Tembea Innovation and Acceleration Hub
VillageCAN — Village Climate Actors Network
Empowering Women and Youth to Take Urgent Action in Food Systems Transformation and Climate Innovation
VillageCAN is a flagship initiative of Tembea Futures Institute (TeFI) — a social enterprise advancing climate-smart interventions and sustainable land-use practices across rural Kenya and beyond. The model helps villages own-source climate financing and invest in local resilience through youth-led, data-driven, and financially sustainable community systems.
The Challenge
Villages are on the frontline of the global climate crisis — facing floods, droughts, and disease outbreaks with limited access to finance or decision-making power.
Governments in the Global South often operate within informal economies, leaving a climate finance gap that deepens food insecurity and vulnerability.
Our Solution
Through VillageCAN, TeFI enables villages, women, and youth to take charge of climate action using five innovation pathways:
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Student Apprentice Hub (SAH)
A university-led smart extension model that trains and deploys students as climate-service apprentices.
Currently active at JOOUST (Siaya County), where 700 students serve 25 village climate investment groups, linking academic innovation to real community transformation. -
Loyalty-as-a-Service (LaaS)
A mobile wallet platform (Uhai App) that channels self-retail loyalty savings from households and students into climate investments.
Each county-level cluster of 2,500 villages can raise up to $15 million annually for climate action through loyalty micro-savings. -
Village Climate Investment Groups (VCIGs)
Village-based cooperatives of 100 households collectively raising $6,000 annually to fund:
- Hospital insurance & health systems
- Climate and social enterprises
- Smart extension & market activations
- Food forest academies and communal land tenure reforms
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Climate Impact Bonds (CIBs)
Public–private partnerships that finance proven, outcome-based climate investments — such as waste-to-energy systems for Bondo and Ugunja municipalities. -
Climate Community Foundation (CCF)
A community climate endowment that harnesses 22% of loyalty funds from local kiosks and eateries to provide grants and donor services for village climate projects.
How It Works
Through digital loyalty systems, local smart kiosks, and village investment groups, VillageCAN creates an ecosystem of financial autonomy and collective climate ownership.
Every loyalty slip, transaction, or skill gained by an apprentice contributes to a growing network of self-financed climate actions across Kenya’s rural landscape.
Impact Vision
By 2030, TeFI aims to scale VillageCAN to:
- 2,500 villages per county
- 625,000 youth and women trained
- $15 million annual own-source financing
- Sustainable, data-driven rural economies
