Winners by region

I grew up along the coast of Angola, amidst the mangroves and feel deeply connected to the beautiful biodiversity this ecosystem had to offer - from migratory birds to fish, crustaceans and molluscs. But since my childhood, many developments started to appear in these sensitive ecological areas resulting in a sharp decline in species along with the invaluable ecosystem services mangroves offer, leading to an increase in floods. For the last few years I have been leading public awareness campaigns about the importance of mangroves, along with cleaning and reforestation activities with the help of thousands of volunteers. My project, OTCHIVA (wetland) has sensitized the locals our massive cleaning and restoration campaign, spanning many months has resulted in the steady increase in the flamingos and crabs population, and has restored the communities' subsistence fishing life. The visceral impact of my work has influenced local government to join the project. My work was publicly praised by the Vice President of the Republic of Angola during his speech for the National Independence of Angola in November 2019. In January 2020, I was called to be received in an audience by the same Vice President who personally praised my activity, and sought to learn more about my restoration and protection of the mangroves. My dream is to see the mangroves in Angola definitively protected, to reinstate the resilience of our coastline, as well as the well-being of all species that depend on mangroves, including ourselves.

With a vision of creating a waste-free world, Wastezon provides households and recycling actors with cutting edge technologies for efficient waste collection, sorting, and traceability. Our technology assists the recycling actors to outsource their raw materials while on the other hand helping households get rid of their e-waste by selling it. To date, Wastezon has registered, via its mobile application: 150 e-scrappers, 162 households, and collected over 416 tons of electronic waste (e-waste) - which is equivalent to 2826.42 metric tons of avoided carbon dioxide emissions. Our next step is introducing a win-win solution, “Wastezon Smart Bin,” that responds to both households’ waste collection needs and the growing demand for fertilizers or compost. Our Wastezon Smart Bin offers automated sorting, tracks waste decomposition, sterilizes the waste odor, and provides real-time information to enable effective waste material circularity.

Energy poverty is one of the biggest challenges faced in Africa with over 600 million people living in the dark. Meanwhile hydrocarbon-based electrical generators and cookers currently used by many households in urban communities contribute to air pollution which is affecting millions in Nigeria every day. My cause is a personal cause- in 2013 I lost my aunt who was seven months’ pregnant to indoor air pollution. This pushed me to pursue researching energy use in Nigeria and developing the technology Just Add Water - a device that uses conformer solar cells and water to generate hydrogen via reversible fuel cells. The apparatus is designed to produce electricity and cooking gas for households without any cost of refueling - simply the addition of water. We understand that clean water is often scarce in Africa, especially in rural areas, so we developed our technology to perform better with household grey water. Our solution is in its pilot stage, currently serving 26 households in Nigeria and 5 businesses. We believe this technology will revolutionize Africa’s energy and will help eliminate our heavy dependence on the fossil fuels causing so much damage to our planet.

Gjenge Makers Ltd is a sustainable, alternative and affordable building products manufacturing company. They produce eco-friendly pavers that are made of a composite of recycled waste plastic and sand. They have partnered with different manufacturers of plastics bottle tops and seals in the beverage and pharmaceutical industries in Kenya, from whom they collect offcuts and scraps. This is amalgamated with discarded single use plastics that our informal waste collectors deliver to us.

GreenPap® by MeForest Initiative™ is a mobile and web-based platform seeking to establish a paradigm shift from sporadic tree planting to more purpose-driven tree growing, recommending the best tree species to plant as per the climatic conditions and soil composition of an area. This recommendation includes the economic value of the trees at hand, thus not only impacting communities socio-economically but also ensuring they become more climate-resilient. GreenPap® enables users to virtually plant trees via our Green Ambassadors, as well as analyzing and visualizing data to monitor tree survival rates across the country, through the use of drones and satellite imagery.

The platform has been acclaimed by the Kenyan Ministry of Environment and Forestry for its contribution towards attainment of over 10% tree cover by 2022 as per Article 69 (1)(b) of the Kenyan Constitution. Grants received from Microsoft & SkyWatch have largely propelled transition into machine learning and AI, including access to satellite data-sets to better monitor tree survival.

In the Middle East and Africa, almost 1,000 tons of waste is produced every day, around 50 percent of which is predominantly plastic and biomass waste. We asked ourselves how to help reduce this waste, while also creating a viable businesses opportunity. My company Rugsal Trading tackles the waste crisis in Africa with two solutions. We make coconut husk briquettes as an alternative for burning coal, to combat deforestation in Sierra Leone. In addition, we make eco-friendly biodegradable paper bags from banana leaves to tackle plastic pollution. Today we have produced more than 250,000 eco-friendly bags and more than 120 tons of clean and smokeless briquettes from coconut, saving thousands of our mothers, wives and sisters from health risks by providing them with clean and affordable fuel, while saving more than 15,000 trees.

The Wildlife Protection through Community Based Natural Resource Management in Eastern Angola project aims to develop a model for communities in one of the last wildlife hubs in eastern Angola, as a tool to activate wildlife conservation and help protect one of the last wild places on earth. Unlike existing models, this is tailored to the needs, believes, culture and aspirations of the local Luchaze people, as they are part of the decision making and the structuring of the model.

