A Conversation on Climate
MLC Event | 28th July 2021
Today more than ever, climate change is posing an unprecedented challenge for our planet. The number of extreme events such as droughts, floods and cyclones is growing exponentially, with the Covid-19 pandemic exacerbating the response to such crises. In this context, innovation has been proven to provide tangible solutions, as demonstrated by MLC members during the Conversation on Climate held on July 28th. During the event, members of the Million Lives Collective explained what the climate crisis means for innovation and illustrated how their enterprises adopt climate-sensitive approaches to tackling the crisis.
The event featured speakers from the Climate Innovation Centre, Water and Sanitation for the Urban Poor (MLC Voyager), We Care Solar (MLC Vanguard), Root Capital (MLC Vanguard), and Digital Green (MLC Vanguard).
Ruka Sanusi, Executive Director of the Climate Innovation Centre (CIC), kicked off the event by illustrating how CIC supports enterprises from across Ghana with climate innovations, including the support of activities such as energy efficiency or domestic waste management. “The challenge is that economic development has happened as a tradeoff to ecological prosperity, and the climate emergency is an outcome of that” Ruka explained. The continuous emission of perilous greenhouse gases from private enterprises has generated a global scale problem which is now urgent to address. To do this, Ruka emphasized the importance of encouraging small and medium enterprises to adopt innovative mindsets in order for them to grow more responsibly and manufacture more ethically. “The work of the center stands at the nexus of economic development, private enterprise, ecological prosperity and climate change”, outlined Ruka, while also highlighting the gender equality focus adopted by them. “Manufacturing processes must be responsive to both the wants and needs of the consumer and to the endurance and survival of the environment”. Innovation is crucial in ensuring the delivery of such needs, as echoed by other MLC members later during the event.
Climate change is severely affecting urban communities struck by extreme weather conditions such as cyclones and droughts, damaging infrastructure and decreasing the amount of clean water available. Steve Metcalfe, from Water and Sanitation for the Urban Poor, explained how there are currently over 9 hundred million people around the world living in densely populated urban communities lacking the most basic services. As this number is constantly growing, Water and Sanitation for the Urban Poor aims to extend access to water and sanitation and improve hygiene standards by building long-term partnerships with local institutions such as service providers and community-based operators. Steve explained how the main challenge is the inability of institutions to focus on long-term problems such as climate change, especially in light of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. “Incentives are lacking, workers are underfunded and under-skilled, and there is no regulation”. Moreover, Steve added that the “the pace of change is so quick in cities that maintaining the status quo is difficult”. He therefore urged donors to recognize the role water and sanitation play in climate adaptation, and emphasized the importance of looking at water as a system rather than focusing on individual community access one by one.
Laura Stachel, Executive Director and Co-Founder of We Care Solar, explained that every night there are tens of thousands of health workers operating in facilities lacking modern electricity. In 78 LMICs, 59% of health facilities have unreliable power, and 1 in 4 health facilities in Sub-Saharan African have no electricity and must rely on candles or kerosene lanterns. To address this issue, We Care Solar aims to provide solar power to last-mile health facilities, with the objective of improving the direct care for mothers and newborns, reduce CO2 emissions, and improve environmental health. To do this, the innovative ‘We Care Solar Suitcase’ provides a safe and easy apparatus with lights that can last up to 70000 hours to allow for the safe execution of cesarean sections. The suitcase permits medical devices to recharge their batteries through solar panels, improving quality, timeliness, and access to care. We Care Solar also trains local technicians to be able to install and maintain solar systems in their communities as the system only requires a simple battery change every 5 years.
Alexandra Tuinstra, Chief Program Officer at Root Capital, continued the conversation by illustrating Root Capital’s mission of growing rural prosperity and building resilience for farming families around the world. Root Capital supports the growth of agricultural families through access to finance and training, with the objective of transforming rural communities in Latin America, Africa and Indonesia. While rural families that are dependent on agriculture are particularly threatened by climate change, only 4% of today’s global climate finance goes towards agriculture. Thus, Root Capital serves as a platform for grassroot action to build resilience and manage agricultural disruption in the face of climate shocks to ensure community sustainability. Their work focuses on 4 main pillars to success: (1) financing rural businesses committed to climate action, (2) cultivating their capacity to adapt to climate change, (3) promoting innovative financial solutions to unlock local investment, and (3) amplifying successful solutions to encourage replication. Responding to a question on changes in demand for their services, Alexandra explained that there has indeed been a recent shift in awareness around the importance of investing in climate responsible innovation, highlighting the importance of sharing experiences in platforms such as the MLC.
Ashu Sikri, Product Strategy Manager at Digital Green, ended the panel by presenting the work of Digital Green, which is aimed at empowering small-scale producers and farmers through video-enabled extensions. Ashu talked about the importance of: “Leveraging the power of partnerships and technology to educate farmers about production pathways to increase climate resilience”. Digital Green works very closely with government extension programs to produce videos that disseminate agricultural practices and nutrition behaviors proven to be effective in reaching farmers. Sustainability is key not only within Digital Green’s videos but also during the process of producing such videos. Indeed, Digital Green trains local community members on how to produce and disseminate videos within their communities. This proved to be both more cost-effective and gender sensitive as the program works with numerous women to improve gender equality. Once again, the “importance of sharing knowledge and practices” has been highlighted to be a crucial competitive advantage, and one the Million Lives Collective is proud to uphold.
