Open Call for African Climate Innovation Challenge

The African Climate Innovation Challenge is jointly developed and implemented by 3 E’s 4 Africa (3E4A), Green Africa Youth Organization (GAYO) and Start. Up Lounge Africa (SLA). This project targets the innovative young African changemakers to encourage and empower them to make a difference in their communities.

Objectives

• Helping African communities build resilience and adapt to the adverse effects of climate change locally.
• Empowering youth and local communities in Africa by providing skills, and tools and knowledge they need to create local impact.
• Integrational knowledge sharing: bringing together local traditional practices with scientific or modern methodologies.
• Addressing and solving climate challenges through entrepreneurship and innovation in Africa.

Curriculum

• The ACIC curriculum consists of training and workshops led by experts as well as coaching sessions and P2P sessions between mentors and participants. A total of 4 main modules make up the ACIC curriculum, each with sub-topics that make up the various training sessions of the curriculum.
  • Climate Change Adaptation and Sustainability
  • Empowerment and Community Relevenace
  • Soft and Human Skills
  • Product and Business Development

Benefits

• Tailor-made curriculum for all participants to further develop their startups.
• Pitch your startup and solutions at a gathering of major climate stakeholders and an international audience.

Funding Information

• Up to USD 10,000 in prize money for winning startups to directly implement their innovative start-up ideas in their communities.

Eligible Solutions

• Any innovative business solution that strives to help local communities mitigate or adapt to the adverse impacts of climate change and promote sustainability in general. For example:
  • A business idea that proposes a solution or enables farmers to deal with harsh weather conditions (e.g. longer drought periods) would qualify as a climate change adaptation solution;
  • A business idea that proposes a solution or enables people in your community to reduce CO2 or methane emissions would qualify as a climate change mitigation solution.
• Please note that in this year’s edition of the ACIC, they explicitly want to focus on startups or teams who already have a prototype or MVP built. They will not select projects still at the ideation stage.

Eligibility Criteria

• Before applying, make sure your team is willing and able to commit to the requirements of ACIC.
• Your startup should be a team of at least 2 people. Applications from startups with less than 2 people will not be considered.
• Although not required, they specifically want to encourage female-led teams and teams with 40% – 50% female participants to apply.
• All the members of your team must be of African descent and based in Africa.
• Your startup must be focused around climate change mitigation and/or climate change adaptation.
• Your start-up should be atleast at the prototype or MVP stage. They will not consider projects still at the early or ideation stage
• All members of your team must be between 18 and 35 years old.
• All members of the team must have a good mastery of either English or French

Selection Criteria

• A clear focus on climate change adaptation and/or mitigation: Climate change is a global crisis and poses a significant threat, particularly to Africa. This challenge however could be the opportunity to rethink their ways of living and their interactions with their environment, especially when it comes to the way they do business. Only those start-ups or concepts that enable communities to adapt to the adverse effects of climate change or that significantly contribute to mitigating climate change will be selected as this is the specific focus of the ACIC.
• Innovation: In the face of new crises and threats, they need new solutions and out-of-the-box thinking. The novelty of your concept and approach to solving this crisis will definitely set you aside compared to other applicants and that’s what they will be paying great attention to
• Community relevance & Impact: Any solution or concept that doesn’t meet the needs and demands of the community or those affected is not a solution but rather an additional problem. They want concepts that have or can have a significant impact on the lives of those affected and for this, they should be particularly relevant for the communities in question.
• Traction: What have you and your team achieved beyond the prototype or the MVP? Which crucial milestones have you reached? They want teams or start-ups who have already set a robust foundation with their work so that the prize money can give them the additional push they need to get to the next level.

For more information, visit Green Africa Youth Organization.