Crossing space, connecting people: the story that comes with a little cook stove

Cross-published on Youth Exchange of Perspectives

When I read through Jared’s updates of his time in China, he reminded me the fundamental cultural exposure and experience that are essential in a cross-cultural encounter. It is an element I sometimes neglect while I am carrying a more important personal “global environmental” agenda with me to Kenya for the second time. Despite being a researcher of environmental issues this time, I find myself still a “CUYCEer (or YEPer now)” even though I am a continent away from both China and the U.S. It is not my intention to devote my first blog on this site to talk about my experience in none of the two countries, but I have to say my life in Kenya and the other life with YEP are so much intertwined on so many aspects. One is feeding the growth of another. It is a continuously and organically evolving curly cue. Therefore I hope the story that comes with my interest in cook stove in Kenya will shed some light on “youth for sustainability” across the border to my fellow YEPers.

To make a lengthy story short, before the UN Climate Change meeting in Cancun, I had been interning at the UN Environmental Program in Nairobi, Kenya for half a year. Having attended the previous climate meeting in Copenhagen and felt at home with the international youth climate movement, I readily become a devotee to the African Youth Initiative on climate change Kenya chapter (AYICC-K) even before I landed Nairobi. Because of my personal interests in cook stoves in less developed countries (another “carry-over” interest from my time with Energy Crossroads Denmark), members of AYICC-K introduced me to a slew of youth-led community-based organizations across Kenya that are engaged with improved cook stove dissemination. One such visit was to the Tembea Youth Center for Sustainable Development, close to the northern shore of Lake Victoria in the western part of Kenya. It was just an overnight visit and once again I am drawn back to the African sun that shines a billion things to life. This time I am back for the summer to both conduct research for my honor thesis and to rekindle the inspirations and enthusiasm that I had from my equally energetic young Kenyan friends.

Then here comes what is “curly cue” about it. Out of last year’s visits and interactions with my fellow AYICCers, together around eight of us started the Rural Energy Enterprises Network, or REEN (just to add more acronyms for your information). Therefore this year’s research trip is also intended to generate knowledge to build the foundation upon which REEN delivers its vision. But it is preciously with CUYCE and YEP since Copenhagen that I come to understand and learn what it takes to plant a seed, nurture and grow it. Yes the equatorial African landscape and soil is a completely different picture from that of China and the U.S., the good ingredients of exchange, partnership and collaboration are more or less the same. The same passion – the belief in bridging individuals and building networks to defend planetary sustainability and the confidence in the young people of the world to deliver grand vision – takes me from China to the U.S., from Copenhagen to Cancun, and onto Kenya.

And we are blessed with possibilities, of which we can make changes. What my young colleagues in Kenya inspire me the most are their creativity and entrepreneurship in tackling climate change, environment and development issues. Tembea, which I base my research on, has recently engaged in a carbon offset project that aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through the diffusion of energy efficient cook stoves. In many parts of the world, people are still cooking with open fires made of three stones or other types of traditional stoves deemed “grossly inefficient.” The heavy and toxic smoke coming out of these stoves is killing some 1.6 million people worldwide (especially women and children,) annually, not to mention the trees being cut down and other environmental and health issues. At least the WHO says so, and many more (governments and donors alike) who are concerned with energy supply and deforestation in developing countries and their consequence globally.

In a much prolonged two-year long pilot phase, Tembea has constructed over 1600 energy efficient cook stoves in rural households, maintained 50 artisans or technicians (male and female, mostly young people) and facilitated over 130 community saving and loaning groups. The new stoves are also called “rocket stove” for its internal air and fire tunnel, and is about 50% more efficient than the traditional three stone open fire. Tembea, with funding from a carbon project developer based in Europe, subsidizes the stove to only cost households 500 Kenya Shiling (less than 6 dollars). The saving groups function to help members pay for the stove, as well as to support members with financial and other socio-economic needs. Tembea also intends to train these groups to act as empowered grassroots unit to be able to lobby for their own interests in the government system in the near future.

As a carbon-financed project in the premier voluntary carbon market, this stove program is soon to benefit from carbon credits priced around 20 Euros per ton of carbon dioxide saved. One cook stove is estimated to save 1-2 ton a year, and the plan is to install 7, 200 stoves in a 7 year project life cycle. The math is looking good, only if everything goes well with the carbon registration and validation process with Gold Standard. It has a highly complex project set up, involving many stakeholders, monitoring and validation processes. It has been an assiduous journey to fulfill the various requirements demanded by the offset standards.

This is why you often hear high transaction costs associated with small scale carbon project (with many individual components) and a general lack of capacity to implement carbon-financed projects in Africa. Tembea’s collaboration with the European-based carbon developer therefore has a lot to offer in terms of capacity building for the whole continent. On the other hand, I also look into challenges, issues of equity, and even systemic pitfalls a carbon offset project like this faces, hence the effectiveness of it to address climate change and sustainable development. Whatever the term means. Carbon offset has good potential, but that’s the only solution.

