Kukhanya Ventures

Communities across Mozambique lack access to electricity, 70% of urban Mozambican population and 95% of the rural population do not have access to grid electricity. Farmers and workers in rural districts are unable to develop income-generating activities because of the lack of access of energy. This hinders the smallholder farmers capacity to produce, store and develop the value chain of products and provide a sustainable livelihood when there is no access to on grid electricity. - ‘Imagine having to stay by the roadside to complete your homework or close your shop as the sun is setting. People rely heavily on the streetlights to continue their economic activity when evening comes.’

WHO WE ARE

Kukhanya” means “bringing light” in Changana. Kukhanya Ventures is a start-up dedicated to environmental and social impact in Mozambique. We started in 2021 promoting and offering alternative energy in rural and underserved areas, through a main streaming participatory methodology, to improve vulnerable household livelihoods by offering clean innovative technology based on solar systems. Since the beginning, KuKhanya Ventures has understood the importance to put forward a constructivist and relational methodology perspective which views participation as an emergent and co-produced phenomenon in itself and pays particular attention to the circumstances of its construction, performance, productive processes, and effects. Our goal to develop a participative process is to involve the communities into the choice and definition of energy system they want. The collaborative process is based on the first identification of preferences, perceptions or opinions, opening up decision-making processes to a diverse range of stakeholders. This methodology promotes the sustainability of our interventions. We include the representatives from the communities in the evaluation of the proposed solution to ensure that the project is inclusive as they promote the sale of solar panels of different models directly in the districts, wanting to interact with the community to create a direct relationship without intermediaries, to stimulate mutual trust based on the needs identified in the field. The start-up's action plan envisions the presentation of the start-up, its products and a meeting with communities in various districts to verify whether the company's products respond to the needs of the communities. In case of a positive response, the company will be able to move to step II, linked to the sale and distribution of products, following up with periodic monitoring.