Integrated and Sustainable Water Solutions for Health, Food Security and Peace
Water is the lifeblood of our ecosystems on which all life depends. We provide solar-powered water supply and management systems that create jobs and support livelihoods, enable year-round local food production, improve community health, empower women and youth, preserve and regenerate ecosystems, and sustain peace. Our programs are co-designed and co-managed with hard-to-reach communities who lead the way to a healthy, peaceful and regenerative future. Here's how we make it happen:
1. Community Co-Design. We work with communities and local authorities to identify needs and challenges, select the ideal project site, and co-create the project design and timeline. Based on the co-design, we source the right combination of efficient and renewable technologies from our trusted partners who share our vision of using clean energy for social impact.
2. Install Solar-Powered Water Pump. We drill wells and implement solar-powered groundwater pumps that provide clean water to the surrounding community through locally managed distribution systems.
3. Connect to Drip-Irrigated Farm. We install drip-irrigated farms powered by the solar water source, enabling large-scale cultivation of high-value crops to occur year round.
4. Train and Employ Farmers. We employ farmers, focusing on women and youth, and provide comprehensive training on modern agricultural techniques, regenerative farming practices, managing technology to improve production, leadership and entrepreneurship, and management and conflict resolution.
5. Provide Inputs and Conduct Farming. We provide inputs onsite, including seeds and tools, which are often otherwise unaffordable to rural farmers. With critical resources at hand, our teams conduct year-round cultivation of nutritious crops such as groundnuts, and use regenerative practices restoring soil health and improving the water cycle.
6. Provide Distribution Support. In addition to wages, farmers retain a share of each harvest, directly improving family food security, while we sell the remainder to local merchants and wholesalers such as the World Food Programme.
“Sustainability is a key challenge around the application of technology - how do you use such technologies in the most appropriate way? The Rainmaker Enterprise is committed to the how.”
Our Areas of Opportunity
Innovation and sustainability starting with water to address today’s greatest challenges.
EMPOWERMENT AND PROSPERITY
FOOD SECURITY AND NUTRITION
HEALTH AND WELLBEING
GENDER EQUALITY
CLEAN ENERGY
INNOVATION AND INDUSTRY
SUSTAINABLE FUTURE
LASTING PEACE
Local Solutions to Global Challenges
The key to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is co-creation and co-management of long-term, grassroots solutions with communities in hard-to-reach places. Ours begins with access to water using clean energy and creates a ripple effect of impacts. Read on to see how our impact areas accelerate progress towards the SDGs.
EMPOWERMENT AND PROSPERITY
Three quarters of the world’s hungry live in rural areas, with most depending on agriculture for their livelihoods. Our solar-powered water infrastructure allows off-grid areas to produce food and support agricultural livelihoods locally, reducing poverty and strengthening the capacity for resource management among rural populations.
FOOD SECURITY AND NUTRITION
In remote areas, food production relies on rainfall, bringing annual shortages during dry seasons. In recent years, rainfall has been unreliable, causing prolonged droughts and flooding. A lack of reliable water supply halts food production, causes prices to skyrocket and threatens livelihoods. Our projects enable vital local production of high-value foods to occur year round, allowing farmers to support themselves and feed a growing population while improving food systems and preserving ecosystems.
HEALTH AND WELLBEING
Access to safe and clean water saves lives. Each year, 1 million people are killed by water, sanitation and hygiene-related disease, and 1 out of every 5 deaths of children under the age of 5 is due to a water-related disease. We provide local access to clean water that transforms lives by reducing water-related diseases and allowing for the growth of nutritious crops that form the staple of healthy diets.
GENDER EQUALITY
Women and girls are responsible for water collection in 8 out of 10 households lacking direct access. We provide local access to water, improving girls’ attendance at school and allowing women to engage in other productive activities. In addition, solar-powered pumping saves time and energy where pumping is otherwise done by hand. Our projects account for the different needs, interests and roles of men and women as they relate to water access. We focus on training and employing women and youth, giving them the tools to succeed, and ensuring their inclusion and leadership in decision-making processes.
CLEAN ENERGY
An estimated 1.1 billion people do not have access to electricity, with most of them concentrated in Sub-Saharan Africa and developing Asia. Clean energy is essential for enabling climate-adaptive economic development in hard-to-reach areas. Implementing clean energy solutions as fast as possible is essential to counter climate change, one of the biggest threats to our collective survival.
INDUSTRY, INNOVATION AND INFRASTRUCTURE
We contribute to the achievement of SDG 9: A functioning and resilient infrastructure is the foundation of every successful community. To meet future challenges, our industries and infrastructure must be upgraded. For this, we need to promote innovative sustainable technologies and ensure equal and universal access to information and financial markets. This will bring prosperity, create jobs and make sure that we build stable and prosperous societies across the globe.
SUSTAINABLE FUTURE
Solar energy is a low-cost, clean and durable way to access water for people and crops. Our farms manage water through drip irrigation, farmer-controlled water monitoring systems, and rainwater and floodwater harvesting. The use of regenerative agricultural practices restores soil health and improves the water cycle, and the production of energy briquettes from agricultural wastes such as groundnut shells provides a clean substitute for charcoal as cooking fuel. Our off-grid systems give rural populations the tools to become environmental stewards.
LASTING PEACE
In today’s conflicts and humanitarian emergencies, life-saving assistance is becoming increasingly difficult to deliver. We invest in long-term, grassroots solutions that enable vulnerable communities to overcome dependency on aid, revive critical resources and businesses, and rebuild peaceful communities to build resilience against further insecurity. By generating productive opportunities for vulnerable people, including the youth who sustain wars as child soldiers, we invest in life-saving solutions that avert humanitarian disaster and lay down the foundations for lasting peace.
