Better World Innovations

52 million girls and women in Sub Saharan African countries are out of school and worse enough 16 million will never set a food in a classroom, the result of this are economic hardship and exclusion. This solution is a life changer for the out of school young women and girls through exposure to; climate smart agriculture tools and techniques, training platform, employment opportunities and linkage to reliable markets. The 1,000 young women will be empowered with Agripreneurship skills, advisory support and linkage to reliable markets to overcome and adapt to climate change shocks and increase their capacity to produce enough food. The solution will provide both traditional and online training to reach to more young women in Sub Saharan African countries. The solution will give hope and promote economy inclusive for young women in rural areas to reduce their vulnerability to child marriages, poor health outcomes and economic hardships.

Globally, 132 million girls are out of school, out of which 39% are in Sub Saharan Africa (SOLVE website visited on 18th March 2020). The 52 million girls in Sub Saharan Africa will not have the opportunity to pursue formal tertiary education and training. According to a report by Kalito (2018). under the Camfed project, in Zambia 43,000 girls are dropping out of school annually. The result of this are; missed employment opportunities, economic exclusion and hardships, increased poverty levels, child marriages leading to maternal complications and deaths. Furthermore, due to lack of awareness and appropriate skills, women in rural communities are unable to adapt to climate change shocks making them more vulnerable to hunger and poor nutrition status, infectious diseases and STIs such as HIV. This solution provides an opportunity to the out of school young women to access both formal and informal training in climate smart agriculture and opportunity to own agriculture plot to adapt to climate change shocks. The solution will also build capacities of women to produce enough food and participate in Africa's 1 trillion USD agribusinesses by 2030 to feed 2 billion people.

This is a cost-effective training and empowerment program with a curriculum built on solid foundation of climate smart agriculture techniques and technology and Agripreneurship. This solution will offer formal and informal trainings using both the traditional classrooms and an online training platform to provide appropriate and conducive learning environments to young women and girls who completed high school and those who did not completed high school.The online training platform will use interactive technology and user friendly mobile responsive technology. The solution will identify and train 1,000 participants through local leaders and communities. The program will empower the targeted beneficiaries with agriculture plots, advisory support, linkage to micro-financing, government empowerment programs and market reliable platforms. The solution will introduce participants to climate smart technology such as weather stations, smart automated solar irrigation systems using internet of things technology and temperature sensitive supply chain system to reduce on food waste post-harvest.  Other techniques and skills will include conservation farming, intercropping, use of weather information and value chain processes. To enhance success the solution will provide advisory support and a reliable market platform.The team has launched an e-commerce platform to provide a reliable market platform for the anticipated participants. 

This solution will target the estimated 68 million girls and women in Sub Saharan Africa will never have access to formal education and decent employment opportunities. The study by Sampa et al (2018) reported that 35% of young adolescents in rural areas give birth by age of 18, majority being out of school-dropouts. The main contributors of school dropouts are economic hardships, child marriages, high poverty levels and death of parents or guardians mainly due to HIV/AIDS (Woller, 2010). This solution will bring back the hope and opportunities to young women and girls. The solution will build capacities of these groups to adapt climate change stress to produce more food, seek employment opportunities to earn incomes and afford decent meals. The solution will build capacities of future women and empower them to take up leadership positions to participate in decision making and national development. These women will have the capacity and skills to run viable business ventures and access funding from organizations that support women led organizations. The future women should have established economic independence to avoid gender-based violence and improved quality of life to lower maternal and newborn mortality rates. 

184 million girls worldwide are out of school and 16 million in Sub-Saharan Africa will never set foot in a classroom with the COVID19 pandemic disrupting more than 740 million girls in schools. In mitigate the adverse effect of this, the solution will provide a training opportunity to these young women and girls to increase their participation in training in Zambia and other Sub Saharan Africa countries. The increasing access to both formal and informal training will build capacities to adapt to climate change stress, produce more food, reduce vulnerability to child marriages, promote land ownership and employment opportunities.

