2018/21 CIV Innovation

Four innovation projects are planned for 2018-21 under lot CIV. The Super Youths pilot will address the potential of youths as promoters of Sustainable Agricultural Practices (SAP), which are now needed more than ever in a setting where drought is becoming more frequent. Intentionally, the youth involvement in agriculture and interaction with farmer associations will eventually attract them to become active members of the associations and the local civil society in their rural areas. The Solar Sack pilot is exploring the potential of the SolarSack as an Income Generating Activity (IGA) for the beneficiaries of our development programmes. The SolarSack, developed by the SolarSack Company, is a low-cost container that can purify four litres of water, chemical-free, in four hours using the technique of solar pasteurization. This is an alternative to boiling water, which removes the need for wood fuel to boil water. Another partner in innovation is the newly established Danish socio-economic engineer company researching in solar power solutions Pesitho, who has developed a clean solar-powered multipurpose kitchen prototype, the ECOCA. The ECOCA provides a potential solution to the deforestation taking place around many refugee settings and offers at the same time a range of solutions to the daily life challenges faced by the typical poor rural household that Caritas Denmark supports. Subject to the successful prototype test of the ECOCA, another test will be undertaken for the start-up of local production of the ECOCA in northern Uganda, where an assembly unit and related value chain structures will be formed in the local area. The unit (and the profit accumulated from it) is envisaged to be owned by the producers, similar to a cooperative model, and is expected to contribute to local employment and poverty reduction, besides easing access to the product and to repair services for the users. Finally, Caritas Denmark plans to build local capacity in AITI Advisory Services in Uganda on a test basis and encourage formation of an Uganda IATI network. The detailed design of this pilot is pending the outcomes of an ongoing needs assessment.