Deadline: 31 July 2020
Climate Change – Africa Opportunities (CCAO) and its partners are looking for approaches, startups and local initiatives from young green entrepreneurs, women and indigenous communities carrying knowledge (traditional and or modern), new ideas and offering initiatives and or likely to offer innovative indigenous, or technological services, solutions to improve African resilience to the challenges of climate change and to this end contribute to the promotion and defense of environmental justice and the reduction of poverty in a perspective of environmental protection, biodiversity and rational management of natural resources in Africa.
Africa is the continent most vulnerable to climate variability and change, a situation which is compounded by the interaction between “multiple constraints” including heavy dependence on agriculture, widespread poverty and low capacity to adaptation. Climate change, which often manifests as sharp increases in temperature, rising sea levels, changes in weather, and other extreme consequences, often causing adverse effects on human health, biodiversity and natural ecosystems , serious environmental, social and economic impacts. These represent a real challenge for indigenous populations and the socio-economic development prospects of Africa, including women and girls, who not only suffer the effects of environmental damage, but also oppression and acts of violence. which intersect in their respective situations.
Faced with these meanders and complex climatic challenges, young green entrepreneurs, African women’s movements and indigenous populations, strong in their knowledge and potential, have assets that are generally overlooked and little valued in Africa. Young green entrepreneurs, women and indigenous peoples often contribute by creating African startups and initiatives by women and indigenous peoples to save Africa and the entire planet. However, this contribution from young green entrepreneurs, women and indigenous African populations constitutes a lever of innovation for the mitigation and adaptation of African populations to climate change with a view to supporting the preservation of the environment, biodiversity and the rational management of African natural resources while indirectly creating thousands of jobs and economic opportunities likely to contribute to sustainable development in Africa.
Innovations
Because climate change is a vast subject, they reduce their scope to the 6 intervention themes below:
- Community Resilience: Climate Change – Africa Opportunities (CCAO) identifies and supports innovative, profitable and financially viable solutions (modern and indigenous) that can be developed to reduce the impact of local climate risks faced by local and indigenous communities in the areas of climate change. , livestock and renewable energy.
- Urban Resilience: Climate Change – Africa Opportunities (CCAO) identifies and supports solutions using local ideas and knowledge and innovative technologies to contribute to sustainable development and climate action in an urban context. These can cover a variety of sectors, including transport, buildings, energy, waste management, continuity of service delivery against climatic shocks and bad weather conditions.
- Water Pollution: Climate Change – Africa Opportunities (CCAO) identifies and supports innovative (modern and indigenous) ideas and knowledge for pragmatic and cost-effective solutions to reduce pollution of water and wetlands (including marine litter, urban wastewater, agricultural pollution and river and lake transport). But also, solutions that make it possible to better monitor and follow marine pollution and the destruction of wetlands following climate change.
- Community and Environment Education: Climate Change – Africa Opportunities (CCAO) identifies and supports innovative and effective communication and education methods (modern and indigenous) and / or interdisciplinary programs that can be used to collect and teach and popularize measures, techniques, approaches and strategies to support adaptation and mitigation to climate change, to protect biodiversity and the environment in general.
- Environmental Justice: Climate Change – Africa Opportunities (CCAO) identifies and supports local initiatives that support women and girls to resist environmental injustices and facilitate the implementation of alternative frameworks that are environmentally fair, in order to live in an Africa sustainable. They have groups for the defense of environmental justice and their networking. They support lasting solutions to eliminate the inequalities and injustices suffered by millions of African women and girls and work with self-managed groups that traditionally come from marginalized communities.
- Conservation and Resilient Management of Natural Resources: Climate Change – Africa Opportunities (CCAO) identifies and supports innovative (modern and indigenous) initiatives and approaches to support the conservation and resilient management of African biodiversity and natural resources in the context of climate change.
Prizes and Benefits
- For all eligible participants:
- Obtain feedback on their initiatives from Climate Change-Africa Opportunity (CCAO) and its partners;
- Obtain internal connection opportunities from Climate Change-Africa Opportunity (CCAO) and its partners;
- Be considered as potential candidates for acceleration and co-creation opportunities of Climate Change-Africa Opportunity (CCAO) and its partners;
- Participants’ projects can be integrated into Climate Change-Africa Opportunity (CCAO) and its communication campaigns, with the general public (after participant’s authorization), and will therefore benefit from wide visibility.
- Finalists (up to 20)
- Participate in person in the awards ceremony (travel expenses covered) with opportunities to establish links with Climate Change-Africa Opportunity (CCAO) and its partners;
- Access other online connection opportunities with Climate Change-Africa Opportunité (CCAO) and its partners;
- Be visible via the online communication tools of Climate Change-Africa Opportunity (CCAO);
- Be referenced on the Climate Change-Africa Opportunity (CCAO) site when the finalists are announced;
- Present their initiatives to a jury during the final winner selection event;
- Have their project also reviewed by a group of employees of Climate Change-Africa Opportunity (CCAO) and its partners, who will vote to choose their favorites (their votes will influence the judges during the final deliberation).
- The winners (up to 10) of the competition will:
- Receive a prize ranging from $ 1,000 to $ 5,000 depending on the quality of the initiative presented;
- As soon as the winners are announced, they will be highlighted on the public networks of Climate Change-Africa Opportunité (CCAO) and its partners;
- The 10 winners will be invited to participate in an accelerator raising their skills on systemic and collective impact with Climate Change-Africa Opportunité (CCAO) and its partners.
Eligibility Criteria
Participants must:
- Have the nationality of an African country at the time of their registration.
- Be over 18 years of age at the time of registration.
- To have new ideas, stratups and initiatives offering and or likely to offer services, indigenous and / or innovative technological solutions to improve African resilience to the challenges of climate change.
- Have been incorporated as a non-profit, for-profit or hybrid organization, or have a tax sponsor.
- Fluent in English and / or French (the winners may be involved in activities that require a good command of English or French)
Evaluation Criteria
- Impact: Initiatives must be able to demonstrate a positive social and / or environmental impact in the face of climate change in at least one of the five areas of interest of the competition. Applicants will be able to present qualitative and quantitative indicators used to monitor the progress of their initiatives. You will also need to be able to describe the potential impact of innovation on the future and how they attack the root of the problem.
- Innovation: The initiatives must present an original and creative approach which consists of an innovation, an innovative way of approaching existing solutions, or their applications to new contexts. They will be particularly interested in models that use this type of innovative approach, generating changes in problem design, having the power to lead to lasting and large-scale changes.
- Financial and Operational Viability: Participants should present realistic plans on how to generate long-term impact, by mobilizing financial, human resources, partnerships or support networks. Participants should describe not only how they currently fund their work, but also how they plan to fund it in the future.
- Stimulate change agents: The strategy of the initiative must include an approach which supports or multiplies the number of agents of change through inspiring stories, mobilization and sharing of resources or any other approach which leads to increasing the number of agents of change in the world.
- Growth and Leadership Potential: The initiatives must be feasible on a large scale and / or replicable in other social, cultural or geographic contexts. They must demonstrate leadership and team spirit to influence the field in which they work, encourage citizens to become agents of change and involve stakeholders as key actors contributing to the realization of their initiative, in order to to create positive change.
For more information, visit https://www.climatechangeafricaopportunities.org/en/opportunite/lireOpportunite.php?id=3