Four innovations improving stability and resilience in fragile and conflict-affected environments
Meet the four innovations working on resilience and food and water security in fragile environments through our Stability-and-Peace Accelerator.
By: Jackie Negro
The global challenge of hunger and malnutrition is felt most acutely in fragile and conflict-affected settings (FCAs), where over 1.5 billion people face unprecedented threats to food security and livelihoods.
The WFP Innovation Accelerator and the CGIAR Initiative on Fragility, Conflict and Migration, in partnership with the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), launched the Stability-and-Peace Accelerator to identify and support innovation development and the scaling of high-potential and high-impact innovations that bolster food, land and water systems in these vulnerable regions.
The accelerator focuses on supporting low- and high-tech innovations working in fragile contexts in Jordan, Kenya and Nigeria. The solutions are innovative, sustainable and scalable, with the potential to create lasting positive change in some of the world’s most challenging geographies.
After a competitive selection process, four ventures — Aquaporo, Conflict Forecast, iPlant and Koolboks — entered into a WFP Innovation sprint programme.
Currently, these four ventures are concluding their sprint programme with IWMI, Alliance of Bioversity and CIAT, the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture and the WFP Innovation Accelerator, where they are receiving funding, tailored business coaching and technical assistance from CGIAR researchers to scale and progress their impactful innovations.
The programme partners have also had the opportunity to support innovation development and scaling processes on the ground through in-country workshops that helped the programme team dive deeper into the ventures’ needs and develop a plan for effective implementation at scale.
Learn more about the Stability-and-Peace Accelerator cohort below:
Aquaporo
With climate change intensifying already severe water scarcity, Jordan is struggling with droughts, water over-abstraction and pollution. These challenges are compounded by refugee influxes diminishing the per capita water availability.
AquaPoro has developed state-of-the-art residential and commercial appliances that provide clean, drinkable water for domestic, office, school, clinic, community and farm use. Their devices are designed to provide water directly from the air in any region, climate or environment. Even in most dry climates, the domestic water harvesting device can produce 15–20 litres of water per day at a price point of US$0.06 per litre, as opposed to US$0.50 per litre for purchased water. The team is partnering up with local banks to provide these devices on a loan that can be paid over one and a half years.
iPlant
In Jordan, approximately 10,000 urban residents grapple with water scarcity and limited space for traditional farming despite having access to basic infrastructure. The challenge intensifies for 5,000 of these individuals, particularly those in densely populated areas, facing hurdles in adopting sustainable agricultural practices.
iPlant has developed an innovative low-water and energy-use urban agriculture system featuring smart irrigation and vertical farming units specifically designed to address the space limitations of urban living in Jordan. iPlant is ideal for women managing household food production or small urban farming businesses. The units can be installed in various spaces, indoors or outdoors. It reduces the need for physical labor and eliminates reliance on rural land, making urban agriculture more accessible and efficient. As a result, iPlant can use up to 70 percent less water and 60 percent less energy than conventional farming methods.
Conflict Forecast
Violent events not only cause immediate suffering but have secondary impacts by disrupting access to critical infrastructure and services. Physical or operational barriers can severely interrupt or restrict people’s ability to reach and use critical infrastructure and services.
Conflict Forecast helps decision-makers visualize conflict events by integrating multiple conflict datasets with socioeconomic, population density, critical infrastructure and services data at the subnational level. Using a methodology that combines machine learning and natural language processing, Conflict Forecast predicts disruptions in access to critical services following potential events of riots or conflict.
It then displays this data in multi-layered maps for resource planning and allocation. The operationalized data is made available specifically for humanitarian agencies and coordinating service providers to enable better preparedness.
Koolboks
The lack of reliable, off-grid refrigeration in crisis-affected areas of Nigeria leads to food spoilage and loss, as well as limited access to essential services like lighting and energy for phone charging. Ultimately, this impacts economic stability and quality of life in these areas.
Koolboks uses solar-powered freezers to harness the power of sunlight and water in the form of an ice battery technology to provide 24-hour cooling for up to four days. It features Internet of Things (IoT) technology for predictive maintenance, ensuring reliability and reducing breakdowns. The lease-to-own model with pay-as-you-go (PAYG) technology makes the innovation affordable for low-income users. Koolboks helps preserve food, offers essential services like lighting and phone charging and supports economic stability in fragile and conflict-affected settings. Its unique value lies in its affordability, multi-functionality and extended temperature retention.
What’s next
The four innovations are now entering the final phase of their sprint before they reflect on the last six months of progress.
To culminate their experience, all four ventures will showcase their solutions in the virtual Stability-and-Peace Accelerator pitch event on 4 December 2024 at 14:00 CET. There, innovators will take the stage to share their solutions’ effectiveness and the results of their sprint programme.
The pitch event is free and open to the public — we hope to see you there!
Learn more about the Stability-and-Peace Accelerator.
Thanks to CGIAR’s Fragility, Conflict and Migration Initiative and the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) for their support and collaboration in executing the Stability-and-Peace Accelerator.
Register for the 4 December pitch event to learn more about these innovations.
The WFP Innovation Accelerator sources, supports and scales high-potential solutions to end hunger worldwide. We provide WFP colleagues, entrepreneurs, start-ups, companies,\ and non-governmental organizations with access to funding, mentorship, hands-on support and WFP’s global operations.
Find out more about us: http://innovation.wfp.org
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