The Best Solutions Come from those Closest to the Problems
“The best solutions come from those closest to the problems – not air-dropped from outsiders.
That’s impact colonialism – imposing solutions on local communities without appropriate consideration of the local climate, customs, culture, language, and market.
We are looking for local communities solving their own challenges and we believe that when we shed a light on them, they can better grow and scale. They’ve generated an exposure of 84 million people for their award winners.
Solutions like Greening the Desert in Jordan, a Nigerian fish farm project, and solar stoves in Nicaragua where the attention from the award made it easier to find capital, brought partners in the private and public sectors to help them replicate their solutions.”
Tina Lindgreen with WAFA – Water Air Food Awards shares her impact story as part of our micro-podcast series, originally recorded around The Global Impact Investing Network Forum in Copenhagen.
They are looking for additional investors and donors to expand their offering to highlight more scalable solutions and provide even greater resources for these locally-grown innovations.
Podcast Transcript
Jacob: [00:00:00] Welcome to Stories of Impact. I’ve got Tina Lindgren here with WAFA let me have you just do a quick introduction of yourself.
Tina: Water and Food Awards is a Danish nonprofit a NGO with global reach. It was founded in Copenhagen in 2008. And it’s all about giving awards to the most innovative and sustainable projects. So far we have given 18 awards to projects all over the world, on all the continents. And we have managed to acquire a reach of 84 million people. Based on the national and local media exposure they have gotten when they win.
We are on a journey to WAFA 2.0 to increase our reach and do a lot more, bigger awards, [00:01:00] bigger prizes, and help more people replicate their good solutions.
Jacob: What good is that doing?
Tina: It does a lot, both internally and externally. Internally, it increases the people’s motivation a lot. It strengthens their self-worth and self-confidence and it gives them the reason to carry on. And it opens the doors to their communities.
It pulls the curtains apart so that they can look out and the world can look in. When people from different parts of the world, when they see what they’re doing, they want to support it. We even have cases where governments wanted to make it a national program. And we have project winners who have a much easier time acquiring funds. And it’s a real growth model.
Jacob: [00:02:00] Give me a couple of examples of that.
Tina: One of our winners in Nigeria. This was a fish farm project. It was just one young woman who was pregnant and she was going to be a single mother. And she asked her school teacher, Can you help me? I need to find a way to feed my child when it’s born. And so he said, OK, I’ll help you set up a fish dam, and I can give you a little bit of money to do that and help you. And so she did.
And she managed very well. And when other women in the community saw that, they wanted to learn too. So she became like a trainer for other women. And, it ended up the whole village got a much more healthy foundation, financial and also much better nutrition, and a much more enjoyable life.
We sent them press [00:03:00] releases to get them out there to the media both local and national media. So the government found them and said, look, we want to talk with you and make it a national program. So many more women can be taught this. So this is happening.
Jacob: So that was a direct result of them being awarded?
Tina: Yeah, because of the government media exposure they got really interested. And also it has some weight when it comes from so-called western countries. It raises the credibility of the project.
Jacob: You got any more?
Tina: Yes, I’ve got greening the desert in Jordan. Permaculture Research Institute wanted to prove that it’s possible to re-green man-made deserts. They set up a test site in Jordan, one of the driest places on earth. And they started applying this method called permaculture, where you [00:04:00] grow vegetables, fruits, and you have poultry, but you do it on nature’s own conditions.
You don’t have 10 acres of maize and then another 10 acres of carrots. You mix the different vegetation according to how nature does it, and so they green that piece of land within four years. And within three or four months, the ecosystem within that area was re-established and the site pretty much took care of itself, just like nature does it. And now they have replicated their solution in many other places in the world.
Nicaragua won the air prize This was the situation where women were with their stoves in the houses. The trees were being cut and the wood was being used for the stoves which created a terrible indoor climate [00:05:00] and it also destroyed the ecosystem when you cut down the trees.
So there was this group of women who said we have to do something about this. We have to restore the health and the ecosystem. And so they invented this very simple solar oven that you can put outdoors that just about any person can create with a little bit of instruction.
