Africa

VITA Ireland

Szilvia Szabó — Mon, 13 Sep 2021 16:27:16 +0000

VITA Ireland

Location

Ireland

Reach

Africa

As regions in East Africa experience some of the worst effects of climate change, we partner with rural communities in Ethiopia and Eritrea to create sustainable, climate smart livelihoods. Our values centre on sustainability and adaptability, with each of our programmes dedicated to not only mitigating climate change but also ensuring that partners, communities, and families are equipped with the skills, training, and resources needed to thrive.

Carbon offsetting with Vita is a straightforward and verified process. Vita creates carbon savings through clean water and fuel-efficient cookstove programmes. These life-saving programmes prevent the cutting down of trees for fuel to cook or sterilise dirty water, thereby saving carbon emissions from being released while also improving the health and livelihoods of vulnerable rural communities.

How can carbon offsetting fix climate and communities at one go?

Creating 'climate smart communities' while cutting back on carbon emissions proved a viable model to tackle the climate crisis.

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August 2021

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Networking | Events | Community

How can carbon offsetting fix climate and communities at one go?

Sinead Connolly — Tue, 17 Aug 2021 17:17:20 +0000

How can carbon offsetting fix climate and communities at one go?

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Carbon Management

Carbon Offsetting

Carbon Emission

Carbon Footprint

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Creating 'climate smart communities' while cutting back on carbon emissions proved a viable model to tackle the climate crisis.

Carbon offsetting enables individuals and organisations to reduce their carbon footprint by purchasing verified carbon credits, which essentially means investing in offsetting projects that independent third parties manage and monitor.

Renewable energy, bio-diversity protection, community projects, clean water, and improved cookstoves are examples of offsetting projects offered by various organisations that reduce emissions and transform communities worldwide.

“It’s a global issue,” explains Ciara Feehely, Head of Communications and Fundraising at Vita, an Irish NGO that is in the business of creating sustainable, climate smart livelihoods with rural communities in East Africa.

“It doesn’t matter where you take that tonne of carbon out of the atmosphere. Every time you buy a carbon offset, you have a global impact.”

Empowering the people of East Africa through community-led development based on equality and sustainability, and tackling climate change by transitioning to renewable energy and leveraging existing resources, has been the driving force behind Vita’s work.

“The woman is at the centre of all our programs and always has been,” explains Feehely.

“Relieving her burden is important. A woman can spend 16-30 hours a week gathering sticks for a fire, to cook food and sanitise water.”

Creating climate smart communities in East Africa is the main focus of Vita Ireland. Image: Vita Ireland

Working in Ethiopia and Eritrea for the last twenty years, Vita knew how critical fuel-efficient stoves and access to clean water are to the quality of life while positively impacting the climate and the environment.

Monetising carbon savings

With that in mind, they launched the Vita Green Impact Fund in 2015 to monetise carbon emissions savings to benefit the local community and the environment.

The focus of this social impact investment vehicle was on balancing economic development and climate justice.

Vita’s investors were looking for environmental and social impact, along with the security of verifiable carbon emissions savings, independently accredited by The Gold Standard.

They raised €2 million for the Fund and used the investment to finance water programs and supply homes in East Africa with fuel-efficient stoves.

“We reached 311,000 people with clean water or clean cooking,” explained Feehely.

“With the €2 million that we spent, we actually generated 2 million carbon offsets.

It’s a very cost-effective model because there is no commercial leakage since we retain the ownership right up until the point of sale.”

Vita was able to repay their investors with a modest return and invested the profit back into the community that had generated the carbon offsets in the first place.

Following on from the success of their pilot scheme, they are currently raising €27.5 million to reach at least 4 million people with life enhancing and climate mitigating initiatives.

Empowering women

One of Vita’s most critical carbon offsetting and community programs is the repair of broken water pumps.

Water pumps installed in the ’80s and ’90s had fallen into disrepair, and with no access to materials or parts, villagers were unable to fix them.

Efficient cooking and access to clean water can help reducing carbon emission and improve quality of life. Image: Vita Ireland

Local access to clean water reduces the need for women and children to walks miles to find water, and most crucially, eliminates the need to resort to sharing water sources with animals.

Without access to clean water, the dirty water must be boiled to sterilise it.

This typically means a lot of firewood is required as fuel for the stove, which leads to mass deforestation.

The need to cut down trees for fuel can be reduced by making clean water available, thus putting less strain on the local environment.

Saving trees has an immediate impact on the atmosphere, a fully grown tree absorbs anywhere between 10 and 50kg of CO2 on average per year.

Another of Vita’s flagship offsetting programs was the introduction of fuel-efficient stoves.

Open stoves in cooking are an inefficient and dangerous activity that emits tonnes of carbon into the atmosphere every year.

Those who operate open stoves often suffer health implications relating to the eyes, heart and lungs.