Eight hours away from Tembea, in a place near the capital city Nairobi, another youth-led enterprise is doing something similar, but in a very different approach. Several days ago when I went back to Nairobi to renew my American visa, I had the chance to revisit Peter Thuo, the owner of GreenTech Inc. and director of Ruiru Youth Center for Empowerment Program. From the latter to the former, Peter has moved from raising awareness of HIV/AIDS, constructing efficient cook stoves, onto building biogas digestors, greenhouse for vegetables and energy briquette made of waste materials. For Peter, innovating keeps him burning and a social enterprise model is what works the best in his case.

And this is where REEN strives to come in to the exchange of ideas and expertise among these resourceful youth groups and give birth to new enterprises that will thrill in their particular environment. It is a REEN for Kenyans, for Africans and for all who are young, energetic, sympathetic and eager to meet the challenge of our world. It is the same energy that fuels my engagement with CUYCE/ YEP, as well as REEN. At the same time, I see many ways in which lessons can be learned from one enterprise to another, no matter where and who they are. People need to communicate with one another, no matter the region, tribe or color.

By now I could have started writing a book of my time in the middle of nowhere in this Kenya village, just to tell you how different life is here. Where I am with Tembea in one of the poorest regions in Kenya, electricity connection rate is around 2% and I am lucky to have water to shower in bucket. Half of the population in rural area lives under literally “1 dollar a day.” Half of the staff at Tembea has only high school degree and most are below the age of 25. For the past 8 years they have accomplished a list of social and environment projects with an inventory of local and international partners, with very limited resources. For most of them, personal computers and Internet are rare species and the round talks with the UN are still too remote and surreal.

In the past several months, I have been grateful on the receiving end of the hard work YEPers have engaged and delivered. For all of you have enlightened me to take a parallel path on another side of the planet. Everyone is doing fascinating work on your end. I wish to bring your more stories in the following days.

Readings and Notes from Social Entrepreneurship Class at Amherst College

First session, Jan 11th 2011

The Social Entrepreneurship has started today and the readings and speakers have been quite fascinating, intriguing and thought-provoking (although I need to take a critical view of the emphasis and structure of the course itself) . My first reaction (to everyone now involved in the Renewable Energy Enterprises Network, REEN) is that in terms of developing ourselves as a social enterprise that seeks to seed more of such, we really need to build our own knowledge base of what it actually means as inspired practitioners. So I would really encourage you to take time and effort to do some studies in the context of REEN and the broader socio-political-economic environment it is situated with a critical eye.

I have the list of very helpful readings from today's class with some highlights and keywords.
You can find the course materials through here http://seinterterm2011.weebly.com/index.html
and I will try to keep my reflections on the readings and class on my blog (yes push me if I do not deliver since I think this is important and will post today's notes later).

Readings from today (in order of relevance and helpfulness of these materials)

"In Kenya, Huts Far Off the Grid Harness the Sun.” Elisabeth Rosenthal – 12-25-2010 – Front page NYT

This article basically outlined the business case and a nascent market for what REEN can provide in its full-fledge especially when it comes to off-grid solar systems. In the article it cited several cases and places where good busniess models seem to be up and running -- potential resources for us. And the rest of the stuff we already know so be proud.

Everyone a Changemaker:SE's ultimate goal

Download File by Bill Drayton

Working with these social entrepreneurs, Ashoka builds
communities of innovators who work collectively to transform
society, and to design new ways for the social sector to become
more productive, entrepreneurial and globally integrated. There
are now over 1,750 Ashoka leading social entrepreneurs, and
Ashoka serves over 60 countries.

Key words: citizen sector, multiplying society's capacity, pattern-changing leading social entrepreneurs, results-based mission and operation, transforming the youth years, underlining skills for young enterprises: applied empathy, teamwork and leadership

Building a Performance Measurement System
File Size:	1777 kb
File Type:	pdf

Download File by Root Cause

"Performance measurement provides vital information for advancing
social innovation: the process of developing, testing, and honing
new and potentially transformative approaches to existing social
issues. With the right performance metrics, data, and analysis in
hand, social innovators—nonprofit organizations, government agencies, and businesses that offer innovative, results-driven solutions tosocial problems—can make well-informed management decisions to drive continuous improvement and long-term social impact." This document is a step-by-step, practical guide to create or strengthen a customized performance measurement system for: ƒƒ Start-up or existing nonprofit organizations (including direct service, advocacy, associations/networks, and capacity-building organizations).

Results (magnitude) in various activities and metrics are crucial to measure the social and environmental impacts of REEN or other seedling organizations. Setting the standards prior to the execution of the projects seems to be important if we are to ensure the resource efficiency of our organization and the effectiveness of our work.

