CAC/IT/NO74998

Prepared by Glow Initiative for Economic

Empowerment

No 5, Road 26, Ikota Estate, Lekki, Lagos State, Nigeria

2016Annual Report

About UsGlow Initiative for Economic Empowerment is a Non-governmental Organization set up to tackle economic problems in Nigeria such as unemployment, poverty and climate change. Our whole goal is to boost Economic development of Nigeria through pioneering investments in Agriculture, renewable energy and entrepreneurial trainings on SMEs for strategy and business sustainability.

HistoryIn 2013 our founder discovered 200 widows who were languishing in hunger and poverty in Shao, a small community in north central Nigeria. In this community, there was abundance cassava plantations which lie in waste and a lot of ignorance. She wondered why there was so much poverty in the midst of plenty. Inspired by the fact that this situation could get better than it is, she constructed a large cassava processing factory for the women, taught them cassava processing procedures such as how to produce starch from cassava, how to make the local staple food ‘Garri’ and Climate smart methods of cassava cultivation. The women previously burnt cassava peels which contributes to Climate change. They were taught measures of converting cassava peels to animal feed. This project was launched and commissioned in 2014 and greatly led to the economic development of this community by providing food and means of livelihood for them and at the same time combating Climate Change. Encouraged by the success of the intervention, Glow Initiative for Economic Empowerment was birthed and registered (CAC/IT/NO74998) in 2015 as a platform to tackle economic problems by harnessing the economic potentials inherent in communities and reach more poor people through pioneering agribusiness initiatives to curb hunger, unemployment and poverty while also spreading and promoting awareness of Climate Change. Another initiative Climate Smart Nigeria was launched in late 2015 to combat the low awareness of Climate Change and environmental issues to curb environmental and climate illiteracy and to promote the intervention of renewable energy.

Mission

Our mission is to tackle economic problems such as youth unemployment, poverty and climate change through our entrepreneurship and agribusiness programs and our climate Smart Nigeria initiative to attain a sustainable Climate Smart economy with electricity, jobs and reduced poverty.”

Our ValuesEconomic development - Our whole goal is to improve the economic development of Nigeria. We realize that no economic development will be sustainable if the environment in itself is not sustainable. We tackle this by pioneering projects that will create employment and promote a climate smart nation thereby combating poverty and curbing Climate Illiteracy

Environmental focused - To attain a sustainable environment is our very passion. Because no development is sustainable when the very air we breathe is unclean, hence we take the matters of the environment very seriously. We imbibe the culture of environmental sustainability in all our programs

Honesty - One of our deepest values is honesty. We want to promote transparency and accountability in the work that we do in order to encourage increased partnerships and collaboration whilst building trust.

Integrity - Integrity is our watchword. We want members of the society to see us for who we are and what we stand for. We work for the people thereby hold them dear to our heart. All our programs encourage participation, and as a result, we ensure to lead by example by keeping our words because we want to gain the trust of the society where we work.

Excellence - Excellence is key in the work that we do. We strive to ensure that all our activities are embedded on excellence in order to achieve our goal of being the best organization running with the vision of developing the economy of our nation.

Sustainability - We pioneer initiatives that will stand the test of time and can be replicated. Because if the idea is not sustainable then there’s no need to do it. We ensure that our work benefits the present generation and can be continued by the ones to come.

Commitment - Dedication is the key to everything we do. Because our work involves the betterment of our country, we are sure to give in our all at all times in order to maintain excellence and be outstanding at all times.

Professionalism - We realize the importance of the work that we do leading change and advocating for a better Nigeria through our various initiatives. For this we remain professional at all times because we want people to recognize our place and what we stand for at first encounter.

Diversity - Diversity is us and we are diversity. We don’t let tribe, religion or culture to stop or determine the work that we do. We are for all Nigerians and work to improve togetherness amongst us through our work. For us its ‘one for all, all for one’.

Board Members

Barr. Yusuf Ali (SAN)

Prof. Emeka Oguegbu

Dr. Makuachukwu Joy

Advisors

Desmond Majekodunmi

Hajiyah Nadirah Zenou

Our Team

Glory Oguegbu - Executive Director

Mohammad Saleh – Programs Coordinator

Tochukwu Kalu – Social Media /ICT Coordinator

Ikechukwu Excellence – Finance Manager

Range of ActivitiesOur work is divided into four programs:

Education and Capacity Building Economic Empowerment Public Advocacy Environment

Collaborations/PartnershipsWe consider cooperation as necessary tool for development processes. Therefore, we maintain partnerships with different stakeholders, being aware of the importance of every single pillar of society

such as; local communities, authorities, other organizations and individuals at national and international level.

