Cardano4Climate Africa

[IMPACT] Please describe your proposed solution.

Making the World Work Better for All People, Animals, & the Planet

WHO WE ARE

What began while applying as a challenge in Fund 6 and become a community: Cardano4Climate

We are a community building on the principles of engagement, reliability, & sustainability.

WHAT WE DO

In the past 9 months, we have grown a community around communication channels & a shared vision. Emerging from our social media channels, weekly meetings, monthly events (with a growing list of domain experts), website, YouTube channel, & outreach both inside & outside of Catalyst is 

a community hub of

• Support for the collaborative development of well-defined proposals through feedback, knowledge, & resource sharing related to climate change issues & mitigation, as well as the processes defined by Catalyst
• Moderated discussions to empower individuals to engage in climate change dialogues and actions
• Connections to experts & teams within the Cardano & Catalyst Community: WADA, Swarm, Catalyst School, Climate Neutral Cardano SPOs, the Cardano Foundation & the IOG Impact team.

an online, global meeting place & time to

• Connect, collaborate, contribute, listen, learn, absorb & recharge.
• Bridge outside communities affected by climate change to applications on the Cardano blockchain
• Educate & promote sustainable solutions through adaptation and mitigation options.
• Explore ways to bridge knowledge gaps.
• Offer continuous support & advice related to Project Catalyst processes.
• Collaborate with other community hubs throughout Project Catalyst.

to reach the highest in human collaboration to address humanity's greatest challenge: Climate Change

Visit www.Cardano4Climate.com to read more.

WHY WE DO IT

By combining the evolving blockchain technology of Cardano with solutions and models for climate change action, we will make the needed impact, now and for decades to come. Together, we have the ability to stop the downhill degradation and harm to the planet and bring about regeneration as the social and economic foundation for current and future generations. 

This is a unique opportunity for Cardano to continue and be positioned as the blockchain that brings a better world for all people, animals, and the living planet. By doing so, we will not only have an essential impact but also have huge economic opportunities onboarding global industries such as agriculture supply chains, green energy, inclusive finance, Carbon markets, cycle economy, food tech, and more. This is especially the case in the developing countries which are a major opportunity focus for Cardano. 

Current & Proposed Solution:

The Cardano4Climate HUB is motivated by the language of the heart: purpose. The citizens of this culture are localized to the environment & systems in which they live, while being aware of the global impact of Climate Change. It is both the problems creating Climate Change & the ground-up solutions to mitigate it, that have drawn us together into a global community of many tongues, heads, hearts, & hands that reach into every corner of the globe. Cardano4Climate opens a space to speak our heart languages & gives a collective voice to this purpose through our social media channels, meetings, and event.

Target demographic:

The Catalyst community, individuals representing funded proposals and those applying for funding, non-government organizations & communities outside the Cardano network affected by &/or working to mitigate climate change. 

While the problems are global the people's activities are local. Cardano4Climate is a global community composed of local hubs & activities and supporting local communities and local solutions.

Africa is one of the continents going to be most impacted by climate change and the African economy is directly connected to it. Therefore having the local hub coordinate and support initiatives will be highly valuable in adjusting to local timezone, languages, and cultures while building local teams and enriching the network. 

[IMPACT] Please describe how your proposed solution will address the Challenge that you have submitted it in.

The challenge asks the question: How do we prepare Africa for a future of wide-scale Cardano adoption? How do we continue to seed and grow adoption in 2022 and beyond?

And then continue with why it is important: We need to look at the fundamentals that are preventing Africa from being a Cardano adoption leader, rather than a perpetual follower.

This is exactly why having a local hub will support those objectives. Supporting Dapps for Agriculture supply chains, green energy, and construction, nature conservation efforts, and financial inclusions are all needed. Make sure resources are getting to the ground and having a real measurable impact. 

Cardano should be a leading force in working on those issues and having a centralized hub will help to promote internal and external organizations.  

[IMPACT] What are the main risks that could prevent you from delivering the project successfully and please explain how you will mitigate each risk?

Challenge 1: where to start? The problem is so big and we feel powerless. By having a local hub we will be able to better identify key areas and prioritize them and support them through the global hub

Challenge 2: Africa is big and diversified in terms of cultures and languages. We start where Cardano-related work is already in progress through the work of WADA and the African Townhall and in collaboration with them, the efforts will be complementary and more effective.

[FEASIBILITY] Please provide a detailed plan, including timeline and key milestones for delivering your proposal.

This proposal includes several key activities:

• Participate in the biweekly African Townhall and promote climate-related issues including basic causes, adaptation options, mitigation and resilience in breakout rooms
• Weekly one-hour meeting - during office hours to promote certain topics or support initiatives 
• Coordination with other C4C hubs as well as Cardano communities and initiatives 
• Research and information gathering re blockchain - climate change - Cradano
• Promotional activities - and participating in related non-Cardano meetups and events  

Roadmap:

• Start weekly meetups and office hours in September 2022
• Develop hub guidelines for September 2022
• Research and info gathering September 2022
• Preparing a 12-month plan for the hub in October 2022 
• Promotional materials October 2022
• Ongoing operation September - December 2022 

Deliverables:

• 16 townhalls and ATH, 16 office hours
• Hub plan
• Database of initiatives
• Promotional materials
• Events participation x 2 

[FEASIBILITY] Please provide a detailed budget breakdown.