Class Notes Jan 11th, 2011:

Notes from social Entrepreneurship Interim class At Amherst

SE: “a social entrepreneur recognizes a social problem and uses entrepreneurial principles to organize, create and manage a venture to achieve social change.” Wiki

A SE is not a risk taker in the sense that he or she plan, does research, and strategize

Takes Imagination, gives flexibility

“SEs are not content just to fish or teach how to fish. They will not cease until they have revolutionalized the whole fishing industry. " CEO Ashoko

Major themes in the SE concepts in this course:

ü Profitable: could be in several years, not relying solely on grant money

ü Sustainable:

ü Scalable: easy to duplicate and spreadable

ü Measurable:e.g. SE vs private venture: SE has to have a built-in social impact measurement system

*Be aware of unintended processes, contents or products for potential social disasters.

Guest speaker: Dean’s Beans' founder Dean Cycon

Global coffee supply chain:95% of people involved in the raw coffee bean production are marginalized indigenous people.

Cotton uses 50% of words pesticides supply, coffee plantation only the second

Language barriers of indigenous ppl prevent them from broader participation in the global

Kenya: failed case: advocate for bean plantation free of pesticides
because: donated by German and American aid agencies who require Kenyan government to buy these pesticides.

Q:How has your enterprise be able to contribute to the revolutionization of policy making and global supply chain practices? Given the failure in Kenya, what are the situations competing with traditional aid agencies?--> not all aid programs are bad, just need to be cautious of the tie-backs and strings attached to it.

Three pillars of Dean’s Beans' operation and other strategies:

Economics, ecology and People-centered development (meaning trade relationship built on development in the community, identify comunities' priority based on cash and equity available at Bean’s Dean. Some projects go on for 15 years)

Listening and observing

Facilitating program design and funding: gender violence, not a lack of funding, address fundamental challengesn in the community, not necessarily what outsiders see as important.

Case: Guatemala

Designing a women’s healthcare fund financed by the distribution and management of micro-loans. Promoting indigenous radio programs that provide crop and market information for coffee farmers.

Different from having intermediate micro-credit manager who sometimes sucks away a lot of money. We want micro-bank come in to teach women how to run the program. So women run their own banks. Interests payment channeled into a common pool, which took four years. Manageable size matters. Lasted 8 eight years but shrank back after uncontrollable size.

Peru:assisting coops of 300 families to enter the American market. Funding reforestation and women’s loan program.

Question: who monitors the funds? What happens when borrowers failed to reply?-- will continue the discussion with this guy via email.

How does a progressive funders keep its enterprises embedded mission as it progresses on and have a change of leadership, or when facing acquisition attempts by bigger corporations?

Growth is an outcome of business done well, not the ultimate goal

Fish Farms, With a Side of Greens

Just came across an interesting piece from the NYTimes talking about the combination of aquaculture and hydroponics, and Clarice, here you go, closed-loop agricultural system!

However，"Brett Roe, who investigated ecologically integrated production systems at the University of Queensland in Australia, cautioned that it might not be a cure-all. 'Aquaponics offers decentralized food security on a small scale, and reuse of resources,' he said. 'Every little bit helps. But in developing countries it may make better sense to culture fish in ponds and use the wastewater on land-based crops; a simple linkage of aquaculture and crop farming that has the same general effect of reusing resources and can be practiced in a larger scale of economy.'”

The Kenya project is carried out in conjunction with the Baobab Trust in Mombassa, http://www.thebaobabtrust.com/projects.html

By GENEVIEVE ROBERTS

LONDON — In the Lowlands of Scotland, an old fire station donated to the community of Moffat for a symbolic penny has been converted into what may be the farm of the future. Forget about fields. Forget even about established norms of industrial agriculture. Using a new technology known as aquaponics, the Moffat farm, due to start production at the end of this month, will churn out fish and vegetables by the ton, in a space equivalent to a small factory.

Aquaponics — a combination of aquaculture, or fish cultivation, and hydroponics, or water-based planting — utilizes a symbiotic relationship between fish and plants. Fish waste provides nutrients for the plants, which in turn filter the water in which the fish live. Cuttings from plant are composted to create food for worms, which provide food for the fish, completing the cycle.

“Aquaponics is a method of delivering multiple crops with minimum input, through a closed-loop method of farming,” said Charlie Price, founder of Aquaponics UK, the nonprofit organization that runs the farm.

A kilogram, or 2.2 pounds, of fish food, produces at least 50 kilograms of vegetables and 0.8 kilogram of fish, he said. “As the ecosystem becomes self-sustainable, the fish food comes from the worms, so the entire cycle is free.”

Mr. Price’s organization is working internationally with food production projects in India, Afghanistan and several African countries, including Uganda, Kenya and Namibia. But it also works closer to home. Its next project is a city farm shop in London at which people will be able to pick their own salads and choose fish for their supper from giant tanks.

The store, called Farm:shop, in the Borough of Hackney, was created by Something & Son, a design company, working with the local council. It hopes to make direct links between the city neighborhood and the realities of farming. A location has been secured, and the project is in the late stages of acquiring funding.

