Fair Wages for charcoal producers

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, less than 15% of 80 million of inhabitants has access to electricity. The major source of energy is charcoal, every year, 5 millions  tons of wood are cut down to produce charcoal. The charcoal buisness revenus on the DR Congo zone is about 143 millions USD per year (Projet Makala/CIFOR,2011 ;Worlbank,2013). The charcoal sector is informal in DR Congo and employs more than 300 000 persons who don’t have power to negociate their wages. Charcoal producers based in rural areas are unfairly paid: less than 20 USD for 500 kg of charcoal produced wich sold expensive in urban area.

My team and i built a modern charcoal kiln with higher yields than tradidtionnal methods and less wood wastage. This will help charcoal workers to get formal jobs while using a  environmentally friend technology for charcoal manufacturing.

The problem i am adressing is the deforastion due to charcoal production and unfair paiement of charcoal producers. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, less than 15% of 80 million of inhabitants has access to electricity. The major source of energy is charcoal, every year, 5 millions  tons of wood are cut down to produce charcoal. The charcoal is produced by an old fashioned methods that causes woods waste and increase deforastion. abaout 68 millions of Congoleses use charcoal like fuel. according to Worlbank (2013), 77% of Congoleses are living in extreme poverty on less than 1.90 $ per day. more over, these people have to buy charcoal at 1$ per Kg everyday on their thin revenue.

We built and tested a charcoal kiln to replace the old fashioned process currently used for charcoal manufacturing. The charcoal Kilns will be installed in well located areas to identify clearly who are involved in the production process and pay them fairly. More over, Our technic is time effective and have a better charcoal yield. Time effectiveness and better yield will allow us to consume less woods thus cut less trees to produce charcoal and sell cheaper our product. 

Compared to traditional production of charcoal, our process is time effective: 55 h per batch instead of one month for traditional technique currently used. The charcoal yield is better than traditional methods.  34 % versus 24 % or less typically 17 % (Temmerman, 2016) for traditional methods.

The literacy rate is very low in the villages where charcoal is produced; this project will create jobs appropriate for these disadvantaged inhabitants.  The production sites will be implanted close to these villages in order to create jobs for some members of these communities sometimes discriminated for good jobs. We discuss a lot with these people about their wages and most of them are very enthousiast to hear about our project.

charcoal customers will also be satified because our charcoal will be sold 0.4$ cheaper per Kg compared to actual average price.

The charcoal yield is better than traditional methods.  34 % versus 24 % or less typically 17 % (Temmerman, 2016) for traditional methods. Every year, 5 millions tons of woods are carbonized to get charcola using traditional processes. If our Process where used all over the CONGO territory, we would save about 1.5 millions tons of Woods per year from deforestation or 18 000 Ha of lands.

Unfair Wages of Congoleses charcoal producers will be solved by integrating them in a solid network of charcoal producers using moder thehnics.

The deforastion issue due to charcoal production  will be solved by using a modern charcoal production processe involving a metallic kiln with high charcoal yield. A wooods wastage reduction of 1.5 millions tons

Charcoal users (68 millions of Congolese) among whom 77% leaves on less than 1.90$ per  day can afford paying charcoal 0.4 $ cheaper beacause the new process we will introduce will consumme less woods and less time to produce the same amount of charcoal.

Our solution use modern charcoal kiln to produce charcoal from woods with high yield. A competitor start up called Makala bio is producing charcoal using domestic organic waste. unfortunately their product is sold 5 $ more expensive and is will not be able to supply every custumers because they face rawmaterial shortage.

Our solution use the same raw material as existing processes but consumme less woods and is more rapid, it take 55 h to produce the same amount of charcoal that is produced in 2 weeks using traditional technics.

our solution has a charcoal yield of 34% versus 14% for traditional process, we consumme less woods!Our metallic kiln  caracterised by a mean  charcoal yield of 34 %. This 10 % gap compared to traditionnal means presently used, if filled in using our technology, would help to preserve about 1 500 000 tonnes of woods per year

Our core technology consists of a Modern transportable metallic Kiln for charcoal carbonization. We aim to train charcoal workers to move from their old fashionned charcoal production practice to a modern tool. 

Charcoal manufacturing currently use inefficient traditionnal processes with poor yield. The yield of these processes reach 24 % but are typically less than 17% according to Temmerman (2016).According to AFREA (2011), in Africa, 9 tonnes of CO2 are emited per tonne of charcoal produced when using the traditional charcoal production methods. This poor yield is responsible of woods wastage.  Our technology is faster and very efficient on charcoal yield: 34%.

Our type of transportable metallic kilns originated in Europe in the 1930’s. During the World War 2, the Technique was further developped by the United Kingdom forest products research laboratory. Various versions have been used in many countries like Uganda, Namibia, etc (FAO, 2019). This type of kiln is still used in UK, Australia, etc.

The charcoal sector is informal in DR Congo and employs more than 300 000 persons who don’t have power to negociate their wages.

With our technology, we are creating a company that will hire legally charcoal workers for goods careers. Charcoal production site are located in villages that are surrounding where litteracy rate is very low thus their are unable to fight for their right.More over, the intense use of our technology will reduce harms to environment. 

