GARV Toilets owner presenting at Toilet Board Coalition

This year, many of our projects have been rewarded for the excellent work they do. They have been selected for awards and invited to prestigious gatherings. Here’s a short selection of them – but no doubt we missed a few.

Greenkeeper Africa (GKA) has been selected as one of 33 tech entrepreneurs for the 2018 class of MIT Solve, in the category of Coastal Communities. Besides a financial push, MIT Solve gives the Solver teams 12 months of personalized support with curated access and intentional introductions to members of Solve’s community—leaders from corporations, foundations, non-profits, government, and academia. These will help the entrepreneur build the partnerships needed to accelerate their work, validate their impact and business model, and scale their solution.

GARV Toilets was selected for two prestigious programmes: at the beginning of the year the company became a part of the Toilet Board Coalition Accelerator 2018 cohort. In previous years, VIA Water projects Sanergy, Sanivation and Safi Sana already participated in the same programme. With regard to their protégées, the Toilet Board Coalition says: “More than toilets alone, we look for commercially viable businesses across the Sanitation Economies. (…) Participants in the annual Toilet Accelerator programme are building a new sanitation sector for the future.”

Later on in the year, GARV took part in the Unilever Young Entrepreneur’s Award. As one of the 8 winners – out of 2120 entries - of 2018, GARV will be able to attend a residential Accelerator Programme run by the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership, followed by a year of mentoring support completely tailored to their needs.

Map Action Mali was also acknowledged - three times! it was awarded the Orange Social Entrepreneur Prize for Mali. To be able to secure this award, the project had to prove the social and environmental impact it achieves. Recently, the government of Mali awarded the innovators with the title ‘Best Young Innovative Company’. Map Action has also been selected for a programme of Airbus called #Africa4future. This entails 6 months of mentoring, networking and coaching.

The Biological Urban Sanitation Project (BUS) in Mozambique is in the running for the Total Startupper of the Year Mozambique Award. If they were to win, they will receive financial support, extensive publicity and coaching. They will have to show how their project empowers people, improves living conditions, and contributes to overall economic well-being.

Mobi-Water at the P4G Summit

Last but not least: Mobi-Water was the sole Kenyan project, and one of only 4 start-ups to be invited to pitch and showcase to a group of global industry leaders at the Partnership for Growth (P4G) Copenhagen Summit in October 2018.