative solutions to tough societal and environmental challenges. Solutions from which both business and society benefit.

iPropeller works with for-profit businesses, non-profit organizations, public authorities, civil society actors, and social-profit enterprises. What unites iPropeller with its diverse clients is the conviction that it is perfectly possible for an organization to be normally profitable and a force for good in society.

www.i-propeller.com

https://i-propeller.com/contact/

Contact Person - Michael Wagemans - [email protected]

ASHOKA

Ashoka is the world’s largest network of system-changing social entrepreneurs. It started in 1981 with a simple belief: “There is nothing more powerful than a new idea in the hands of an entrepreneur.” Today Ashoka supports a global network of 3,500+ Ashoka Fellows spanning 90+ countries; 500+ Fellows and Young Changemakers in 23 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa alone.

In order to advance its “Everyone a Changemaker” vision, Ashoka identifies patterns in social innovations, convenes key decision-makers from corporate, public, philanthropic, and financial sectors to turn insights and observations into collaborative models that address the most critical and complex social challenges at large scale. This Climate Change program is co-managed by Ashoka Africa and Ashoka Belgium.

NGO Advisor has ranked Ashoka 5th most influential NGO in the world in 2021.

www.ashoka.org

Ashoka Africa -

Contact Person - Stéphanie Schmidt - [email protected]