This solution turns a traditional classroom and complex training into a comprehensive training to include informal and online training to increase participation of young women and girls in formal and informal training to adapt to climate change stress. The team will accredit the 6 weeks Agripreneurship training program with the Zambian Technical Education, Vocational & Entrepreneurship Training Authority (TEVETA) a life changing moment to forgotten out of school young women and girls. The Agripreneurship will be certifiable and recognized by employers in Zambia. Once the program is accredited the team will partner with local colleges to be offered a vocational training. This model will help the team to expand revenue base for scale up to training more young women and girls in rural communities. The team has launched an e-commerce platform to establish a robust domestic, regional and international market platform as part of the innovation for the anticipated young entrepreneurship.The e-commerce platform will also supply climate appropriate farming inputs to support high crop yield. Producers will also use the same platform to sell their products to be picked up by the same delivery vans reduce on transportation cost. The team will establish a supply chain software to management harvest yields for immediately transportation to reduce post-harvest food waste. The introduce of climate smart agricultures tools and mobile responsive e-commerce app will ignite the passion of young Africa entrepreneurs to participate in funding opportunities to run viable agribusinesses and contribute in attaining many of the sustainable development goals.       

The solution will include existing technology integrated into a new business model. The existing technology will include climate smart agriculture technology such as weather stations, smart irrigation system and solar pumps to support climate smart agriculture which are part of the training package. Other technologies include the online training platform to make the training affordable and accessible by more beneficiaries. The online platform will help to reach to more participants beyond Zambia creating a revenue base for the model. The team has also developed and launched an e-commerce platform called Parcel Express (www.bwi.co.zm/shop) a registered trademark to serve a market platform. On this platform the team is selling essential commodities to rural communities who usually exploited by local retailers, In return the delivery vans to support the online trading will collect products from farmers. The platform will also supply small-scale farmers with affordable farming inputs. The online trading platform is using widely accessed mobile payment platforms making is more user friendly for the local communities. The team will develop an application to manage stock crop-livestock levels to support the supply chain system. The supply chain with a system will supply urban outlets and supermarkets with fresh products.  Offering the online training, supplying farming inputs and operating urban outlets is part of our revenue model to scale up the solution beyond SOLVE solution funding.  

This solution has been informed by research and literature reviews from other projects. iDE global implemented a project 2015 called "self sufficiency" in Maheba refugee camps in Zambia to established networks of Farmer Business Advisors (FBAs) who then supported farmers with free trainings, advise, linkage to micro-finance and markets. The project achieved self sufficiency for the communities in Maheba refugee camp.

https://www.ideglobal.org/key-project/farm-business-advisors-address-food-security-in-zambia

DAPP Zambia with cooperation from World Food Programme (WFP) is implementing a project called Rural Resilience Initiative (R4) to support 2,700 farmers with risk disaster and safety nets, insurance, credit and savings. In it's pilot stage in 2016, the project trained 500 farmers and later scaled up to reach 2,700 farmers. This project has has achieved some milestones in sites where it is being implemented.

http://www.dappzambia.org/projects/the-zambian-family-south-centralzamfam-sc-project

A consortium of organizations launched an e-commerce platform called Zambiafresh to provide an online platform for small scale farmers to sell farm products. The platform has the potential to achieve positive provided the link between the platform and farmers is strengthened especially the rural communities.   

http://www.zambiafresh.com/

It is evident from these reviews that an integrated and well informed initiative has potential to achieve positive outcomes for small scale farmers in rural communities. Taking into account some successes and failures from other projects, the team is proposing a solid integrated training program supported by continuous hands on mentorship, access to finances or inputs and market. Key issues such gender issues, land tenure, assets and income ownership will also be addressed.

The team carried a needs assessment, a literature review and interviews involving government officials, cooperative executives, traditional leaders, senior lecturers, and focus group discussions were also conducted involving 300 women and youths to inform a solid solution. The team has already engaged the Technical Vocational and Entrepreneurship Training Authority (TEVETA) to obtain pre-requisites and procedures for accreditation. 

