GREENING GOVERNANCE SEMINAR:

BUILDING RESILIENCE AND GREENING

AFRICA THROUGH ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Photo:
NOTES Flickr/Andrew
AND Wu, World Resources Institute
SOURCE go here 1
 SPEAKER BIOS
Sean DeWitt
Director, Global Restoration Initiative
Sean is the Director of the Global Restoration Initiative at WRI. He manages the process to inspire,
support and mobilize our partners to restore forests and degraded lands. This involves active
coordination among governments, civil society, communities and individuals to fulfill international
commitments on forests, and most importantly to deliver benefits to local livelihoods, local
communities and to nature.

Sofia Faruqi
Manager, New Restoration Economy
Sofia manages the New Restoration Economy, which is working on the business models, financial
mechanisms, and market incentives needed to transform disparate projects into a thriving industry
that restores degraded forests and agricultural lands. The restoration economy mitigates climate
change and alleviates poverty while creating value for investors and companies. She led the Land
Accelerator, which is the first startup accelerator in the world focused on land restoration. The
inaugural cohort of 12 entrepreneurs met in Nairobi, Kenya, in December 2018.

Moushumi Chaudhury
Associate, Climate Resilience
Moushumi is an Associate in the Climate Resilience Practice at WRI. Moushumi works on developing
and building capacity to use tools for adaptation decision making. She is currently working on online
data sharing platforms to democratize access to climate information. She is also helping the
Government of Ethiopia develop specific goals on agriculture and adaptation by using adaptation
tools. In her past work at WRI, she worked with the Government of Fiji and Kenya to build readiness
to apply to the Green Climate Fund by training on decision making tools.

NOTES
IOM 2015
AND SOURCE go here
 SPEAKER BIOS
Emily Averna
Associate, African Forest Landscape Restoration Initiative
Emily Averna is an Associate with the African Forest Landscape Restoration Initiative (AFR100).
AFR100 is a pan-African, country-led initiative to bring 100 million hectares of degraded land into
restoration by 2030 and capture associated benefits for food and water security, poverty alleviation,
and climate change resilience. Emily co-leads relationship management, partner coordination,
fundraising, and communications efforts for AFR100.

Kuki Njeru
Co-Founder, Green Pot Enterprises
Kuki Njeru is one of the founding Members of Green Pot, which was established in 2014, with the aim
of afforesting and offering alternative investment options. Her perfect blend of her training skill,
energetic personality, belief and impeccable people skills have seen her open unimaginable market
bases and frontiers – the perfect ingredients required to push the Green Pot Brand and products. This
holder of a Bachelor’s Degree in Information Systems and Technology has gone to lengths to master
what she now considers her new path — trees and the environment.

Rebecca Carter
Deputy Director, Climate Resilience Practice
Rebecca is the Deputy Director of WRI’s Climate Resilient Development Practice. She focuses on
governance issues related to climate resilience, including the transparency, equity and inclusivity of
adaptation planning and implementation processes. Her work encompasses climate finance,
developing methods and tools for tracking adaptation at scale, and making adaptation interventions
more transformational.

NOTES AND SOURCE go here

LINKING CLIMATE
CHANGE ADAPTATION
AND RESTORATION

Moushumi Chaudhury
March 20, 2019
Photo: WRI/Flickr
CLIMATE RISKS IN AFRICA

IOM 2015
RESTORATION ECONOMY

Source: WRI
IMPACTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE ON
RESTORATION BUSINESSES
Impacts Business Consequences The Bottom line

• Flooding of • Loss of access for • Drop in productivity

manufacturing premises deliveries • Potential lost sales
• Business interruption • Impact on future sales
• Impact on reputation

• Water shortages due to • Increased water rates • Increased raw material

droughts • Business interruption costs
• Climate becomes better • Drop in productivity
suited to certain • Potential lost sales
trees/crops

UKCIP 2013
RESTORATION AS A POTENTIAL WAY TO BUILD
CLIMATE RESILIENCE

Trees help cool temperatures by providing

shade, moderating health impacts of heat
waves and regulating water flows, which can
reduce impacts of floods and droughts.