The benefit of the project on rural communities based around the production sites will be their partake in the local workforce. A better quality product will be available for sale at a price affordable for all social strata of the Congolese population.

The small scale tests we are running with our kiln model has demonstrated that we can produce charcoal faster than traditionnal means (55 h Vs 1 month) thus sell our product cheaper : 0.4 $ cheaper than our competitors who use traditionnal methods. This 0.4 USD economy is important for millions who live on less than 1.90 $ per day (World bank, 2013). We are currently base in Lubumbashi town. We can afford paying 10 USD per day to our workers , this is 2 times the guaranteed minimum industrial wage in DR Congo (décret n° 18/017 du 22 mai 2018 portant fixation de « SMIG », RDC).

If our model of organisation were applied all over the DR Congo, at least 300 000 charcoal workers would benfit the advantages that our technology and orgabisation provide.

currently, our solution is serving 5 people in directly in the production line. Our organization is  running  at  small  scale (trial)  the  project  in  the  city  of  Lubumbashi, we are producing and selling 640 charcoal bags (4 Kg per bag) per month, serving 21 households composed of 7 persons in helping them buy charcoal 0.4$ cheaper. 

in one year we aim to reach 20 000 people impacted by our solution. in five years we aim to serve 150 000 people at minimum.

Presently we are only selling 2.5 tons of charcoal per month in Lubumbashi town. This city is inhabited by 2 000 000 inhabitants living  in  7 communes. The  type  of  flora  present  in  and  around  the  town  of Lubumbashi makes possible the large scale production of charcoal. The annual consumption of charcoal in the city of Lubumbashi is estimated to 200 000 tones (World bank, 2013, deduction).

We want to extend our production to reach after 8 months 100 tons per month and after 3 years to reach 100 000 per year and save 125 000 tons of woods from cutting down. To reach this scale, we hope that international donors, private sector and non-profit organizations would help.

In five years, about 150 000 persons will be positively impacted by our project for fair wages and fair price of charcoal.

Barriers are:

- Financial: lack of money to extend the impact of our solution;

- Technical: not enough mean of production (material);

To overcome the financial barrier we are looking for grants or funding to get the needed Investment capital to start the expansion of our solution.

To overcome the technical barrier, we will capital from grants or funding to build reactors and production equipements.

10 people are currently working on the solution: 

3 full time staff

2 part time

2 contractors

1 consultant

My team is well positioned beacause it is composed of passionated people, most of them are engineers with skills and knowledge on charcoal manufacturing and environmental impact assessment. The team is very motivated beacause we are facing challenges we want to adress, we are leaving in the community and use also charcoal for our needs.

Below an abract of people composing the team

Name

Function

Academic degree

MASENGO WA UMBA Joé

CEO/Manager Research and Developpement

MSC. Chemical engineering

MUNDEKE NTAMBWE Prince

Technical Director

Mining engineer. BSc

ILUNGA MULEDI Jonathan

Consultant : environnemental impact assessment

PhD. Agricultural engineer: agroforestry

KAMAND KABEY Hans

Planning et production

Chemical engineer, BSc

NO. We are fighting alone for the moment.

The literacy  rate is very  low  in  the  villages  on  the  outskirts  of  the  cities in Africa, our solution will create jobs appropriate for these disadvantaged inhabitants.  The production sites of our solution will be implanted close to these villages in order to create jobs for some members of these communities sometimes forgotten. The benefit of the project on rural communities based around the production sites will be their partake in the local workforce. 

for rural populations involved in charcaol buisness, we will help guarantee with fair wages (10 USD per day), for people living in urban areas, we will well them charcoal cheaper to a fair price. A better quality product will be available for sale at a price affordable for all social strata of the Congolese population. 

To launch effectively the Buisness, we will look for donations or grants as an impulsion. After, we we build plants and start the production, we will be selling charcoal bags in urban areas to generate income and support finacially our organisation.

we will aim for the first year an annual income of 248 832 USD, the annual net profit will be of 174 182 USD. 

We are applying because it has been more than one year when we started to experiment our solution, built prototype and collected data but unfornately, when the time came to extend the solution, it was almost impossible to get grants, donations or funding locally. When we heard about Solve, we knew that it was the branch we were looking for to get our solution to another level.

we need parteners who can help us in grants or funding research beacause the financial barrier is the one that is currently stopping our solution to move forward. advices on funding and buisness model will help us to grow our knowledge and our potential to find parteners.

For financial matters, we would like to partener with GM for Good Jobs to overcome the financil barrier. we would like to partener with MIT Faculty For advices on buisness model.

We are qualified for this prize because our solution involve informal workers in charcoal sector who can't afford negotiating for fair wages in their sector. Also, this category of workers are using old fashionned manufacturing methods that are not very efficient making them working hard for low results and income. With our technology, we will help them working more efficiently reducing injuring risks and include them in a legal organization where their rights will be respected.

On the other hand, we will sell at low price a good quality charcoal product to vulnerable population who is living on less than 1.90$ per day.

My team will use the GM prize to give an impulsion to our solution in building facilities and installing equipement to start charcoal production in hiring legally charcoal workers with a guarentee of fair wage of 10 USD per day (to times more than the legal lower limit.