In third world countries, people have other pressing priorities to worry about before thinking about conservation issues or their consumer impact on the environment. Painting positive murals in the public space gives good energy to the area. It creates a platform for all passers-by to appreciate and to connect with the surrounding nature on a personal level. I believe that appreciation is one of the most important building blocks for unity with the earth and inspiration for kindness we act on. Through pride comes unity. I plan to travel through Africa creating educational and inspiring conservation murals in public places in small towns and along main roads, which spark conversations about the importance of nature in our daily lives.

Growing up, I often thought to myself: Why not nurture and raise more young people to be conscious of the environment at a young age, so that their collective action will help address global environmental challenges? My Green Generation Initiative seeks to address challenges such as deforestation, climate change and environmental injustices, by nurturing young environmental enthusiasts to take action on climate action, zero hunger, quality education, and life on land. I achieve this through greening schools, environmental education, planting fruit trees for food security, and inculcating a tree growing culture among people for forest cover increment through an adopt a tree campaign, and through working on food forest establishments in schools.

I have an unwavering passion about waste management and improving the circular economy. I founded the Let’s Recycle Network - an innovative social benefit initiative that rewards individuals, households, and institutions who we refer to as ‘subscribers’, for recyclable waste collected, which we re-process and sell. This initiative aims to give our subscribers a direct opportunity to generate value in the form of cash, food items, household items, for recyclable wastes collected. The waste includes: Empty water sachets, used polyethene bags, empty water bottles, empty aluminium cans and tins, used papers and paper packaging, metal scrap and metallic waste, damaged glass and bottles, and old tyres. Our vision is to become a sustainable solution to the dynamic challenges of wastes and pollution in the Nigerian environment.

Geed Beer, Rejo Beer (“Plant a Tree, Plant Hope”) is a youth-led campaign to restore hope in Somaliland. My country is suffering from an extreme drought, exacerbated by climate change. Famine is now widespread. Severe deforestation, primarily for the production of charcoal, is rapidly diminishing the small patches of forest that still remain. The need for action is urgent and so I have decided to lead the change. My big idea is to plant trees in cities while educating youth in schools and universities about the importance of forests and mobilizing them to participate in a nationwide reforestation programme. This will build on work that I have already undertaken to promote tree-planting at weddings, graduation ceremonies, and schools. My goal is to bring back the forests of Somaliland and foster a national culture in which caring for the environment is recognized by everyone as their moral responsibility.

I live in Johannesburg, South Africa, which like other nearby countries, is suffering from the worst drought the region has seen in over 45 years. When my family and I were driving to the South African province of KwaZulu-Natal, I was shocked to pass empty reservoirs that had previously always been full of water. This was the first of many times I witnessed the impact of drought on my community, and after further research, I learned about the devastating effects drought had on food and water security. I have developed a unique super-absorbent polymer that holds hundreds of times its weight in water when stored in soil. It is biodegradable, inexpensive and free of harmful chemicals, unlike the manmade materials currently used. The polymer, made entirely from waste products, improves the environment, increases the chance for plants to sustain growth by 84% during a drought and can increase food security by 73% in disaster-struck areas. 

The triple problems of open defecation, plastic waste littering and street youth menace beset many communities in Ghana. An estimated 6 million Ghanaians defecate outside everyday because they have no access to toilet facilities. This exposes the public to 1000 tons of untreated feces left out in the open. Each year this untreated excreta kills thousands of Ghanaians. 3T is a for impact social enterprise that trains street youth and people with disabilities to rescue and up-cycle plastic bottles creating serious environmental havoc to build affordable micro-flush toilet facilities and roadside waterless urinals to help address the lack of adequate and accessible toilet facilities which are the major causes of open defecation in Ghana. Every toilet facility and urinal built by 3T reduces land pollution, creates employment and serves as a very visible reminder that plastic waste can often be put to good use long after its initial purpose has expired.

Shady’s  dream is to bring together children who are working as garbage collectors in Luxor and teach them how to make musical instruments from trash, and play music as a band. The project empowers children through the innovative use of waste, and uses art and music as a medium to nurture relationships between communities and families. Rabab Luxor Art Collective provides free weekly classes to a stigmatized group of 70 children in Luxor who work as waste collectors. They play together as the “Garbage Conservatoire Band”.

In Ghana, the two major religious bodies are: Christianity, forming 71.2%; and Islam, with 17.6% of the population. Apparently, there is no community leader who comes anywhere close to being able to influence their members as the religious leaders do on a weekly basis. My project aims to build sustainable partnerships with these religious societies in Ghana through an action campaign dubbed, “Total Cleanliness: A Prerequisite to Worship”, which will constantly call on the attention of members of these religious groups to relevant everyday practices that can enhance and increase fullness of life. Regional meetings and workshops will be held with these religious leaders across all the 10 regions in Ghana, to officially launch the campaign and as well; train, engage and establish with them routine sessions of the campaign during worship hours and as well, persistently advocate for its adoption as a national policy in the country.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.