Photo: CIAT/Flickr
HOW TO SUPPORT SMALL AND MEDIUM-SIZED
ENTERPRISES TO SCALE RESTORATION
Adaptive Capacity Level | Improve knowledge of climate risks
Financial Level | Gain access to private finance
Governance Level | Address land tenure and fragmentation of land
Ecosystem Level | Plant trees that are more flood and drought resistant

Photo: WRI/Flickr
The Land Accelerator

Photo Credits: WRI

HOW CAN AN ACCELERATOR HELP?
An accelerator is helpful in the following ways:
1. Capacity: Restoration enterprises repeatedly indicated a lack of investment
and technical capacity. An accelerator builds the capacity of multiple
enterprises at the same time through a rapid and intense program. Most
accelerators have 8-15 companies in each cohort
2. Network: An accelerator connects companies to each other, to investors, and
to mentors. Each of these networks is valuable and is tough for any
entrepreneur to tap individually. In particular, the Demo Day convenes
investors and can help several companies raise capital
3. Discovery: The application process brings forth companies in the space that
may not have been on the radar previously

NOTES AND SOURCE go here

WHY THE LAND ACCELERATOR?
WRI conducted extensive research on existing accelerators (including GAAAP, Impact
Amplifier, Growth Africa, Village Capital, Spark, and Ecostar). WRI interviewed 10 restoration
enterprises to understand their needs. We found:
1. Accelerators are disproportionately focused on the tech and consumer sectors. An
accelerator focusing on landscape restoration does not exist
2. Most accelerators in Africa are run by people who have no entrepreneurial experience
themselves. This leaves out the first-hand knowledge founders need
3. Communication with investors, mentoring program, business development, and Demo
Days were priorities. But entrepreneurs we spoke with also expressed a strong interest in
technical areas such as nursery management, climate resilience, and working with
smallholder farmers
4. Programs ranged in length from a week to a year. The entrepreneurs we tested our idea
with had a strong preference for a short program that ranged from 3-5 days

NOTES AND SOURCE go here

 THE LAND ACCELERATOR

• WRI partnered with Fledge to create a 4-day program in

Nairobi, Kenya from December 3-6, 2018.
• The Land Accelerator brought together 12 entrepreneurs
from 7 countries for training, mentoring, and networking.

NOTES AND SOURCE go here 13

SCREENING PROCESS HAS 5 COMPONENTS

Profitability Scalability Replicability Environmental Social Impact

• What is the product? • Capital required to
Impact
• What is growth • Job creation?
• Who is the target potential? start? • Does it depend on
• Percent of women
customer? • Targeted area of • Expertise resource extraction?
employed?
• Is there a team? land (in hectares)? requirements? • Does it increase
• Percent of poor
• Has a company been • Operating leverage? • What else is land productivity?
employed?
set up? • Marginal costs? required to start • Biodiversity?
• Percent of higher-
• Ongoing operations? • Customer acquisition something similar? • Carbon
value activities done
• Expectations for costs? • Relevant to other sequestration?
locally?
revenues/ profits? parts of country/ • Soil health?
• Benefits to local
continent? • Air/water quality?
community?
• Other impacts?
• Benefits to others?
THE FIRST LAND ACCELERATOR
Applicant Pool
• Despite limited promotion, there were 245
Non-Africa
applications from 27 countries 10%
Rest of
Kenya
• After rigorous screening of online applications and Africa
27%
7%
Skype interviews, 12 companies were selected
Nigeria
o 5 were founded or co-founded by women 3%
Cameroon
o 10 with revenues, most running for 2+ several 3%
Malawi
years 4%
o Sustainable agriculture was the most common Ghana
theme (such as moringa, cashews, macadamia) 4%
Liberia Niger
• Each company was matched with 3 one-on-one 5% 11%
mentors Ethiopia
5% DRC
• Mentoring and investor introductions continue Tanzania Rwanda 7%
7% 7%
after the event on an ongoing basis
Note: Only companies that indicated a country in their application are included above

NOTES AND SOURCE go here

UNIQUE, CUSTOMIZED PROGRAM

Pitch prep & practice

Demo Day
Lean startup
Realities of funding
Financial modeling & budgeting

Climate risks
Mentoring Farmer psychology
Networking Certifications
Media engagement Restoration movement
Nursery management

NOTES AND SOURCE go here

PARTICIPANTS

NOTES AND SOURCE go here 17

CREATING A SPECIAL PURPOSE VEHICLE
WRI is interested in forming a special purpose vehicle (SPV) that
invests in the enterprises selected for the Land Accelerator.

Target all 28
AFR100 partner
countries

Host a 4-6 day training,

Form a Land Accelerator SPV Select 15 networking and investor- Match
Call for Land
which will invest $50,000 in promising focused Land Accelerator companies
Accelerator
each enterprise, in return for a enterprises for the 15 participating with capital
Applications
6% equity stake enterprises

Tap into
entrepreneurship
and investor
networks

Reinvest funds into

future Accelerators

NOTES AND SOURCE go here

 Entrepreneurship for
Restoration in Africa

By:
Kuki Njeru
Green Pot Enterprises Ltd
20th March 2019
INTRODUCTION TO GREEN POT
• Greenpot Enterprises Limited was launched in 2014
and is Kenya’s first fully integrated bamboo company
• Our business model is multidimensional, which entails
large-scale nurseries, large-scale bamboo plantations
all the way to creating a bamboo factory
• We also became part of large-scale landscape
restoration
• Green Pot aims to create business opportunities for
Kenyans through this lucrative venture
• It is therefore constantly developing bamboo based
initiatives and concepts

“Be Proactive” – Steven Covey

GATED COMMUNITY
OF FORESTS
OUT GROWER
MODEL
 RESTORATION MODEL

GPE provides seedlings &

project management

GP Industries purchase Resource mobilization /

bamboo from farmers finance approval

Farmers / project implementers

plant bamboo
 HOW WILL RESTORATION WORK?

