Header image: Smallholder farmers celebrating solar installation in Titicaca, Bolivia
Two years ago, Kilburn & Strode’s charity fund, Innovation for All, started a longer-term partnership with the sustainability charity, Practical Action.
We funded a project in one of Rwanda’s main refugee camps. The project included the building and installation of solar panels, the electricity from which is now used for vital crop irrigation. We are pleased to say that the project finished on budget, and on time, in March 2024!
We have an exciting update on our partnership
Innovation For All started funding a new, 2-3 year, project: Solar Empowerment for Smallholder Farmers in Bolivia.
Bolivia faces two interrelated problems that affect the rural population in particular: high and persistent incidence of poverty and increasing negative environmental impacts due to climate change, especially drought. The rural regions are inhabited by 2.7 million people, mostly smallholder farmers, and indigenous peoples, 48% of whom live in poverty and 55% in food insecurity. If successful this project is estimated to benefit about 70,000 people.
This new project also has solar energy at its core, but uses a different technology with the aim of introducing solar powered ‘technified’ irrigation systems for smallholders. This solution has already been successfully piloted by Practical Action in one community in the Titicaca area, with economically profitable and environmentally sustainable results.
It is a wonderful way for everyone at Kilburn & Strode to have an active impact on real sustainability challenges. The project will contribute directly to several UN Sustainable Development Goals
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No Poverty
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Zero Hunger
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Clean Water and Sanitation
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Clean Energy
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Climate Action
by building resilience of the poorest smallholder farmers, reducing their exposure and vulnerability to climate related extreme events, and ensuring the sustainability of food production systems.
Innovation for All is part funding the whole project with EkoEnergy and we are excited to see the positive changes already happening and look forward to future development.
For more information contact innovationforall@kilburnstrode.com.
About Practical Action
Practical Action is an international development organisation working with communities to develop innovative, lasting and locally-owned solutions to some of the world’s toughest problems. They have a focus on four areas: agriculture, water and waste management, climate resilience and clean energy.