Using modernised versions results in a reduction of approximately 50% of carbon emissions compared to the traditional stone stoves.

Looking into the future

To makes sure that these are not stand-alone actions they also run sustainable forestry programmes in tandem with their development projects.

For example, each recipient of a fuel-efficient stove will get some saplings.

These are grown on a plantation in the village, and local women are taught how to manage the trees sustainably to ensure reduced carbon emissions and better energy security for all of the community.

Feehely believes that greenwashing is no longer an option because of increased regulation and transparency.

“It’s going to be expensive to be an emitter in the future, even for big organisations.

Creating carbon and damaging the planet is going to cost your business money, and it’s going to detract from your brand.”

Headline image: Vita Ireland

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Investors in Asia and Africa are invited to join the growing impact investing market

Business Spirit News reporting — Tue, 27 Jul 2021 11:36:49 +0000

Investors in Asia and Africa are invited to join the growing impact investing market

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First Impact Investing Fellowship program for asset owners and managers in Asia and Africa was launched to offer learning and networking.

The Impact Investing Fellowship was born from the shared mission of the African Venture Philanthropy Alliance (AVPA) and Asian Venture Philanthropy Network (AVPN) to transform the social investment landscape and increase the flow of capital and resources towards impact investing in these regions.

This trailblazer project is designed to challenge the perception of asset owners and managers that impact investing is a trade-off for financial returns, and the private sector should only focus on achieving financial returns.

Organisers of the Fellowship program state that today’s impact investment market offers diverse and viable opportunities for investors to advance social and environmental solutions through investments that also produce financial returns.

“Both continents have huge potential to augment their economic and social potential and to build on their recent successes by sharing different experiences of growth and development,” says Bridget Fury, Head of Oppenheimer Generations Philanthropies about why a program like this is needed.

“There is scope for Asia and Africa to see synchronised, sustainable growth if we establish optimal alliances between the regions.”

Bridget Fury, Head of Oppenheimer Generations Philanthropies; Image: Harambeans

In the last four years, the compound annual growth rate in impact investing in East and Southeast Asia alone was 20%, higher than the U.S and Canada.

“There is a mismatch between the supply of impact investment capital and demand from impact businesses. Investors will need to find innovative means to tailor their funds and meet the needs of these businesses where they are,”

adds Dr. Frank Aswani, CEO of AVPA.

Sixty participants will be selected in equal numbers from Asia and Africa to join the program that will help them have the right information and resources on building an impact investing strategy, managing a portfolio, defining, evaluating, and managing impact, among other skills.

In collaboration with Faculty from the Oxford Saïd Business School, impact investing experts will facilitate the program over four months.

Applications are open to asset managers, foundation directors, accelerators, incubators and NextGen leaders until 12 August 2021.

The first cohort of alumni will be supported by the unique network of AVPN, committed to building a vibrant and high impact social investment community across Asia, and the Pan-African network of AVPA that seeks to transform the social investing agenda in the continent.

Eventually, the Impact Investing Fellowship aims to increase the flow of social investment capital into Africa and Asia.

Headline image: Alexander Suhorucov from Pexels

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July 2021

First extensive study on Social Investment in Africa reveals financial trends and gaps

Anonymous — Fri, 27 Nov 2020 11:50:05 +0000

First extensive study on Social Investment in Africa reveals financial trends and gaps

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The African Venture Philanthropy Alliance launched a high-level report on the state of social investment financing in Africa

The African Venture Philanthropy Alliance (AVPA) launched ‘The Landscape for Social Investments in Africa’ high-level inaugural report on the state of social investment financing in Africa.

The report is the first of several concerted efforts aimed at addressing information gaps on social investments in areas such as Philanthropy, Impact Investing, Private Capital deployment and Corporate Sustainability Programmes across sub-Saharan Africa.

AVPA is a unique Pan-African network established in 2018 for social investors, headquartered in Nairobi with offices in Johannesburg and Lagos, with a mission to drive a transformative social investing agenda and build vibrant, influential community across Africa.

Their work is aligned with thriving sister networks in Europe (EVPA), South America (Latimpacto), and Asia (AVPN) to form a dynamic global force for social impact.

AVPA facilitates the flow of human, intellectual and financial capital, not only within Africa but also across countries involved with its partner organisations globally.

The Landscape for Social Investments in Africa report

“Africa needs an estimated $500 billion - $1.2 trillion annually between now and 2030 to meet its financing gap for delivering on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals targets.

With traditional sources of social investment like aid and government funding unlikely to fill this gap. Therefore, we need to turn to the global financial and capital markets for the requisite investments, “ says Dr. Frank Aswani, CEO of AVPA.

“This demands a good understanding of the social investment landscape on the continent and increasing collaboration amongst social investors by breaking down existing silos between providers of grants, debt and equity.