The potential for urban farming is being explored in Milwaukee, where some of the leading aquaponics entrepreneurs are based. Sweet Water Organics, an urban aquaponics company, raises perch and leafy green vegetables in an old factory that housed a mining company until the 1950s. The farm, founded by James Godsil and Josh Fraundorf in January 2009, has sold thousands of fish and produces about 70 kilograms of vegetables a week. It is expanding rapidly, and plans to produce between 360 and 450 kilograms of greens a week and to grow tens of thousands of kilograms of perch in coming years.

Mr. Godsil and Mr. Fraundorf learned the techniques largely from Will Allen, an urban farmer and winner of a MacArthur “genius” fellowship, and through trial and error.

“We believe this is the world’s first effort to turn a factory into a fish and vegetable farm, and it’s a complex proposition,” Mr. Godsil said. “We’ve experimented with 40 types of lettuce, settled on three or four, and we’re now trialing spinach.”

The farm started with a $50,000 investment but has attracted about $1 million in funds over the past 20 months and partnerships with the Milwaukee School of Engineering and informally with the University of Stirling in Scotland. It is discussing the prospect of a $30 million concept for Sweetwater villages, which would have community-scale manufacturing, restaurants and cafes with food produced from aquaponics.

The farm is receiving support from the University of Wisconsin and Sea Grants, a U.S. government program, to grow yellow perch and possibly blue gill, species indigenous to the Great Lakes but in decline. “The fish it produces are a 21st century form of protein that won’t harm planet earth,” Mr. Godsil said.

Industrial aquaponics is still in its infancy, with only five facilities of more than 0.4 hectare, or one acre, operating in the world, although interest is growing, particularly in areas with water shortages. Aquaponics use between 80 and 90 per cent less water than traditional growing methods.

In Barbados, where fresh water is scarce and 80 per cent of food is imported, according to the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture, a project known as “Aquaponic island” started last year, with a goal of educating farmers about the benefits of aquaponics to make it their technology of choice in four years. The project has funding from the United Nations Development Program, the Barbadian Ministry of Agriculture, the institute and a community group, the Baird’s Village Aquaponics Association. A commercial-scale system was set up at Baird’s Village, and this year aquaponic systems are being introduced to many of the island’s schools.

In Australia, where farmers have struggled with drought for the past decade, backyard aquaponic systems have grown in popularity. Joel Malcolm, who opened the world’s first aquaponics retail store, Backyard Aquaponics, in the Australian city of Perth, sells about 300 systems a year.

“With water restrictions enforced in almost every city around the country, people just can’t have their traditional vegetable garden,” he said. “Being able to produce your own chemical-free fish and vegetables in your own backyard not only saves money but also provides enjoyment and satisfaction. Lately there have been quite a few schools installing systems here as learning tools for the kids.”

While backyard systems are in their infancy in the United States, they are growing in popularity, with estimates that there may be 800 to 1,200 aquaponics setups in American homes and yards and as many as 1,000 more in schools, according to the Aquaponics Journal.

Could this almost-waste-free food production method be the miracle solution to tackle worldwide food shortages that some expect? Brett Roe, who investigated ecologically integrated production systems at the University of Queensland in Australia, cautioned that it might not be a cure-all. “Aquaponics offers decentralized food security on a small scale, and reuse of resources,” he said. “Every little bit helps. But in developing countries it may make better sense to culture fish in ponds and use the wastewater on land-based crops; a simple linkage of aquaculture and crop farming that has the same general effect of reusing resources and can be practiced in a larger scale of economy.”

While still in its fledgling stages, Mr. Godsil said the potential of aquaponics was “breathtaking.”

“Aquaponics has inspired pragmatic utopian visions, that keep getting validated by the facts. We need solutions to what could be a Pearl Harbor moment for the species, if global warming trends continue the way Al Gore and scientists predict,” he said referring to the former U.S. vice president.

Mr. Price of Aquaponics UK said: “Given our requirements to provide significantly more energy and food in the next 20 years, aquaponics can play a vital role. It isn’t a new technology – in fact it was first documented by the Aztecs – but when adopted in our new climate it provides a highly profitable and sustainable food production system.”

The Baobab Trust project

Sustainable Agriculture

The Mtopanga Training and Demonstration Farm is a 10hec farm with a variety of vegetables and fruits organically grown. Livestock and poultry keeping including an integrated fish farming system and alternative technology makes up the demonstration farm at the same time a Training facility. With a number of components on the farm each structure is
interlinked, providing and benefiting each other. Hence, ensuring it is a continuous process all on the same land. Since all these are set-up on together, we offer community and the surrounding stakeholders
technical advice, trainings tours. We also welcome farmers and interested individuals to visit the farm. Hence the farm is open to all who are interested in sustainable farming. We work very closely with the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries.

Training:
We offer trainings on organic farming, integrated fish farming, livestock and poultry keeping, bee keeping, alternative energy including biogas. Compost, tree nursery set-up and charcoal making. Our trainings are based on hands-on training for the communities and surrounding stakeholders.

Educational Tours:
School groups and Institutions are taken on a tour around
the farm.

