SWFF Program & Innovator News
Feb 17, 2020
Gender Equality: A Significant SWFF Accomplishment
   
A significant accomplishment of the Securing Water for Food (SWFF) Program, a worldwide effort of several government funding agencies, is improving women's integration into agriculture in some countries. This is particularly true in India, Bangladesh, and sub-Saharan Africa, where many of the 40 innovators in the program sell transformative innovations to farmers who are struggling for more than a subsistence living.
 
SWFF is a combined effort of four governments, including USAID, Sweden, through the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, the Foreign Ministry of the Netherlands, and South Africa. The innovators were chosen after rigorous competition among thousands of applicants. While the ability of the innovators - in such areas as irrigation, seed development, and precise weather forecasting - to attain sustainability and expand were paramount, they were not the only criteria.
Read More

  • A New Grand Challenge: Water and Energy for Food. In the coming months, as SWFF draws to a close, Water and Energy for Food (WE4F) will begin using the vast resources and lessons learned from SWFF and PAEGC to support innovators who are disrupting the water-food, energy-food and water-energy-food sectors. An initiative between German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), and USAID will work to scale groundbreaking water-food-energy innovations to impact food security, gender, and poverty in an environmentally-sustainable way. To keep up-to-date on program opportunities, subscribe to its newsletter, by visiting the WE4F website.
     
  • Three SWFF Innovators Selected to Speak at ICT4D Conference in Abuja, Nigeria. Three SWFF Innovators - ICU Peru, ITIKI and SkyFox - were selected to present at the upcoming 12th Information Communications Technology for Development (ICT4D) Conference taking place in Abuja, Nigeria from April 21st - 24th. The ICT4D Conference is leading the conversation in digital development, bringing together attendees from public, private and civil society organizations, eager to share practical insights on applying digital technology to development, humanitarian, and conservation challenges. Click here to learn more about the event. 
     
  • ITIKI Attends Africa-UK: Female Tech Founders Programme and UK-Africa Investment Summit. Last month, Dr. Muthoni Maside from ITIKI attended the inaugural Africa-UK: Female Tech Founders Programme in London. This three-day event brought together 15 of Africa's most ambitious development-focused female entrepreneurs to explore the UK's tech ecosystem through a series of trainings, workshops, and networking events specifically focused on supporting gender inclusive economic growth. While there, Dr. Masinde also attended the UK-Africa Investment Summit. The Summit was hosted by the Prime Minister and brought together businesses, governments and international institutions to showcase and promote the breadth and quality of investment opportunities across Africa. Click here to learn more about the event.
     
  • Naireeta Services Presents the Bhungroo to the President of India. On January 3rd, Director of Naireeta Services, Mr. Biplabketan Paul attended the President's House in New Delhi. At the invitation of the President of India, Mr. Paul presented Naireeta's work on Bhungroo and the organization's plan to scale the innovation throughout India. Bhungroo guarantees food security and income growth to smallholder farmers on the India-Pakistan border who are vulnerable to extreme weather and lack of irrigation facilities. Click here to learn more about the work Naireeta Services is doing.
     
  • Lal Teer Seed Ltd Wins Two Categories Under the Bangladesh Business Innovation Award 2019. Lal Teer Seed Ltd was recently recognized by Bangladesh Business Innovation Award 2019 for their achievements, winning the award for Best Innovation under the SDG Inclusion category and Honorable Mention under the Agriculture Sector category. Click here to learn more about the innovations that won them these awards.
     
  • Dr. Ku McMahan Presents SWFF Failures and Pivots to USAID. On January 28th, Dr. Ku McMahan, the Securing Water for Food (SWFF) Team Lead, presented on SWFF's approach to experimentation, failing fast and adapting, and securing partnerships at USAID's Global Development Lab. Using SWFF's recently published Failures Pivots and Lessons Learned Report as a guide, this presentation highlighted programmatic failures, analyses and pivots which ultimately led to stronger technical assistance and innovator support during the course of the program. Click here to download Adobe Connect and view the presentation in full.
     
  • Hydroponics Africa Supports Refugee Camps and Women in North Sudan. Hydroponics Africa was commissioned by Welthungerheilt to conduct a feasibility study on whether or not simplified hydroponics could be adopted in the North Sudan Refugee Camp, ZamZam, where there are more than 500,000 internally displaced people. Hydroponics Africa examined the quality of water, local climate, availability of indigenous materials, type of crops grown, local prices of fresh produce, and challenges faced in agriculture.

    In the end, Hydroponics Africa was pleased to report that the camp could implement a hydroponics system. A hydroponics system (super structure) was installed, currently feeding 150 women. The organization is also training the same women refugees on how to successfully use the system in their camps. By the end of this month, Hydroponics Africa will take on another cohort of an additional 150 women.
     
  • Mark Your Calendar: SWFF Presentations at USAID on March 18th, 2020. This day long event will take place on March 18th, 2020 at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in Washington, DC.  This final culminating event will be an opportunity for SWFF innovators, partners, and key stakeholders to share program successes and lessons learned over the past five years.

    Presentations and panel discussions will focus on project successes, failures, lessons learned as well as gender, missing markets, and WE4F. This event is open to the public, and participants from the SWFF delegation, donor partners and USAID staff are invited to attend. Schedule and registration details to come. 
     
Opportunities
  • WE4F Looks to Create "Enabling Environment" for Innovators and Stakeholders. The objective of WE4F is to expand the scale of innovations that impact these sectors to increase the sustainability of agricultural food value chains and climate adaptation in developing countries and emerging markets - with a particular focus on the poor and women. To achieve this goal, WE4F will support innovators in order to harness market forces to bring their innovations to scale. The effort must include partners from the private sector, NGOs, research institutions, and other donors who share the common goal of increasing food production through sustainable water and energy usage. Keep reading to learn more about the new WE4F Grand Challenge here.
1001 Words

Empowering Women Agri-Entrepreneurs in India.

In India, groundwater is used extensively for flood irrigation and availability is declining. There is a decline of soil fertility due to excessive application of chemical fertilizers. WASTE Stichting's Circular Economy recycles blackwater and greywater for the production of market-quality compost. This innovation enables women agri-entrepreneurs to have better quality of crops with compost application and extended crop season.