Partnerships Renewable Energy

Heifer International New Partnership To Enhance Solar Energy In Uganda Farms

Heifer International's partnership to launch the DREEM HUB to improve solar energy access in Uganda's agricultural sector.
Image provided by Heifer International

Key Takeaways

  • Partnership Announcement: Heifer International, the Mott Foundation, and the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation have partnered to launch the DREEM HUB to improve solar energy access in Uganda’s agricultural sector.
  • Project Duration and Scope: The DREEM HUB initiative will run from 2024 to 2026, focusing on empowering 1,500 farmers and providing solar skills and entrepreneurship opportunities to 1,000 underserved youth and women in the Nakaseke District.
  • Investment and Objectives: With a $3 million investment, the project aims to green the dairy value chain, enhance sustainable incomes, provide safe water access, and build climate resilience among smallholder farmers.
  • Long-term Vision: The project will establish a self-sustaining DREEM Hub to continue advancing solar energy use beyond the initial project period, promoting scalability and replicability in the renewable energy sector.
  • Stakeholder Involvement: The initiative will involve collaboration among various partners to support workforce development, sustainable financing, and ecosystem coordination in Uganda’s dairy sector.

Heifer International, the Mott Foundation, and the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation have announced a partnership to improve access to solar energy services in Uganda’s agricultural value chains. This collaborative project, named the Distributed Renewable Energy Ecosystem Model (DREEM) HUB, is set to run from 2024 to 2026, aiming to advance sustainable farming practices and energy accessibility in the region.

Overview of the DREEM HUB Initiative

The DREEM HUB is a three-year multistakeholder initiative that aims to gather a diverse network of partners to deliver workforce and entrepreneurship development services, sustainable financing, and ecosystem support. The project plans to empower 1,500 farmers and provide solar skills, jobs, and entrepreneurship opportunities to 1,000 underserved youth and women entrepreneurs in four dairy farmer cooperatives in the Nakaseke District.

Objectives and Investment

The project anticipates a $3 million investment to focus on greening the dairy value chain, encompassing production, processing, and distribution. By demonstrating the use of solar energy at different levels within the dairy sector, the initiative seeks to promote sustainable incomes, ensure access to safe water, and enhance the resilience of smallholder farmers to climate change impacts.

William Matovu, Heifer International Uganda Country Director, stated, “We are committed to creating opportunities for farmers to enhance their income while protecting the environment. This is our shared goal with the Mott Foundation: to care for the earth by promoting sustainable farming practices.”

Empowering Farmers and Communities

The DREEM HUB project is designed to empower farmers, underserved women, and youth to adopt climate-smart agriculture through solar energy services. By doing so, the initiative aims to secure sustainable incomes, provide a reliable water supply, and increase resilience to climate change impacts for smallholder farmers and other value chain participants.

Heifer International will use funding from the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation to support the dairy sector’s efforts to increase access to safe water for both household and dairy use. Additionally, funding from the Mott Foundation will be used to develop the DREEM Hub as a self-sustaining platform that encourages public-private investments and partnerships for energy use in the dairy value chain.

Establishing a Self-Sustaining DREEM Hub

A key aspect of the DREEM HUB project is establishing a self-sustaining hub that will continue to advance solar energy use beyond the project’s initial period. Surita Sandosham, Heifer International’s President and CEO, explained, “Heifer, with the support of the Ugandan Government and the Mott Foundation, will establish the DREEM hub as a platform to enhance the implementation of existing policy mechanisms for increasing the adoption and utilization of renewable energy, thereby promoting scalability and replicability within and beyond the sector.”

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