By leveraging cutting-edge technologies and innovative solutions, ACES - (as a centre of reference) will in its first phase, empower farmers, healthcare workers, experts and stakeholders across various sectors to mitigate losses, enhance resilience, and promote sustainable development.
ACES initiative has been made possible through the collaborative efforts of various stakeholders, including both Governments of Rwanda and the UK, the United Nations Environment Programme, a consortium of leading UK and international universities, the University of Rwanda, and Rwanda Polytechnic as well as the partnership with the world-leading industries.
The ACES facility, which has training facilities and a demonstration hall will facilitate collaboration between African governments, industry, academia and development institutions to translate knowledge into sustainable actions in order to address global challenges and build a more resilient and equitable world.
The ACES facility, which has training facilities and a demonstration hall will facilitate collaboration between African governments, industry, academia and development institutions to translate knowledge into sustainable actions in order to address global challenges and build a more resilient and equitable world.
In Rwanda, 73% of the total workforce are employed in agriculture and according to the World Bank, food losses represents 12% annual GDP. World Bank figures show that 62% cannot afford cooling technology due to high initial investments, 96% of farmers living in the vicinity of the cold rooms don’t use them and only 5% of firms in the food and agriculture sector have refrigerated trucks. While 9% have a cold room to store fresh produce, small and marginal farmers, where the majority of post-harvest food losses occur, functional cold chains are completely absent (less than 1% of cold-chain capacity).
ACES is complemented with Specialized Outreach and Knowledge Establishments (SPOKEs) where we will demonstrate solutions and cascade knowledge to local markets in order to accelerate deployment of sustainable smart cold-chain in Community Cooling Hubs (CCH), Carole Gwiza, the Executive Director of ACES
The first of these is being developed in Kenya and more SPOKEs will be developed (even in Rwanda) to reach the rural citizens who need applicable and affordable cold-chain tech. In order to reach and educate farmers, during the initial phase of the ACES, private sector players like, Carrier Transicold signed a memorandum of understanding with ACES to deliver three cold-chain units which will be used for this purpose.
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