Open Field Days:
About twice a year, an Open-Field Day is hosted to the local Farmers, Institutions, Schools and Individuals. The Farm is set up to demonstrate various farming methods using basic affordable techniques that can be applied to their own farms. This day is coordinated with the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock..

Pasquerella, team head to Kenya for volunteer project

Pasquerella, team head to Kenya for volunteer project

As Mount Holyoke students were wrapping up their summer travel, internships, and community service, incoming president Lynn Pasquerella was honoring a volunteer commitment of her own. With a team that included the Africa Center for Engineering Social Solutions (ACESS) and Mount Holyoke students Hilda Barasa ’12 and Yiting Wang ’11, Pasquerella traveled to Kenya’s West Lake District projects aimed at providing access to clean water and promoting “microbusinesses.”

“The overall objective has been to empower women in the communities and create sustainable businesses,” Pasquerella said.

One project involved testing a press used for molding clay water purification pots. Collaborating with the ACESS team, community members were able formulate a more efficient process using local materials.

Fish farming also promises to expand local business opportunities, but the team is still looking for ways to prevent predation by monitor lizards and transport fish effectively in areas lacking infrastructure. “I hope to work with the Center for the Environment at Mount Holyoke to try to address these issues,” Pasquerella noted, adding that this is the first time Mount Holyoke has been involved in the project.

Her involvement with the group began during her time at URI, when she met Clarice Odhiambo, an ACESS worker performing graduate work at Brown University. Odhiambo, a former Coca-Cola Africa executive, asked if university personnel could partner with the group to identify engineering solutions to communities lacking clean water.

Wang found out about the project while interning with the United Nations Environmental Program in Nairobi, Kenya. She contacted Pasquerella, who put her in touch with Odhiambo.

“The encounter was very much unexpected,” said Wang, “but I felt very fortunate to join Lynn and her wonderful team with Clarice.” Wang added that after her week-long trip with the team, the organization seemed to her based on a development model she had never experienced herself.

“It stood away from the usual political diplomacy of official development assistance from the West and approached it from a civic and institutional angle,” she said. When three engineering students from the University of Hartford taught the workers at the local construction company how to assemble the press and make the mold for the ceramic filter, she was inspired to watch the workers alter the plan with locally available materials.

Wang will continue to assist Pasquerella and her team at Mount Holyoke in designing academic and experiential programs involving ACESS.

Pasquerella’s engagement in social issues predates her ethical studies—she described working alongside her mother in a light switch factory.

“I saw women working on the assembly line, trying to make quota and knowing that if they didn’t, they wouldn’t be able to feed their children at the end of the day. There were no men … Class and gender issues became apparent to me then.”

The Kenya Project is now in its third year, and Pasquerella expects it to continue beyond its initial five-year commitment.

“We stay in same communities. There are challenges involved, so it’s important that we keep our commitment in terms of their evolving needs,” she said. Already struggling with poverty and high rates of HIV/AIDS, the community’s well apparatus broke, so finding other ways to access clean water has been vitally important.

Despite the challenges, Pasquerella said that the new constitution, passed at the end of August, has offered locals hope. “There is a great deal of optimism, and there wasn’t as much optimism two years ago, especially because of post-election violence.” Among other changes, the new constitution will allow women to enjoy the same rights as male citizens of the country. Many Kenyans have been disappointed, though, with the Obama administration’s failure to bring them additional resources. Citizens continue to struggle with rampant corruption, but they hope the new constitution will introduce a greater degree of transparency.

In the meantime, Pasquerella said she hopes Mount Holyoke will continue to fund students’ participation in similar projects in Kenya and other countries and provide mentors for these students. Having extensively presented her work abroad, she believes travel is a critical means of building social awareness. “I think the more that we get to know other cultures and how people live their lives, the better we’re able to think critically about complex issues in a world that’s increasingly globally independent… First and foremost, we come to understand we are not the center of the universe, and that there’s suffering we don’t hear about because we think there are parts of the world that don’t matter.”

Kenya: Ministry Lures Investors Into Generation of Wind Power

(Allafrica.com) Nairobi — The government is boosting efforts to tap wind energy, the latest attempt towards reducing over-reliance on hydro-power and costly diesel-powered generators.

The Ministry of Energy says it will facilitate investments in wind and other sources of renewable power by negotiating deals on behalf of private investors with local governments.

Frustrated by drought-induced power shortages and rising global oil prices, the government is seeking to attract more investments in renewable energy to stabilise supply and reduce the cost of doing business.

"I assure any investor who wants to help us to exploit our untapped potential in wind energy and other sources of renewable energy such as solar that we will help them to negotiate with the counties and even the landowners," Mr Kiraitu Murungi, the Energy minister, said after commissioning KenGen's 5.1 megawatt wind mill at Ngong Hills, west of Nairobi.

The wind farm is being financed through a Sh1.1 billion (11 million euro) loan and will have a capacity of 25.4MW once complete in 2012.

