Under the theme 'Connecting Minds, Creating the Future', Dubai is building its Expo 2020 bid on three sub-themes representing the forces that inspire global development: sustainability (lasting sources of energy and water); mobility (smart systems of logistics and transportation); and opportunity (new paths to economic development). Dubai Expo 2020 reports on two social
initiatives in Africa that are helping foster sustainability on a local level.
Governments and large business are all looking at sustainability as a key issue in their bid to tackle climate change and water scarcity. But while global leaders and chief executives work on incorporating sustainability into policy-making and business models, smaller enterprises are delivering at grassroots level.
In Ghana, Toyola Energy, founded by Suraj Wahab Ologburo, is one such enterprise. Toyola makes energy-efficient cooking stoves for ordinary Ghanaian consumers, who spend a large chunk of their incomes on fuel.
Ologburo's "coal pot" stove uses one-third less charcoal than most existing stoves and sells for as little as US$8. Ologburo also offers credit, so consumers can pay US$2 up front and the remaining US$6 over two months using money saved on charcoal.
His company has produced 200,000 stoves and more than one million Ghanaians eat food cooked using Ologburo's products every day. His business has reduced charcoal consumption in Ghana by 30,000 tonnes each year and carbon dioxide emissions by 150,000 tonnes a year.
Gina Garbon was one of Ologburo's first customers. She liked the stove so much she ordered five for her market stall in Accra. Five became 100 and she sold every one, using the profits to buy land and build a new house. "Stoves changed my life," she says.
Elsewhere, across Sub-Saharan Africa social enterprise Solar Sister is enabling rural women to start their own clean-tech cottage industries. The solar energy "business-in-a-bag" model provides funding, and inventory - including solar lamps and
solar mobile phone chargers - that the women sell locally.
The scheme provides participants with an income and brings clean solar power to their communities. "My children need light to study so they can do well in school. If I have the opportunity to earn some money, I can give them a better future," says one Solar Sister entrepreneur.
As the world ponders the climate change challenge, Solar Sister and Toyola Energy demonstrate how grassroots initiatives can effect change in ways that bring not just sustainability benefits but economic opportunities too.
To know more about UAE's bid to host the World Expo in 2020, please visit: http://www.expo2020dubai.ae
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