The Kenya Climate Innovation Center (CIC).

26 September 2012. The World Bank will provide US$15 million over the next five years to the Kenya Climate Innovation Center (CIC). The Kenya CIC is expected to support approximately 70 sustainable climate technology business enterprises within its first five years and is projected to create over 24,000 jobs over ten years.

Through offering financial and other services to climate entrepreneurs, the climate innovation center will facilitate Kenya in reaching several of its environmental goals, including the promotion of clean energy, locally-developed products like high efficiency stoves.

These include reduced CO2 emissions, increased climate adaptation and resilience, and access to clean energy and water. In addition to environmental achievements, the center is also expected to promote economic and social objectives.

Kenneth Ndua, founder of start-up Fawandu, is an entrepreneur who is developing a domestically produced, high-efficiency stove that simultaneously cooks and sanitizes water through boiling.

“I want to provide clean water and cooking to 24,000 households, and create 550 jobs, 400 of which will be for women. The support of the CIC would help me to commercialize and rollout of our products at the national level,” he says.

The CIC is supported by the World Bank’s infoDev in partnership with the government of Denmark and the Britain’s UKAid. The CIC is an innovative model to accelerate locally owned, locally developed solutions to climate change. In addition to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and improving climate resiliency, it will accelerate business in high-growth sectors such as renewable energy, agriculture, clean water, and energy efficiency. 

Cook Stove in Kenya, a local solution to a global problem