KenGen managing director Eddy Njoroge said the project was part of the company's five-year plan to inject 500MW into the national grid by 2013.

Mr Murungi said talks were under way with the county council of Marsabit in connection with wind and solar energy projects.

To create a database and market opportunities in the wind sector to potential investors, the government plans to instal 33 (40-metre high) wind masts and data loggers across the country by November this year.

The data will complement the Kenya Country Wind Atlas, a profile of areas with adequate wind for power generation.

The Energy ministry has also floated a tender to instal 20 wind masts and data loggers while KenGen is researching in 12 locations.

"Our wind power potential is enormous but its exploitation has been minimal. Unlike electricity generated by fossil fuels, wind-generated energy can provide electricity without pollution or depleting natural resources," Mr Murungi said.

The farm, near Lake Turkana, will generate a quarter of the country's current installed power when complete in 2012.

Efficient energy saved Kenya Sh24bn, Kippra

The Kenyan economy realised national energy savings of Sh24.2 billion in 2009 due to consumers embracing efficiency, conservative and cleaner technologies to reduce expenditure.

Kenya Institute for Public Policy Research and Analysis (Kippra) said the savings from all energy forms was achieved at a time when electricity was being rationed while oil products prices had escalated.

Energy Consumption Patterns Study done by the public researcher shows that key drivers were energy saving devices like fluorescent bulbs, switching off gadgets not in use, opting for alternative cheaper fuels to cook and light as well as good maintenance of appliances.

Households had the highest efficiency and conservation savings of Sh22.1 billion. Other sectors with major savings were manufacturing, agriculture, trade, community and social institutions respectively.

Kippra head of infrastructure and economic services division Eric Aligula said the highest efficiency and conservation savings in fuel usage were in petrol and diesel amounting to about Sh11 billion.

Dr Aligula said major energy savings were also noted in the use of liquefied petroleum gas and wood while savings in the electricity sub-sector were estimated Sh2 billion.

“Energy as used by households and enterprises may make a large difference if measures are employed towards efficiency and conservation,” he said.

The study found out that 26 per cent of electricity consumers did not apply any efficient or conservation methods in its use while 28 per cent utilised energy saving appliances and devices.

Did not apply any efficiency

“Fifty per cent of fuel wood users did not apply any efficiency measures as opposed to 27 per cent of charcoal users who did not use any efficiency measures,” said the report.

It called for a policy shift to ensure availability, secure affordable energy as Kenya’s usage of fuel products is expected to rise to 10.5 million tonnes by the year 2030 from the 3.7 million tonnes last year.

Kippra says Kenya needs policies to facilitate investment in a mix of renewable power to meet future demand for energy and prospecting firms given incentives to intensify oil exploration.

some updates on where I am and what I have been up to...

Just a blink of the eye, over three months have gone by but aha I am still in Kenya. A lot happened and a lot are still ongoing. I have about a little over five weeks left in this mad country. I am counting on days -- I know it will be heartbroken to leave but then home is calling on the other continent. Plus, the fact that everyone else is going back to school on the other other continent and I am still lingering on here made my internal balance tip over a little bit for a little while...

Some “big-deal” events during the past two months:

1. Received the new president of Mount Holyoke College in Nairobi and later embarked on a mind-boggling trip with her across Kenya

It was such an unexpected but definitely fortunate opportunity to join Lynn and her wonderful team (check out her blog that keeps the detail of the trip) including Clarice her partner, the founder and director of African Center for Engineering Social Solutions (ACESS). I knew Lynn’s coming to Kenya and her project from the campus email she sent. I contacted her and she put me in touch with Clarice, from which I learned more about ACESS and was very much inspired.

After having spent a week-long trip with the whole team, for me it really represents a development model I personally had never experienced myself. It stood away from the usual political diplomacy of official development assistance from the west and approached it from a civic and institutional angle. And what is most mind-boggling is that all players are all in somewhat equal positions because each single one of them contributes and empowers and inspires each other. I still couldn’t believe I had actually the “technology transfer” taking place right in front of eyes – when the three engineering students from Hartford taught the workers at the local construction materials company, and when the workers tried out themselves and offered that they had ideas how to make the same thing with locally available materials! Lynn's blog did a way better job detailing the trip.

2. Funded the Rural Energy Enterprises Network program under the African Youth Initiative on Climate Change -(AYICC-REEN)

My work with the African Youth Initiative on Climate Change - Rural Energy Enterprises Network (AYICC-REEN) has also made me able to offer valuable insights into ACESS’s engagement with youth groups in Kenya. This poses a whole different track of my time spent in Kenya and it goes back to my abroad semester in Denmark (sorry that this has gone into some sort of chronological confusion but life story is actually always continueous, yet sometimes parallel or it comes back to you later when you can never imagine).