And soon enough more and more women took on this new invention and stopped cooking food inside with wood. So the health improved. And the ecosystem was slowly coming back.
Jacob: Tell me about what happened after they got the award.
Tina: They are being approached by other organizations in Nicaragua, who want to set up partnerships with them. And they want to help spread and make more training around the country, so more women can [00:06:00] take advantage of this solar oven. And they also told us now it’s much easier for us to apply for funding when they can say we have won the WAFA awards.
Jacob: These projects are all locally grown.
Tina: Yeah.
Jacob: Explain that to me.
Tina: Well where we are looking for communities who are solving their own challenges today. And they are doing it with local resources. There’s local empowerment. There’s local leadership. It’s locally owned we also ask for projects that are scalable and replicable and that the winners are willing and interested in sharing their solutions with others who have similar challenges that they themselves have solved.
And then of course they have to have created results for at least two years. Local solutions to our global challenges are very important. Because [00:07:00] you gotta know the climate, the geography, you gotta know the customs in the country, you gotta know the culture, you gotta know the vegetation that naturally grows there. That’s why we focus on local solutions.
Jacob: Your model is very much more letting local communities that are already solving their own problems and just helping them scale those or move them more broadly.
Why is that difference important to you?
Tina: It’s important because people can solve their own problems and when they do, they get empowered and they get creative, they get innovative and it’s on their own turf. They do it their way.
We have seen projects where when the western solutions, when they exit. the project, it falls apart. Because, it was never really properly handed over to the locals, and the locals taking [00:08:00] full ownership. It was more like imposed on them the biggest hurdle we face is financial support.
It’s to grow from being fully volunteer-based. To grow to establish a more resourceful organization and to be able to attract the competencies we truly need to be able to expand our service.
We’re also looking at partnering with companies who really do care for biodiversity, they care about the climate, they care about people having what they need. We’re looking for philanthropists who, have a passion for water, have a passion for local ownership, for community-based solutions for nutritious food for everyone.
Jacob: Imagine one of those ideal partners or donors is listening. What’s the pitch to them? There’s lots of good [00:09:00] causes out there. There’s no shortage of places that could benefit from their resources.
Why WAFA for them? Why is this an ideal organization for the right kind of partner?
Tina: It’s sustainable long term. Those award winners we have, they’re still around since 2010 when we gave the first awards. They have grown. They have been able to expand and restore more livelihood.
We have proof of concept now. This kind of model really works. And it doesn’t break down in the middle because it’s people themselves who are restoring their own livelihoods. That kind of setup really works.
So it’s a safe place to put part of your wealth. If you want something which is lasting, which does good in the long term, and which creates this domino effect. So your financial input keeps having this ripple [00:10:00] effect.
Jacob: Shining a light on them is helping them to be visible and that visibility brings new opportunities, easier access to capital, and government attention that is helping them to scale and grow.
Tina: When you focus on something, it grows. You just focus your light on it, and then it grows.
Jacob: What are you excited about in the future? What’s coming next?
Tina: I’m excited about our new WAFA 2.0, where we are going out to sponsor potential partners and sponsors and philanthropists and present how much more we can do, and how many more projects we can find. We can shine a light on many more projects and typically these projects are silent heroes.
You don’t know about them until WAFA shines a light on them. And it’s pretty exciting to find all these pockets all over the world who are solving their own challenges. [00:11:00] It’s not all grey and dark and hopeless. There’s so much hope. There’s so much good stuff happening in this world. We are looking forward to being able to tell these stories, these impact stories to many more people.
Jacob: How do people find you?
Tina: We have a website which is wafaward.org W-A-F-A-W-A-R-D.org, and you can find us there.
Jacob: Thank you so much, Tina, for sharing your stories, sharing the good that you’re doing and excited to see WAFA 2.0 come to life and the bigger stage and spotlight you can shed on these silent heroes and helping them grow and succeed. Looking forward to that and our continued friendship there.
Tina: Oh, yes. Thank you so much for having me and thank you so much for giving me this opportunity to share about WAFA.
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