Project: Accelerating community resilience through agroecological innovation and business hub
State of development: Current
Stage of development: Early stage
Stage notes: Early-Stage Design
Type of instrument — Impact Bond: Yes; Outcomes Fund: No; Social Impact Incentives (SIINC): No; Social Impact Guarantee: No; Payment-by-results (no pre-financing): No; Technical Assistance and Market-building program: No; Other: 
Rationale for using outcome-based finance: Improved and well conserved ecosystems in Western Kenya. 
Facilitate access to reliable and affordable high quality environmentally safe farm inputs and advisory/practical training on integrated farming technologies through a one-stop shop model. Leverage our network of partners in research and production. 

Increased equitable employment opportunities for women, youth, and vulnerable persons.
Facilitate equitable decision making by women, youth, and vulnerable people in agroecological innovation technologies and agri-preneurship.

Increased access to viable and sustainable markets for agri-preneurs. 
Incubation of agri-preneurs to access better markets, finance, and pricing for agroecological farm produce. Leverage on Ripple Effect's farmer trusted community owned social structures (Peer Farmer Trainers, Group Management Committees, Farmer Marketing Organizations) to effectively cost, market and deliver products/services.

With bigger investments for scale-up, collaborate with Ripple Effect offices/networks to replicate similar hubs in East Africa. The Eco-Hub will be a center for learning excellence to other stakeholders within the agroecological space. 
Social/developmental challenge: Agriculture, the largest employer and mainstay of the Kenyan economy, is faced with numerous challenges: destruction of ecosystems through reduction of forest/ tree/vegetation cover dwindling to 5% and heading towards 10% (for wood fuel, timber, poles); non-equitable access to and control of productive resources driven by cultural gender biases; a larger population of women, vulnerable people and youth with inadequate skills, knowledge and information on agroecological climate positive approaches; limited participation of youth in agricultural innovations, research, technology development and utilization; inadequate access to financial services; unfavorable policies to support youth in agri-preneurship; and low levels of value addition on farm produce. 
Expected intervention model: Ripple Effect (formerly, Send a Cow) proposes to develop an Agroecological Innovation and Business Hub (Eco-Hub) that will operate as a social enterprise with a comprehensive incubation facility for agroecological innovations that will serve women, vulnerable people & youth agribusiness startups and small and medium enterprises (SMEs). It aims at accelerating incomes through agroecological climate positive approaches (ACPA) among rural farming communities in Western Kenya, where it will be based. ACPA, a tested approach at Ripple Effect in collaboration with research institutions in the region, is an alternative approach to agriculture production that not only leads to improved yields, but also contributes to improvement and regeneration of the farming ecosystem, enhances biodiversity, and promotes climate change mitigation. It is also a means to lowering and sequestrating greenhouse gasses. Hence, scaling up of the ACPA model through the establishment of the Eco-hub, we aim to create decent economic opportunities especially for the youth and women, accelerate agroecological solutions to combat climate change and its impacts. The proposed outcome-based funding vehicle (OBF) provides an opportunity to pilot an Eco-Hub that will provide value for investment through increased yields, low costs of production, better market prices, and opening of regional market linkages.
Policy sectors — Employment and private sector development: Yes; Education: No; Social protection: No; Criminal justice: No; Health: No; Agriculture: No; Environment and climate change: Yes; Water, Sanitation and Hygiene: No; Energy: No; Humanitarian: No; Early Childhood Education: No; Other: 
Primary SDG goal: 8,13
Country income classification of beneficiaries — Low-income: No; Lower-middle-income: Yes; Upper-middle-income: No; High-income: No
Notes: Data for this pipeline project was last updated in August 2023
Delivery location: Kenya