I “lingered” on after the Copenhagen Climate Summit and studied at the Danish Institute for Study Abroad in Copenhagen the following spring semester. From both the courses and my involvement with Energy Crossroads Denmark Chapter – a youth organization focusing on energy issues -- I had the chance to learn more about the highly developed and efficient Danish energy supply system and its advancement in wind energy, and create value and opportunities for the society and youth themselves amidst the seemingly conflicting nature of climate change and development. One of the projects I was involved was about the financing and promotion of improved cook-stove in developing countries (Nepal, Uganda and Cameroon were the three countries we had activities). I made the commitment before I left Copenhagen for Kenya that I would start a chapter there.

So the final product, with the help from other AYICC colleagues, was REEN. We defined it as a program under AYICC-Kenya whose mandate is to serve as a network of energy initiatives of AYICC’s various local youth groups and with external partners and resources, to enhance local efforts in fostering sustainable enterprises that take care of both people and the environment. Our main interests center on energy efficiency and appropriate energy technologies to address social and environment issues and create values, namely the promotion of energy-efficiently biomass-burning cook-stove, biogas digesters, small scale biofuels production, solar, and other simple but appropriate renewable energy solutions.

Right now we are still in the process of visiting youth organizations all over Kenya and engaging external partners such as GTZ Kenya and ACESS to enhance the local groups’ work, as well as that of our partners’. We have been able to identify nearly 10 organizations and actually went to visit and interviewed three, all of which were absolutely mind-boggling and inspiring. Later on we plan to host workshops/conferences for people to come to share their expertise and organize some leadership training. And now UNEP is very interested in what I am doing, at least articles will appear in UNEP's website and one of the youth publication –TUNZA (means care in Kiswahili)!Yah!

Now we have included water project because of our involvement with ACESS. As ACESS is also keen on harnessing the local youth talents, we hope to generate some synergy in terms of introducing ACESS’s line of products to REEN’s member groups to expand the network and influence. In the meanwhile, the innovative model ACESS presents I think in many ways could be very instrumental and enlightening to these very talented and energetic young entrepreneurs who have been constantly amazed us during our visits.

This track of work in Kenya is very important for me as I absolutely value the experience with grassroots organizations in delivering more tangible results on the ground, more so than just sitting in UN’s cool and comfortable offices and never really sure how the work could be measured in real sense (as opposed to number of visits to UNEP’s website, for one thing). I have long been interested in international development in the context of climate adaptation and mitigation. I have never really expected to have the opportunity to actually initiate something of my own. Capacity building of the rest of the team is also crucial now given I will have to leave in over a month and they need to be ones to carry the project on.

3. "what is ahead in China?"

Right now, besides UNEP and REEN, I am also helping with the organization and preparation of China Youth delegation to Cancun, so hopefully I will make it to Mexico in December. I will finish my work here in Kenya in middle October and go back to China to help with COP16.

For me I feel committed to this group of inspired and talented young Chinese and I want to continue to contribute my energy and efforts, building on top of experience of being part of the delegation to Copenhagen last year. You can read more about the story at http://www.mtholyoke.edu/news/stories/5681849. AA also has an article on this http://issuu.com/mhcalumnae/docs/2010_spring1.1 (The picture was involuntary tho…)

For the new COP 16 team as a whole (a new one actually with several participants from last year), although it is almost a default that nothing major will happen this time, but I think the process of learning and awareness raising among the wider young Chinese and communicating our message and actions to the international community are more important and need to be sustained.

4. "MoHos are like Chinese people, they are everywhere!"

Meanwhile other MH student and alums bubbled up like pop-corns in Nairobi. We met one alum working for UNICEF here in the same compouand I work and another is the director of Forum for African Women Educationalists. Both have expressed interests of joining the alumnae mentorship program and the later even setting up some MH student intern program. Another Mount Holyoke class of 13, Ujwala, her dad actually sits in the office next to mine...The three of us were actually to meet during COP 15 but we never made it and no one had thought we'd join each other here in the monkey-ful compound. Oh and not to mention Hilda the true Kenyan who was working for ACESS for the whole summer in Nairobi. And her fellow class-of-2012 who showed up during the dinner at the resturant called Carnivore...And I am definitely missing several more MoHos from Kenya who I havent had chance to meet yet.

5. The stage belongs to the animals living in the lion kingdom

During the month of August I had two free safaris to Maasai Mara, the wildlife heaven in Kenya. Gratis is the benefit from laboring in the UN and going to colleges like Mount Holyoke. But hey, anyway, just snap shots for your appetitie:

more to be found at http://photo.163.com/superwangyit/#p=0&m=0&page=1

Kenya: "Multi-storey gardens" save slum school children from hunger

It it not completely random of me to start posting interesting stuff happening in Kenya (although I do admit this blog is as versatile as I like or not like it to be).It is to my utter enlightenment that I got an internship with UN Environmental Program in Nairobi. Yep, this is where I will be this summer. UNEP has been the epicenter of my world for a while and I do want to have a bite of the UN system before I devote myself to it.