International PartnersUniversity of Delaware Energy Institute

World Annual Congress on Biodiversity and Environmental Conservation

Young African Leaders Initiative

Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders

USAID

Nigerian PartnersUnited States Consulate Lagos

Field of Skills and Dreams (Conference for Emerging Entrepreneurs)

Access Bank PLC

HACEY Health Initiative

Nigerian Alternative Energy Expo

iRead Network

Memberships

Renewable Energy Association of Nigeria

Nigerian Institute of Managers

Association of Technologists and Entrepreneurs of Nigeria

Description of Projects Undertaken in the Year 2016

(1.) Book Research Project

Book Title: (1.) Something is Happening, Our World Is changing (2.) The Concept and Science of Climate

Change

Project Duration January 2016 – June 2016

Co-Sponsor/Partner – Information Resource Center (IRC) of the United States Consulate, Lagos.

Support Provided (in Kind) – Access to millions of research resources and a work space

Aim of Project

To carry out a detailed research on Climate Change and environmental education and with the help of

findings, write an illustrative book for secondary schools to increase environmental awareness and

education using the book.

Activities

According to Nature’s Climate Change survey, 70% of Nigerians are not aware of Climate Change and

environmental issues. A majority of this number are the Nigerian youth and secondary school students.

It therefore became paramount that something is done urgently to combat the issue of low awareness

in Nigeria. In Nigerian Secondary schools, Climate Change is not taught and we wondered that if

environmental issues must be combated, awareness creation must first start with the young children

who represent a large percentage of the unaware.

To tackle this problem, Glow Initiative for Economic Empowerment launched a research project to come

up with an illustrative awareness creation tool to reach the secondary schools in Nigeria. In partnership

with the IRC, Lagos, we carried out a research on the issues of environment, climate change, HSE,

Renewable Energy and with the new knowledge wrote a book – ‘Something is Happening, Our world is

changing’ for secondary schools and ‘The Concept and Science of Climate Change’ for general public

awareness. These books will enhance the readers’ knowledge about the environment and increase their

capacity on what role they must play to protect the environment.

These books are currently being deployed to massively create environmental awareness in our Nigerian

Secondary Schools and the general public. We currently continue to seek partners to collaborate with us

to sponsor schools to receive a copy of the book thereby promoting environmental awareness in

Nigeria.

(2.) World Earth Day Conference (Annual)

Title: Promoting Climate Literacy

Project Time – 22nd April 2016

Partner – Climate Smart Nigeria

Support Provided – NGN 10,000 worth of internet data

Aim of Project

To emphasize the importance of Climate Literacy and encourage the participation of everyone on

environmental protection issues.

Description and Activities

The new media and digital space has become the new industry where all sorts of people gather. It

became an opportunity to leverage on the new media to engage people on discussions concerning the

environment and how we can collectively join hands to protect the environment.

We held a tweet conference to commemorate the World Earth day and promote the importance of

mother earth and our ecosystems.

The project was successful and we collectively reached a total of 10,000 tweeter participants which

included students with information and links to articles on Climate literacy and environmental

protection.

(3.) Green Week and Climate Online Campaign (Annual)

Project Duration – 30th May 2016 – 5th June 2016

Sponsor/Partner – Access Bank

Support Provided – NGN 100,000

Aim of Project

An annual training workshop to provide environmental knowledge to the public as it relates to Health and Safety, Small and Medium business, the economy and civil society.

Description and Activities

As part of the efforts to raise awareness on climate change towards mitigating its consequences, the Glow Initiative for Economic Empowerment organized a 7 day advocacy leveraging on the new media and promoted awareness about the economics of the environment and Climate change. The event which was a 1 week, 7 days and 168 hours of knowledge transmission on key social media platforms featured topics like overview of Health and Safety in the Environment, Your Business and climate change, green houses gases, importance of environmental protection, green hour enlightenment, effects of climate change on health, kids awareness on climate change and tree planting as a way of mitigating climate change.

This workshop program was successful and impactful. It was characterized by 38 major events and viewed by a population of 20,184 persons in total with average of 15 (5%) persons who liked and viewed each major event. In reality, very few Nigerians have been reported with low literacy of climate change, if similar event will occur more frequently, it can be extrapolated that a significant population of Nigerians will become more aware of consequences of climate change which will in turn enhance their abilities to take mitigating steps and actions. The information shared will also help SMEs better manage themselves in the new climate economy and integrate the processes of environmental protection into their businesses.

(4.) Conserving Biodiversity and Protecting Endangered Species Training Workshop (Annual)

World Environmental Day Commemoration

Project Duration – 5th June 2016 – 15th June 2016

Donor / Access Bank PLC

Support Provided – NGN 5, 000, 000

Donor – Natural Eco Capital

Support Provided – NGN 1, 000, 000

Aim of Project

Annual workshop to engage and train stakeholders of the environment, development organizations,

CSOs and the educational sector on the issues of Biodiversity and Environmental conservation.