The team will start by holding key stakeholders meetings to mobilize and launched the solution. Using local leaders and cooperatives to identify and train 1,000 young women from the 4 districts in Agripreneurship. Additionally, 50 community farmers advisors will be identified from the same communities and oriented on mentorship and technical support. The team will engage out-grower scheme companies, financing and input companies as key partners through the process and to refocus the business plans that will be developed by participants. As part of the training participants will develop business plans to immediate agriculture activities. Ongoing mentorship will be provided by community farmer advisors to ensure support throughout the process. The immediate outputs will include; local leaders, cooperatives and partners engaged and participate, 1,000 young women and girls trained in Agripreneurship and 50 community farmer advisors recruited and oriented. The number of young women and girls receiving mentorship, financial and inputs support as well owning land is expected to increase. The goal of this solution is to empower young women and girls with climate smart agriculture skills, capital and linkage to market information and platform. This solution is aimed at achieving an increased number of participating in formal and informal training, increased capacity of future women to adapt to climate stresses improving crop-livestock yield. These young women will earn household incomes to afford basic needs, increase their employment opportunities and household to support their children into schools.   

The project long term goals will include; reduced women vulnerability to child marriages, gender-based violence due to dependence on men, and infectious disease such as HIV. Young women will be able to participate in leadership position and decision making promoting economy inclusion and food security improve the quality of life.      

The solution has not been deployed yet. In the next year, the team has planned to serve 900 young women and youths. The team has developed a 5 years plan and engaged the green climate fund through the secretariat for climate change office in Zambia to reach 30,000 small scale farmers and the primary beneficiaries are the underserved women and youths in rural communities in 15 districts worst affected by extreme weather events such as prolonged droughts, floods and unpredictable rainfall pattern.   

The goal of this solution is to build the capacity of young women and girls in agribusiness and climate smart agriculture skills empowering them to adapt to climate stresses within the next year. The long term goal is to ignite a new generation of women agripreneurs with access to land to engage in viable agribusiness to reduce vulnerability to gender-based violence and infectious disease, improve maternal and child health, and promote food security in Sub Saharan countries. In the next 5 years, the team has envisioned to empower more than 20,000 with climate smart agriculture skills to produce enough food and improve the health and nutritious status of future mothers. The main goal is to improve the standard of living of women in Sub Saharan countries.    

Some of the barriers that might be faced include; (1). Internal barriers are financial management, curriculum accreditation requirements, land acquisition and establishment of urban outlet shops. (2). External barriers include; majority of young women and girls in rural communities have no access to agriculture plots, extreme weather events and rainfed agriculture dependence resulting into low crop yields and food insecurity due to unpredictable rainfall patterns. Majority of small scale farmers have no access to financing and inputs for diversified agriculture activities. Additionally, farmers face barriers of access to reliable markets leading to 30% of food harvested going to waste making the business less profitable and attractive.   

Better World Innovation is legally registered organization with well established financial and management systems to ensure prudent use of resources. The advisory board members provide oversight to secretariat. The team has purchase land in market strategic areas for urban outlets. 100 hectares of land has been acquired to support the food production business and revenues model. Additionally, the team has launched an e-commerce platform to support the revenue base. To accredit the curriculum, the team has partnered with accredited training institutions for easy accreditation of the training program. The team has lobbed and received overwhelming support from local leaders to acquire agriculture plots for the solution.

Key partners have been mapped to provide micro-financing and farming inputs, some in form of out-grower schemes. To overcome extreme weather events, the training package will empower participates with appropriate climate smart agriculture techniques and practices such as conversation farming, water harvesting techniques and use of clean renewable energy smart irrigation systems to support all year round farming. To overcome expensive solar/wind powered irrigation system barriers, the team will collaborate with the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock which has allocated an empowerment funding amide COVID19 to support small scale farmers engaged in climate smart agriculture as a mitigation measure to reduce the impact of COVID19 on food security. To promote a reliable markets and reduce food waste, the team has lunched an e-commerce platform to purchase products from  farmers and sell in urban outlets. Additional markets will come from out-grower scheme providers and supermarkets. 

Better World Innovations (BWI) is a registered social enterprise building the capacity of small scale farmers and vulnerable groups i.e women and youths to adapt to climate stress to improve crop yields and household income. The goal of BWI is to contribute towards the attainment of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): 1,2,3,7,9 and 13, that is ending poverty and zero hunger, uplifting good health and the wellbeing of our people. This solution is in line with Better World Innovations' goal as it will build the capacity of young women and girls to adapt to climate stresses and engage in viable agribusiness.  