One thing I am equally excited is that I met a Kenyan friend here in my school in Copenhagen. She is going to conduct health related research this summer in one of the urban slums in Nairobi. It just occurred to me that I'd like to go in with her to find out the cooking situation, since I have devoted a lot of time here with Energy Crossroad to help member chapters in Nepal and some western and Central African countries like Cameroon and Uganda to develop their efficient cooking stove implementation projects. I myself wrote a big paper on the issues and examined why big energy companies like BP and Shell made the efforts to promote their own stove products. Super intriguing stuff and not always black-and-white good or bad.

Anyway, just another summer down the line.

The Nation (Kenya) / Monday, 08 June 2009

Nairobi (kenya) - When the idea of starting a project to grow food crops in one of the slum areas of Nairobi was first put forward, it sounded next to impossible.

No wonder pupils of Gitiba Primary School in Dagoretti were quick to dismiss the initiative as unworkable. They were convinced that food cannot be grown in ghettoes where they lived. Moreover, the place, like other city slums, is overcrowded and they do not even have space to play in.

But the idea has now worked, with the establishment of a multi-storey garden. And the school where the demonstration garden for the project is based is in the process of becoming a model of food growing in slums or other overcrowded areas of the country’s urban centres.

A multi-storey garden is an upright sack or a large plastic bag filled with soil, with food crops like vegetables, kales, carrots or onions planted in tiers. And the garden is part of a government- initiated programme commonly known as Njaa Marufuku Kenya (Eradicate Hunger in Kenya), which the Ministry of Agriculture has been implementing since 2005.

The objective of the programme, according to the national coordinator of Njaa Marufuku Kenya, Mrs Philomena Chege, is to reduce poverty and improve food security in the country. Mrs Chege says the programme has helped address the food security problem in several parts of the country. “We have financed numerous projects initiated by organised groups of farmers, women and youths,” Mrs Chege told the Nation during an interview.

Gitiba is a catchment area for pupils living in sprawling slums that surround the busy Dagoretti Market. It is one of the areas of the city where poverty bites and most of the hapless children usually rely on school-feeding programmes for their survival.

Currently, the multi-storey garden project, which was introduced at the institution at the end of last year, can be said to be a success story. At least several homes in the six slums surrounding the school have multi-storey gardens established and managed by the pupils.

The slums Njiku, Kamwanya, Ichagitho, Mworoto, Ndunyu and Quarry are notorious for their chang’aa dens. Some parents in the area have neglected their children and left them at the mercy of the school administration. Residents believe most of the children would be on the streets if there was no free education. Since the World Food Programme (WFP) sponsors a feeding programme at the school, the children are assured of a meal a day.

A teacher at the school, Mr Karuku Njugi, sold the idea of the multi-storey garden to the pupils. “I had attended the Nairobi International Trade Fair last year where I happened to come across a brochure by Njaa Marufuku Kenya,” Mr Njugi recalled.

The booklets, which were being distributed to the public, talked of fighting poverty in the slums through projects like multi-storey gardens. This attracted the teacher. It was due to the pathetic situation at the school, where a big number of children rely on one meal a day. He said cases of children yawning and sleeping in class early in the morning as they complain of hunger are common at the school.

So, after getting the brochure, he decided to contact the area district agriculture extension officer at the divisional headquarters in Waithaka. “I wanted to know how children in the school could benefit from the project and this is how the agriculture officers helped the school to develop a multi-storey garden,” Mr Njugi said.

They did this by inviting the school to Karen Estate, where people have started similar projects. Initially, the garden appeared strange and a liability to the children, the teacher said. Having been born and brought up in an urban area, Mr Njugi said, the children detested laying their hands on soils to mix it and make the garden inside the sack or plastic bag.

However, it was after assurances that they would no longer sleep hungry as is the case in most of the city slums that the project became a success. The children, with the assistance of their teacher, Mr Njugi, and agriculture extension officers, have established numerous multi-storey demonstration gardens in their school compound. Today, many pupils and their parents acknowledge that it is easier to provide a plate of ugali on the table when there is a multi-storey garden in their ghettoes.

“Lunch and even supper is no longer a big problem. We only need a packet of unga as sukumawiki (kales) or spinach are readily available,” 10-year-old Margaret Wanjiru says. She is one of the pupils who embraced the idea of multi-storey gardens when it was introduced at their school.

Her mother, Ms Grace Njeri Njenga, who has been supporting her daughter in her new project, said: “It has saved a lot of money for us. We want to multiply the gardens and ensure we have enough food supply.”

They have their multi-storey gardens at the back of their houses, where there is very little space. And they have planted kales, spinach and onions. In future, Mrs Njenga said they will look for more space, even if it means having some of the multi-storey gardens at the doorstep of their three- roomed iron sheet house.

At Njiku slums, 12-year-old Rosemary Njeri planted kales in her multi-storey garden outside her mother’s house. But chickens started destroying them. Now she has lifted it and tied it with a string to the rafter of the roof of their dilapidated iron sheet house.

“We are now happy that during lunch or supper we can pluck the kales and prepare ugali without using money,” the girl, who is in Class Five, said.

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