We are taking the first step in this direction with this study. It provides a baseline against which we can track future progress and key trends that will influence the increased flow of capital into social investments in Africa while working collaboratively to identify programmatic interventions for creating increased social impact.” adds Aswani in regards of carrying out this broad research.

Dr. Frank Aswani, CEO of The African Venture Philanthropy Alliance

The report presents findings of an eight-month study across 18 African countries - six each in West, East, and Southern Africa.

The study was commissioned by AVPA with support from the United States African Development Foundation (USADF), Social Capital Foundation, The Rockefeller Foundation, and an anonymous donor.

"The US African Development Foundation (USADF) supported AVPA to carry out a landscape study to understand better social investment across East, West and Southern Africa.

The findings will help drive strategies and plans for future investors, donors, foundations, and public sector financiers.

We are constantly looking for ways to partner with corporations and governments that are interested in the business growth of Africa." C.D. Glin, President and CEO, US African Development Foundation

AVPA conducted the study in partnership with Intellecap, the advisory arm of The Aavishkaar Group, which works to build businesses that can benefit the underserved segments across Asia and Africa. It mapped providers of social capital - financial, human and intellectual, their investment strategies, and opportunities for collaboration amongst the various investors.

The findings highlight, among other things, what is currently happening, who are the key players, what are their current approaches to investing, what challenges they are facing, and the opportunities they are seeing. It also identifies additional areas of future research while making recommendations of opportunities to create a more vital ecosystem for increased capital flow and social impact on the continent.

Many social investors in sub-Saharan Africa operate in silos, necessitating strategic interventions to bridge gaps across the different types of capital and investment strategies.

Key findings of the report:

Over 820 social investors are operating in the sub-Saharan African (SSA) region; 39% in East Africa, 31% in West Africa and 30% in Southern Africa.
The majority of social investment capital deployed across the regions continues to come from international sources with a growing number of active regionally-based social investors.

Overview of Key Social Investors in SSA

Donors, development finance institutions, and sustainability aligned fund managers are the largest providers of social capital across the SSA regions, deploying billions of dollars annually, mainly through long term projects.
Corporates and corporate foundations are emerging as strong drivers of regional social investment ecosystems.
While Southern Africa has the highest number of regional-based family foundations, a high level of activity was also recorded for regional family foundations in West Africa who are relatively public with information on their giving and the causes they support.
Regional Corporate Social Investors (CSIs) across sub-Saharan Africa largely support basic services (health and education) provision, while North American CSIs mostly focus on economic empowerment and entrepreneurship initiatives.
Development finance institutions and sustainability aligned fund managers investments across the regions are highly concentrated by geography and sector, following similar trends in sector preference with financial services, agriculture and energy.
Across the regions, tech-based enterprises focused on solving challenges in the financial services, agriculture, energy and healthcare challenges have received the highest focus from social investors.
Large pools of social investment capital deployed by African diaspora communities, faith-based organisations and other local capital providers represent a significant opportunity for collaboration with other social investors to make progress in key social sectors such as health care, education and affordable housing.
The supply of social investment capital in the SSA region remains significantly mismatched with demand from social enterprises and impact businesses.
With declining funding from donors and international foundations, non-profits are exploring alternative and more sustainable funding models.

The study includes an in-depth report for each of the three regions - East, West, and Southern Africa to provide detailed regional analyses.

Nancy Kairo, AVPA Executive Director for the East Africa region

“The East Africa section of this report shows there is an urgent need to diversify both the sources and the recipients of impact funds.

Development finance institutions are still among the largest providers of such capital, and most of these funds are invested in mature stage sustainable businesses that can absorb large amounts of capital.

Yet, to realise real change we need to see large capital flows from other sources such as the capital markets, high-net-worth individuals and grantors amalgamate in support of SMEs—the backbone of our economies.” says Nancy Kairo, AVPA Executive Director for the East Africa region.

AVPA plans to repeat this study every 2-3 years to track trends and improve the knowledge base within the ecosystem.

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November 2020

Social innovator to deliver a positive impact in Africa despite pandemic

Tia Clarke — Wed, 19 Aug 2020 16:54:34 +0000

Social innovator to deliver a positive impact in Africa despite pandemic

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Social Innovation

Responsible Innovation

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Italian social entrepreneur on a mission to save infants lives' in Sub-Saharan Africa

Lucia Dal Negro, the founder of the Italian benefit corporation De-LAB, is on a mission to reduce the rate of infant mortality in Sub-Saharan Africa using an incredibly simple yet innovative solution - the KOKONO protective cradle. Lucia is a researcher focusing on Frugal Innovation in her studies and a social entrepreneur who is passionate about creating meaningful change in collaboration with locals in African regions.

