EIT Climate-KIC partners with two African organisations to launch climate adaptation and resilience accelerator
Africa stands as one of the most vulnerable regions in the face of climate change. Irregular rainfall, floods, droughts and other natural hazards are affecting agricultural productivity, water availability, health and in turn the main livelihoods of the African people. As extreme weather events become more prominent, the need for locally-developed solutions become more vital than ever.
To help address these challenges, EIT Climate-KIC is partnering with two entrepreneurship support organisations – KCIC Consulting Limited (KCL) and Senegal-based Concree SAS – to deliver an adaptation and resilience (A&R) themed accelerator programme for early- to mid-stage start-ups from October 2022 to April 2023.
Funded by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Ireland (‘Irish Aid’), the A&R ClimAccelerator will support 16 teams from across the African continent with solutions that address physical climate risks or build the resilience of communities. The selected start-ups will receive tailored business coaching, professional guidance on finance, support defining the climate impact potential of their solution and preparation for future investment opportunities.
“The private sector has a critical role to play addressing the climate challenges in Africa. Empowering youth through enterprise development support will unlock innovations while ensuring social development. KCL is at the frontline of realising the potential of African innovators and we are happy to work with EIT Climate-KIC and our partner Concree SAS to deliver the climate adaptation and resilience accelerator,” said Vanam Prabhakar, CEO of KCIC Consulting Limited.
“We are witnessing intense floods in countries like Senegal affecting the daily life of populations, their businesses and their homes. The solutions to these types of disasters cannot only come from governments and their partners. It is crucial to support the young generation of innovators from start-ups and SMEs. This partnership is an important step for Concree SAS to address and bring more value to entrepreneurs with adapted solutions that can help affected populations be more resilient to current irregular climate events.” said Babacar Birane, CEO of Concree SAS.
The two local partners bring over ten years of collective experience and expertise in developing and implementing incubation and accelerator programmes across sub-Saharan Africa. KCL has supported over 1,800 enterprises within various thematic areas, including agribusiness, renewable energy, commercial forestry, and water and waste management. Similarly, Concree SAS brings a robust portfolio of accelerator programmes implemented over the last eight years in West Africa.
“EIT Climate-KIC is seeing a wealth of adaption and resilience solutions through our programmes, however, there are still many gaps in support for these businesses to bring their products to market. Through the A&R ClimAccelerator we aim to not only support the growth of the most promising solutions in emerging economies, but also work with partners to grow the field of adaptation and resilience solutions and build out the supporting ecosystem,” says Sophie White, Strategic Programmes Builder at EIT Climate-KIC.
This programme is a continuation of an A&R pilot programme launched in 2021 by EIT Climate-KIC and with support from British International Investment (BII). For more details on the outcomes of the 2021 Adaptation and Resilience Challenge and Accelerator, please see the press release here.