Total staff 12

Full time staffs: 3

Part-time staff: 9 volunteers  

This team is well positioned to implement this solution, it has the energy and passion to learn and serve communities. The team key driving force is the passion to serve the underserved rural communities. The 12 staffs has solid expertise and experience with complimenting skills. The team has solid expertise and experience in agronomy, clean renewable energy, agriculture engineering, smart agriculture, capacity building, banking, budgeting and accounting, business administration and entrepreneurship to mention just a few. This background coupled with skills and experience the team is well empowered to implement the solution with manageable risks. The team is committed to a 10 years social-business plan to improve the lives of underserved communities. To achieve this 10 years plan, the team will continue to build skills and knowledge in agribusiness as cornerstone for success. To enhance skills and build the capacity of team to implement successful community initiatives, Better World Innovations holds weekly mentorship programs where various agribusinesses and entrepreneurship topics are taught by different mentors. The mentors are drawn from farmers, government, entrepreneurs, local universities and cooperating partners such Embassies as well use of case studies. The team members have also attended several online training and webinars on various agribusinesses and smart agriculture.The team also attend conferences,forums and seminars to learning from others. Additionally, the team participates in different international platforms and technical working groups hosted by the Food Agriculture Organization and other key players.The team has also benefited from the MIT-SOLVE network and training during this application process. 

The team working the Zambia Cooperative Confederation (ZCF) to support small scale farmers in smart agriculture techniques and linking them to a market platform. The team has been working with the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock participating in stakeholders meetings, forums and policy development. We are also establishing synergies with the Economic Citizen Empowerment Commission (CEEC) to link rural communities to access start up finance and supporting them in refining business models. The team is working with the Market Association of Zambia to as strategy to support micro businesses to promote financial literacy and Internal saving lending schemes among marketers. The team is greatly benefiting from the Food Agriculture Organization platform getting various updates, key reports and publication and mentorship. The has partnered with the two academic institutions to in joint curriculum development for the Agripreneurship training package and join anticipated training. The team has signed a Memorandum of Understanding an Indian IT company SAFE Software and integrated Solutions to collaborate on software application. The team is working with local member of parliaments and traditional leaders in selected sites to understand community needs, promote solution ownership and lobby for land for the anticipated agriculture projects. Positively so far 300 hectares of land has been given for community initiatives.  

People in rural communities are subjected to inferior expensive essential commodities and farming inputs. Essentials commodities such as home groceries and off-grid solar systems are sold on exorbitant prices. Farming inputs are also expensive in rural areas retailers citing transportation costs. Sometimes markups between the manufacturing and retailers can go as higher 70% on farming inputs making it so expensive for young agribusiness entrepreneurs, and difficult for crop diversification. This solution will build a generation of agripreneurs as potential customers to buy affordable farming inputs from our e-commerce platform. The solution will also build potential customers among emerging entrepreneurs who will purchase essential commodities from the e-commerce platform. The increase in profit earnings from agribusinesses will increase the buying power and client base of rural communities. To make commodities affordable, the model will deliver essential commodities in designated pick points while in turn collecting products from farmers cutting on delivery costs. The team will also provide online training at a fee as way of broadening revenue base. Once the program has been accredited, the team will share profits with colleges through joint vocational trainings. The team will also charge students from vocational colleges an attachment fee for onsite field training in our center of excellence sites. In summary, this solution will essentials commodities and farming inputs to an increased client base, in turn buy their fresh quality products for sell in urban outlets and micro enterprises. The plan will also raise additional revenues from online and vocational trainings in colleges.           

