Africa 2017 Finalists

Abigail Alabi-Michael

Health Accord: Protecting the critical link between human and environmental health

Health Accord is a health micro-insurance program which uses trash as monetary asset in enabling poor slum residents without medical insurance to pay for health coverage, medications and other clinical services. With Health Accord; the communities, especially women, pay for healthcare services using trash as an insurance fund. This way, Health Accord empowers the community to enhance environmental sustainability and the local sanitation by shifting from conventional methods to innovative solid waste disposal solution. Health Accord long term goal is to craft a model with the power to protect planetary health by locally disrupting the cycle of poor health and ecosystem destruction that exists in Nigeria and other parts of West Africa where unmet needs result in unsustainable resource use. Through an incentive system of healthcare rewards to communities that engage in recycling in exchange for healthcare, and education, Health Accord links healthcare to environmental protection.

Brighton Kaoma

Voice4Climate: Advocacy through African radio

Children are good at radio. Radio is good for children, and listening to children on the radio is good for everyone. So how is it that children have been forgotten in environmental advocacy through radio programming? In Zambia, they represent roughly 40% of the population, yet less than 1% of broadcasting on climate change and the environment involves children. The strong institutional basis for inclusion of children’s rights in the national climate regime has yet to align with an emerging mechanism for championing children’s issues in the sector. For example, Zambia’s National Adaptation Programmes of Action rarely, if ever, reference the unique vulnerabilities of children. Similarly, they often fail to draw on the practical knowledge and capacity for meaningful change that children offer. Voice4Climate envisions building a Kids FM Radio Station to create opportunities for child-led issue-based dialogue, participation, active citizenship, and advocacy on Climate Change.

Ichu Ichu Godwill

Mapping out strongholds of pangolins (the world most trafficked mammals) in Cameroon for their protection, more informed sensitization and decision making.

Pangolins are the only scaly mammals in the world but unfortunately, they are the most trafficked mammals the world over with over one million pangolins estimated to have been trafficked within the past decade. Pangolins are considered to be luxury meals in China and their scales are used in Asian traditional medicine thereby fuelling international trafficking from Africa to Asia. Conservation efforts to help save these species in Central Africa are hampered by lack of data on their populations, trade and strongholds. This project proposes to conduct applied pangolin research in protected areas in Cameroon suspected of having populations of pangolins. This applied research will focus on pangolin populations, bush meat trade and threats to pangolins in these protected areas. This will be accompanied by pangolin sensitization in Cameroon by way of organizing activities in collaboration with other organizations to celebrate the World Pangolin Day in the second Saturday of February.

Khalif Hassan Dalmar

Somali Institute for Environmental Peace (SIEP)

Somalia has been suffering from almost 3 decades of prolonged conflict and unrest. Environmental issues have never been taken care off. There has been massive destruction for environmental resources such as wildlife trafficking, desertification for being the largest charcoal export in the world to Gulf of Arab, land degradation, allegations for dumping of toxic waste into the oceans and illegal finishing by foreigners. I have made some progress in establishing the Somali Institute for Environmental Peace (SIEP), a non-profit Institution using academic knowledge and skills to conduct both pure and applied research for educating environmental phenomenon and human behavior to better understand the relationship between environmental degradation and human livelihoods for environmental peace. This idea came to my mind after I discovered that there has never been a single research institution for environmental issues in Somalia. I believe environmental research and education are essential tools in achieving sustainable development.

Mariama Mamane

Innovative eco-management of water hyacinth

Jacigreen offers an innovative, eco-friendly solution to the problem of water hyacinth in Africa and the devastating degradation of cropland caused by chemical fertilizers. The invasive alien species hyacinth grows very rapidly in the waterways of the Niger River. Although not inherently harmful, initially purifying the waterway in which it grows, water hyacinth becomes a problem once it reaches a certain maturity by suffocating aquatic life. Jacigreen introduced a plant-based purification mechanism to help manage fresh water sustainably and improve access to drinking water.