The hub will start activities in July supported by C4C global hub. But we need support to scale the activities.

• Hub coordination x minimum 40 hours per month = $2000 per month x 4 months = $8000. The workload will be divided between two or more people as needed.
• Event participation: registration, travel, admin $2000
• Promotional materials: $1500
• Promotion activities: $1000
• Coordination with C4C central hub: $600/ month for 4 months = $2400, including accounting and admin services y the Treasury guild  

Total budget: $14,500

[FEASIBILITY] Please provide details of the people who will work on the project.

The team will be supported by Cardano4Climate global hub but will also have a dedicated team. WADA and the African town hall will also support the ongoing operation and coordination. 

The initial team leaders include:

Afia Owusu: Currently lead in organizing CATH for the past 3 months. Wada West Africa Lead, Environmentalist, CA for funds 6, 7 and 8. vCA for fund 7&8, Idea Fest Host for funds 6, 7, & 8, active in most Catalyst meetings (C4C, Town Halls, Idea Fest programs).

Elias Arabic community lead: Engineer speaking Arabic, French and English, Fund 7 proposer and Marlowe Pioneer, he's an active member of Cardano community groups of the Cardano community (THs, C4C, Sustainable ADA). Interested in education and climate action.

Prof. Erasmus Henaku Owusu is an Associate Professor in Conservation Science. Prof Owusu is the current Director for the Center for Climate Change and Sustainability Studies in Ghana and a former Executive Director of the Ghana Wildlife Society. He has over 27 years of functional experience in Biodiversity Management/Conservation Biology and a strong advocate of Climate Change and Biodiversity/Ecosystem services.

The hub will operate as a bounty system and the team lead could be changed or work could be distributed between multiple people.

[FEASIBILITY] If you are funded, will you return to Catalyst in a later round for further funding? Please explain why / why not.

Yes, Cardano4Climate is an active and growing community within Catalyst & Cardano. We believe to provide value to the community and the growth of the ecosystem. We will probably return in future funds and support reshaping the ecosystem and the mission of Cardano: Making the world work better for all (people, animals and the living planet)

[FEASIBILITY] Are you or any member of your team working on any other proposals in this Fund9?

[FEASIBILITY] Are you or your team working on any other proposals from previous Funds?

[AUDITABILITY] Please describe what you will measure to track your project's progress, and how will you measure these?

The progress will be measured by the key KPIs suggested in the challenge setting which are very relevant for this hub:

Number of proposals addressing the fundamental issues preventing Cardano adoption in Africa

Number of proposals offering solutions to infrastructure and education concerns

Number of new Africa-based users onboarded onto Cardano (wallets, platform sign-ups)

Number of new Africa-based Catalyst members (proposers, voters, CAs)

Number of new African projects seeded in 2022

Number of African developers onboarded in 2022

Number of feedbacks supporting blockchain technology and climate change mitigation/adaptation/resilience

Local impact (measurable through user activity and reach)

Local partnerships formed (size of institution + influence)

In addition, we will measure:

Number of participants in meetings and events

Connections to other Crdano initiatives and communities 

Transparency

We are committed to improving the transparency of our process & decisions with increased accessibility of this information to all of our stakeholders. We have initiated a public GitHub repository where all ongoing tasks and actions will be tracked regularly. Join us Cardano4Climate: https://www.meetup.com/Cardano-Catalyst-Community-Network/events

On Telegram: https://t.me/ClimateChange_THEChallenge

On Discord: https://discord.gg/gUP26qyqpe

On GitHub: https://github.com/Cardano4Climate 

On Twitter: https://twitter.com/Cardano4Climate

On YouTube:

Local channels will be opened to support the local hub as needed.

Ongoing:

• Weekly meetups - recorded 

• presence at Catalyst Townhalls - - recorded 

• Upload videos to YouTube

• Organize information in Telegram & Discord channels available for all

• Create forms for community input & feedback

[AUDITABILITY] What does success for this project look like?

Success will be to become a reference hub for the Cardano community in Africa and in general related to climate change initiatives. In addition, become a reference point also for onboarding new initiatives, impact companies, and impact-driven people to the Cardano ecosystem. Finally supporting the funding and implementation of initiatives to grow the number of users and impact.   

Measurement of Success, Key Performance Indicators

• Africa Telegram & Discord membership over 100 members 
• Database of projects - over 50 
• Local use case - 10 
• Supporting over 20 proposals and 10 new proposing entities 
• 20 new CAs

[AUDITABILITY] Please provide information on whether this proposal is a continuation of a previously funded project in Catalyst or an entirely new one.

A new one for Africa hub, but related to Cardano4Climate

Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Rating

All of them.