Title: KNOW Kampala Project supports Community Briquette ...

Title: KNOW Kampala Project supports Community Briquette Groups

Authors: Paul Mukwaya, Judith Mbabazi, Teddy Kisembo

Above: Briquette Making groups during the seeding event, Photo by GBE 2021

After two year-long successive capacity building activities, trainings and interventions

and knowledge sharing through peer to peer learning and exchanges in the whole

energy briquettes value chain, including product development, production, business

plan development, branding, marketing and promotion, the KNOW Kampala city

partner’s project on the 22nd January 2021, held a seeding event where seven (7)

groups involved in briquette making were handed a seed grant in form of briquette

making machines comprising of a Multi Piston Press, Manual Crusher, Manual Mixer,

and a Carbonizer -a set of all the four machines, to each of the seven groups. The

groups that received the seed grant include: Daala Ku Daala Prosper Saving Group,

Exodus Briquettes Producers’ Group Masanafu, Kamu Kamu Development

Association, Kasubi Zone III Briquette Group, Kyosimba Onanya, Masanafu Women

Development Association (MWODEA), and Namungoona Women’s Initiative. Also in

attendance were representatives from Makerere University, department of

Geography, Geo-informatics and climatic sciences, Kasubi Parish Local Community

Development Initiative (KALOCODE), and Lubaga Charcoal Briquette Cooperative

Society Limited (LUCHACOS), ACTogether Uganda, Slum Dwellers’ International

(SDI)/National Slum Dwellers’ Federation Uganda (NSDFU), Ministry of Lands,

Housing and Urban Development, GreenBioEnergy Limited, and Local council

leaders.

Above: Some of the Briquette making machines before handover, Photos by Teddy

The Urban KNOW Kampala city research project is focussed on waste economies as

alternative livelihood strategies that can integrate the urban poor into the urban economy.

Capacity building has been and continues to be the primary theme in Kampala’s KNOW

project geared towards understanding the limitations of urban poor inequalities in accessing

the urban economy as well as the cycles that need to be broken for inclusive urban economic

development. The project has been implementing a wastes business enterprise model

through knowledge co-creation and co-production along the energy briquette value chain.

The implementation of the project is being done through multiple stakeholders including

communities KALOCODE and LUCHACOS, ACTogether Uganda, Kampala Capital City

Authority (KCCA), policy makers from Ministry of Land, housing and urban development,

members from civil society organizations and the academia. All these stakeholders have

participated in a series of co-design and co-production workshops and are also involved in the

co-implementation of the project. Peer-learning through the co-production of knowledge

among the group is an experience with the groups in building their readiness for business

start-ups.The other principal theme that the KNOW Kampala is implementing, is ensuring

creation and sustenance of working partnerships with community leadership, academia and

policy makers that can be used as platforms and spaces for transformative policy discussions

and change.

Partners: On the left, Moses Nadiope (LUCHACOS) and on right, Frederick Mugisa (ACTogether)

Road to Seeding

After creating awareness, and co-producing knowledge around the briquette value chain, the

groups were each been tasked to develop and submit their business plans. The seeding grant

was therefore in response to the machinery gap that was identified in each of the business

plans. The machines will help the groups to increase production and sustain the growing

briquette market. The seeding will be followed by monitoring and evaluation to assess the

value of the seeding on the groups’ businesses, environmental impact, economic individual

benefits and the partnerships that have accrued as means to pathways to reducing inequalities

in informal settlement and across the city.

Above: Kasubi zone III Briquettes group and Namungoona Women Initiative receiving their machines from ACTogether

Group reflections.

Before the handover of the machines, the groups took turn to reflect on their experience with

the KNOW project, in terms of the relevance and impact of the capacity building trainings and

interventions on group dynamics, briquette production, waste management and environmental

impact, household welfare, partnerships and policy impact and below were some of the

reflections;

I. Firstly, ACTogether and LUCHACOS commended the way the Urban Action Lab,

Makerere University has worked and continues to create co-learning platforms of

engagement with community groups and federation networks in informal settlements,

NGOs, private sector and policy realm to draw out and take part in issues of

sustainable and equitable urban development challenges and urban planning issues

towards transformative action.

II. The understanding, appreciation and acknowledgement of energy briquettes as a

community based business enterprise and the role and impact of briquettes on

cleaning up the city. “Briquettes have a way of attracting attention, as you make them

and as they dry, to even while they are displayed or packaged for sale, someone will

always get interested in knowing about them and that’s how many people have started

to make and/or use briquettes”, said a member of Exodus Briquettes Producers’ group

Masanafu.

III. The improvement in the quality of briquettes due to the continuous capacity building

along the briquette value chain and the concept of knowledge sharing through peer to

peer learning and training approach that was adopted by the KNOW Kampala project.

In addition, there has been a shift from charcoal dust as a briquette raw material to

exclusively using organic wastes to make briquettes.

IV. Energy briquettes are competing favourably with wood charcoal. Groups, have started

to use online platforms like Whatsapp and Facebook to market the briquette beyond

their neighbourhoods. However, to satisfy the growing market for briquettes, groups

need to work together to increase production and visibility and attract working

partnerships with multiple stakeholders so as to scale up and scale out the production

and use of energy briquettes as a viable business that can help to increase the

incomes of the urban poor in informal settlements and reduce urban inequalities.

V. The group also reflected on challenges in the briquette business including the heavy

rains, accompanied by flooding, that affects the drying of both the wastes and

briquettes and thus affecting production and marketing, the lack of ground space for

drying arising increasing numbers of people and housing units in informal settlements

and competition for organic wastes with other sectors.