Innovation at work inside Malawi’s Dzaleka refugee camp

In Malawi’s Dzaleka refugee camp a pioneering refugee-led organisation (RLO) called Women for Action is leading an aquaponics project to tackle food insecurity and equip women with vital new skills.

Cécile Pango is the founder and manager of the female run RLO, which is collaborating with the UN refugee agency’s Refugee-led Innovation Fund to train 100 women, not only with the goal of providing food to at least 1000 people, but to empower women with the tools to work in management and marketing positions.

“The Project by Women for Action provides training on aquaponics farming. The objective is to cultivate vegetables outside the soil,” Cécile tells me.

Founded by women in 2012, Cécile says Women for Action is making women financially autonomous so they can “avoid falling into abuse and violence”.

“We know these organisations face specific contextual challenges, and we work with them through those to ensure they can succeed.”

Erika Pérez Iglesias, who leads the UNHCR’s Refugee-led Innovation Fund. 

“Our first activity was the creation of briquettes with the energy created by biomass,” explains Cécile. “It allowed women to create and sell, and thus become entrepreneurs.”

With its latest project, on aquaponics, Cécile tells me the “first phase is over” and “100 women and six men are now trained in computing.”

“The second phase is ongoing, and is about the construction of an aquaponics site,” she says.” The third phase will be the introduction of fish. Fish will be cultivated in water, and this water feeds vegetables. So this project is sustainable, since the fish will continue to grow.”

The commercialization of the aquaponics site is another priority.

“The current site is very small,” adds Cécile. “it’s good for training but not sufficient for commercialization”.

The project works closely with the Refugee-led Innovation Fund, launched last year to support what Erika Pérez Iglesias, who leads the UNHCR’s Refugee-led Innovation Fund, says is a “fundamental shift in the way humanitarian and development programming gets designed and delivered, ensuring forcibly displaced and stateless people take centre stage in the decisions affecting their lives.”

“It’s not just funding: It’s also project management support, technical expertise, and peer-to-peer networking,” adds Erika.

And Cécile says this partnership approach is working well.

“They are flexible, the Refugee-led Innovation Fund, it does not put pressure on us so we are not stressed. Instead it stresses what you have done well and does not blame your faults. Therefore, we can take time to reflect and make minimum errors.”

And organisations interested in supporting the RLOs and the refugee-led innovation fund can play a part.

“While each project must be ‘owned’ by an RLO, organisations who are keen to support this exciting initiative could reach out to local RLOs to propose avenues for collaboration,” added Erika. “Organisations or individuals who would like to collaborate with or support the Fund (or specific projects) with funding or in-kind support can always reach out to us.”

The post Innovation at work inside Malawi’s Dzaleka refugee camp first appeared on Innovators magazine.