• This is a bottom-up approach (community up)

• Education Acceptance Participation Implementation
• Key to restoration:
– Long term/large scale
– Each site is unique
– Restoring functionality and productivity is priority
– Balance local needs and high-level priorities
– Use trees to enhance production
IMPACT OF THE LAND ACCELERATOR

• Pitching skills
• Investor readiness and what to expect
• Investor engagement and negotiation
• Pitching
• Business valuing
• Networking opportunity with other restoration players
• Meeting potential investors at Demo Day. We are still
engaging with about 3
 HOW CLIMATE CHANGE HAS
AFFECTED RESTORATION BUSINESS
• We have missed about 3 planting seasons due to low
rainfall
• Decreased revenue from seedling sales
• Reduced number of restoration projects
• Increased project costs as some areas may require
repeat planting
• The expected maturity of the bamboo has increased by
about a year, thus moving the date of production as well
as returns to our restoration investors
MITIGATION OF CLIMATE CHANGE CHALLENGES
FOR SUCCESS IN RESTORATION PROJECTS
• Exploring drought resilient bamboo species
• Include irrigation and insurance in restoration projects
• Trying to get other revenues like carbon credits to help
manage the high costs that are climate change related
• Managing investor and farmer expectations (increase the
return period)
• Training farmers on smart and integrated agriculture that
includes water harvesting and farm waste management
CONTACT INFORMATION

Kuki Njeru
Director, Marketing and Outreach,
Green Pot Enterprises Limited,
kuki@greenpotenterprises.com
+254 721 593 211
AFR100 is a pan-African, country-
led initiative to bring 100 million
hectares of degraded lands into
restoration by 2030.

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VISION
We envision a future where 100 million
hectares of degraded landscapes across
Africa have been restored.

This restoration movement is:

• Africa-owned
• Connected
• Adequately financed
• Driven by grassroots & “grasstops”
• Leading the global movement
A GROWING NETWORK

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 CORE AREAS OF SUPPORT

• Convene at continental, regional,

national & landscape scales
• Support landscape plans
• Strengthen coordination
• Share knowledge and replicate
• Access finance
• Support coordinated monitoring &
reporting
• Showcase successes and plans
NATIONAL FRAMEWORKS IN PLACE

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BUDGETS ALLOCATED FOR RESTORATION

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RESTORATION IS POSITIONED TO SCALE UP

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31.2 Mha in progress of
168.43 Mha committed
(19%)

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INVESTMENT READINESS TRAINING IN NIGER
Through business scoping, investor research, and targeted investment-readiness training, the project
team is focused on supporting entrepreneurs to pitch their business models and access impact finance.

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BUSINESS-INVESTOR MATCHMAKING IN MALAWI
Through business scoping and field visits, investor research, discussions on climate risks and adaptation
options, a networking and matchmaking roundtable, and post-event investor introductions, the project team is
working to upscale successful restoration business models. Focus enterprises include: AfriBam, Consolidated
Processing Industries, and Moringa Miracles – enterprises that are all restoring and protecting land, while
targeting different markets (timber, energy, non-timber forest products).

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RESTORATION MARKETPLACE
TURNING BARRIERS INTO STRATEGIC OPPORTUNITIES
1. Encourage early-stage risk-taking: There are very, very few investors who are willing to invest in an
early-stage restoration enterprise in Africa. Most investors—including impact investors with a focus on
land use in Africa—are unwilling to take the risk on an unproven company. Often, no one wants to be
the first investor, which creates a chicken-and-egg problem for entrepreneurs. WRI and funding
partners can play a role in changing this mindset so that more finance flows to the restoration
economy.
2. Expand the investor base: Investor interest in restoration in Africa is largely limited to impact
investors. There is a need to engage a broader range of funders including foundations, high-net-worth
individuals, and development banks.
3. Mitigate financial risk: Financial mechanisms that reduce risk will bring more private investors to the
table. These mechanisms may include blended finance instruments that bring together public and
private capital, or insurance guarantees for foreign investors who are new to Africa, or first-loss
guarantees that limit the potential for loss.
4. Build Resilience: The ability of early-stage entrepreneurs to adapt to climate risks, such as droughts
and floods, is low. They require support in accessing climate data for planning, prioritizing and
evaluating adaptation options, and implementing options within their own company to be viable in the
face of climate change. WRI can support such enterprises in adaptation planning to build resilience.