According to plans, the protective cradle will be distributed in rural villages in Uganda first, as a solution for working parents to ensure that they can carry their babies to work and keep them safe - for example on the fields, or markets.

Lucia Dal Negro, researcher and social entrepreneur

It also protects babies against infections from mosquitos and suffocation whilst sleeping at night.

This product is not only bringing positive changes to people but made sustainably too using 70% locally sourced natural fibres and produced by local people.

Lucia and her team had to adjust to the new situation and challenges both in manufacturing and sales, presented by the COVID pandemic.

They are currently focusing on raising funds for a simplified version of the KOKONO cradle made of recycled plastic to make it more accessible for the vulnerable people who need it most.

KOKONO protective cradle

The transition from academia to business to create the KOKONO Cradle

" I started this project in the first place because I was extremely tired of listening to academics describing wonderful possibilities to do business by doing good in low-income communities without having ever tested any of their assumptions and hypotheses. So I decided to walk the talk of the ‘social business hype’ and do something practical, in order to learn from the field what was the real challenge of using business as a force for good.

Co-creating the KOKONO cradle with locals in Uganda

KOKONO’s mission is to protect babies below one year of age from the leading health and security threats to which they are exposed due to poor living conditions in South-Saharan Africa, more precisely in Uganda.

We decided to investigate this area of needs after spending many years studying and operating in the Global South, with De-LAB, realizing that childcare is mainly managed at a hospital level, wherever possible, but more rarely at a household level.

Based on our learnings, we started to design an object that could protect babies’ health from accidental hits and animal attacks, insects - including those transmitting malaria - rodents, reptiles.

We invented and patented a unique cradle, named KOKONO, which means empty pumpkin in Ugandan dialect.

It provides a safe space for taking care of infants during the day and night-time. We are offering a solution to parents, mainly women who are working far from home. One of the possible scenarios is when a mother is working on plantations or cultivating the cassava plant that after a couple of hours carrying her baby, she puts him/her down to the ground. That's where the babies are more exposed to sanitary and safety risks.

Designing for impact and usability

We needed to consider various factors in the design process. Like the shell had to be rigid enough so a snake cannot crack it, covered with a mosquito net with a self-sustaining handle which is made of rope and can be replaced very easily if needed.

We wanted mothers to be able to bring their baby with them wherever they are going and if necessary, leave the baby on the ground with a piece of mind that its safe.

Typically only one mosquito net is available for each family, so parents and all of their children usually sleep in one big bed protected by the single net in their household. Due to this situation, there are many cases of accidental baby suffocations at night-time.

Parents with a KOKONO can put the baby sleeping next to them in the cradle up until the child is one year old, giving better chances to survival in the most critical first 12 months. After that, the mothers can sell it, rent it, or pass it on to a friend.

One of the most rewarding highlights of the journey so far happened when we were co-creating the object with local communities in Hoima villages. A pregnant woman came to me saying that she was so happy to know that a new solution was about to be available in her village, but I had to be very fast as her baby was about to be born.

I think this was one of the best endorsements I could have ever received that we are creating something meaningful!

Adapting the business model to address Coronavirus pandemic related challenges

When the Covid crisis started, our venture was impacted greatly. 67% of Ugandan people lost their jobs due to the Covid-19 crisis. The international airport has been closed, and foreign investments are radically decreased.

The country is almost completely isolated with people being out of work which means that they are only getting poorer and poorer over time.

To get the first handcrafted version of KOKONO out is still our top priority and we will definitely want to keep it, but the production became too expensive in a post-Covid market.

Collaborating with local authorities to bring KOKONO to the market

We are determined not to give up on our original mission in helping locals keep their family safe, so we came up with a more cost-effective design which would still function well.

One thing I wanted to avoid is to let down these extremely poor people who were hit by this pandemic badly.

The new version of the cradle is made of recycled plastic with a simple design that is quick and easy to produce.

Although we need a plastic moulder to assemble it which requires investments, therefore we are setting up an online crowdfunding campaign to raise funds to start production.

Also, we have a zero-waste distribution model that means if the cradle becomes broken, it can be collected by our team and use it again.

Join our mission by becoming a supporter of KOKONO

I see KOKONO as a project, not just a product.

I believe that it has the power not just to help solve a specific social problem but to create a bridge between different cultures.

Image credit: Pexels

Taking care of babies is a universal experience for people regardless of where or how they live.

As part of our crowdfunding campaign, we want to encourage people to connect through sharing their traditional lullabies which we hope will serve as a reminder that children are our common future.

Contributors can choose a short refrain from a lullaby which we will engrave onto the side of the cradle. We aim to create a sort of cross cultural global embrace.

The crowdfunding campaign starts in November 2020, and people can donate any amounts to support the KOKONO project.

In the meantime, we are more than grateful to receive any support that could help to make KOKONO a reality for parents in Sub-Sharan Africa to protect their babies.

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