The team will raise revenue beyond SOLVE funding by selling affordable essential commodities and farming inputs to the trained emerging young entrepreneurs using the e-commerce platform. Additional revenues will come from tuitions fees from the online and vocational training program. The team has planned to open 20 convenient and vegetable wholesale outlets across the country to sell fresh and quality agri-products complimented by other essential foods such as bakeries. The team is envisioning well trained young women entrepreneurs capable of produce quality products. To provide a reliable market for these young entrepreneur, the team will buy fresh and quality products from them to sell in densely populated urban cities with a market potential of more than 7 million people and more than 20,000 women stationed marketeers and 5,000 street vendors (hawkers) through outlets. The team has also developed a business plan to scale up production and its market size to Democratic Republic of Congo, Malawi, Zimbabwe and Namibia. The team will also gain revenue from online training and vocational in colleges Zambia, Botswana, Angola, Mozambique, Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia and Zimbabwe. The online training platform alone will target young women and small-scale farmers in Sub-Saharan countries with an enrolment potential of over 10 million prospecting participants. The business principle is to enroll as many participants as possible on an affordable tuition fee. The team is projecting to earn over 5 million USD from trainings alone. This revenue will help the team to raise capital for re-investment.    

Better World Innovations is social enterprise founded by a team of young professions who are pursuing a ambitious 50 years social business plan. The team is aware that such an ambitious plan will need requires self commitment, continues mentorship, network and most important the right skillsets. Therefore, the team this challenge as a great opportunity to learn throughout application process to enhance the teams skills. So far 4 out of the team members are participating in the Business and Impact Planning for Social Enterprises offered by MIT-SOLVE. The training will help the teams to refocus and refine the business model and adequate participate in this challenge. The main goal of participating in the SOLVE challenge is beyond finances, the team seeks to benefit from SOLVE's rich expertise and experience, training opportunities, mentorship, feedback, exposure and linkage to potential partners. The top priority and valuable asset for the team is to build the right skillsets and mentorship to refine our business model. The team is aware that SOLVE is strong networks with technology companies and therefore it love to benefit this network. A well tailored Agripreneurship training is key for the team to achieve the long term training goals. Therefore, the team will appreciate to get support and input from MIT SOLVE to refine training package. We believe that SOLVE has enough expertise, experience and networks to help us developed this training package. Lastly, the team see a long term relationship with SOLVE beyond this single challenge.      

The team is implementing an ambitious 50 years business model, the team is aware of globalization and dynamic business demands. To implement this ambitious plan, the team will need to constantly refine the model and network with other key players. Therefore, mentorship and support from partners will be of great value to continuously build the capacity and skills of team members. The team need support from donors, investors, accelerators and mentors to raise funds to scaling up and refine its business plan. In it's infancy stage the team need mentorship on marketing, business planning, networking, technology and exposure to learn from experts, mentors, companies and solver teams.   

The team is implementing a training package, therefore it will greatly benefit  from the MIT faculty and the broad expertise to refine the training package. the team is aware of MIT SOLVE rich expertise and network, and takes this as a great opportunity to partner any key partners and SOLVE members which will add value to the solution and organization capacity. The team has no specific names or members, therefore it is open to new synergies and networks with expertise and implementing similar solutions.  

Better World Innovations (BWI) support gender equality and promote women to take up leading in the organization. BWI recruit 40% men and 60% women. The core beneficiaries of the business plan are women, girls and youths in rural communities who are living on less than 1 dollars per day. According to the 7th Zambia National Development plan (2017), poverty levels in rural areas was estimated to be at 77.9 % compared to urban levels at 27.5%.  This high poverty levels in rural areas are contributing to the 43,000 girls who are dropping out of school every year and something needs to be. This prize will help and contribute to changing the lives of young women and girls in rural areas by increasing their participation in trainings and empowerment programs. The prize help to reach out to more young women, women headed households and women living with HIV with life saving skills and increase their capacity to adapt to climate change stress and shocks. The team will use the prize to start a resolving fund and village banking to help women scale small farmers engage in business ventures to improve household incomes and access to decent meals.  

Winning this prize help empower the team to train extra 250 young women and girls in rural communities increase the number of beneficiaries to 1,250 rural young women and girls. This will increase participation of young women and girls in both formal and informal training. The entrepreneurship will provide training in agriculture science, smart technology being currently used in sustainable food systems and the training will also exposure the underserved rural young women and girls to clean renewable energy for smart agriculture building their capacity to adapt to climate change stress and shocks. This will empower and promote these vulnerable groups to produce more food and participate in national development. The empowered young women and girls will be able to participate in leadership position including civil position and it also reduce women vulnerability to gender-based violence result from economy dependence on men. This will improve health outcomes, lower maternal and newborn mortality rates among women.