Description and Activities

World Environmental Day is the United Nations campaign practiced to encourage global awareness and action for the environment. It was established by the United Nations General Assembly in 1972. Over the years, it has grown into a global platform for public outreach that is celebrated in over 100 countries. This year’s Theme; ‘Go Wild for Life: Zero Tolerance For The Illegal Wildlife Trade’ aims to raise awareness of the far reaching nature of wildlife crime and with the slogan ‘Go Wild for Life’ – encourages people to change their habits to reduce demands for illegal wildlife products.

Glow Initiative for Economic Empowerment commemorated this important day by hosting a capacity building and training workshop for young leaders in Development, Civic and private sector organizations. The goal was to equip the participants with appropriate information on issues concerning illegal wildlife trade, teach them the role and importance of protecting biodiversity so that they can become ambassadors for wildlife, promote the awareness of the importance of stopping wildlife crime and incorporate the idea of protecting endangered species in every decision they take. It was well attended by 131 young leaders between the ages of 25 – 40 from educational, development, civic and private sector initiatives comprising of founders, Executive Directors, Employees and Volunteers representing 62 organizations.

We invited 2 renowned trainers to train on ‘Promoting the Conservation of Biodiversity through Collective Action’ and ‘Exploring Biodiversity and Preserving Endangered Species; the Challenges and Opportunities for Young People”

Breakout Sessions

The United Nations recommends that practical activities that are both interactive and engaging be included in the commemoration of the World Environmental Day. They also advised to link the tittles of activities to the theme of the WED. In line with this, we incorporated a focus group discussion activity that allowed participants deliberate and highlight issues on topics such as; Poaching issues, Barriers to combating illegal wildlife trade, laws to counter illegal wildlife activity, advocacy for wildlife protection. The topics were specifically chosen to force participants to be creative and innovative. This will help them incorporate their new knowledge into every decision they take as they go along in life.

Procedure

In order to come up with this, participants were divided into 4 focus groups. Each group was led by an environmental expert facilitator.

The participants;

• Discussed their topics

• Brainstormed ideas for solution

• Made presentation of their results

Focus Group 1

Activity

What are the big poaching or illegal wildlife trade issues/examples that you have experienced or observed around you? Here the participants are made to think deep about anytime in their lives that they have observed poaching or illegal wildlife trade even without knowing it’s a crime.

Response

1. Urbanization and development

2. Inadequate laws and lack of enforcement of existing laws

3. Poverty

4. Non-existence of wildlife control agencies

5. Lack of education about biodiversity conservation

6. Foreigners come in and poach on our environment

Solutions

1. Creation of reserves Green Areas

2. Seek to enforce laws that protect wildlife and initiate new laws

3. Provide optional means of income and other food sources for communities

4. Set up wildlife control agencies to monitor all activities relating to wildlife.

5. Educate people, communities and the government on the dangers of poaching from the family level upwards.

6. Make governing policies more rigid, avoid, avoid favoritism of race and tighten border security.

Focus Group 2

Activity

As a Nigerian, what are the barriers to solving the problem of poaching and illegal wildlife trade? And why is this so. Here participants are forced to be creative and think of possible barriers to solving the menace. Barriers could be ones that the participant has experienced or the ones that they can foresee. This will equip them to recognize these barriers when they come across it and know the appropriate thing to do.

Response

1. Poverty, illiteracy and ignorance

2. Inconsistency government policies

3. Lack of awareness

4. Lack of institution of Law to protect wildlife

5. Human activities such as urbanization

6. Social norms conflicting with traditional values

7. Corruption in government

8. Lack of time devotion to conservational values

9. Lack of wildlife database

Focus Group 3

Activity

In order to effectively combat wildlife crime, some laws must be put in place and enforced to counter such activities. The moderator of this group asked participants to recommend laws that should be put in place to counter poach crimes as well as recommend appropriate punishment to deal with perpetrators of illegal wildlife trade crime. Here the participants use their creative ability to think about appropriate laws to be enforced against issues of poaching and illegal wildlife trade.

Response

1. If anyone kills any wild animal, the person should be jailed for 5 years

2. The hunters must be licensed to hunt

3. If a licensed hunter hunts an endangered eco that he shouldn’t, he should be formed a sum of NGN500, 000 and jailed for 6 Months.

4. A licensed hunter should hunt at a given time, if not he/she will be fined with the NGN500, 000 and jail for 3months

5. No use of explosives or machine guns during hunting, anybody caught will pay a fine of 1million naira

6. If an unlicensed hunter is caught he will be trained and pay a fine of NGN50, 000 excluding the training fee.

Focus Group 4

Activity

Participants were asked to “Create and name an advocacy group to advocate for wildlife protection”. Participants were also engaged to develop goals and objectives for their groups. Furthermore, they were encouraged to create a website for their new initiative and use it as a tool to spread awareness about the issue. 35 young leaders created the initiative

Response

Name of Advocacy Initiative: Voice for Wildlife Advocacy Campaign

Goals

1. To eliminate wildlife ignorance

2. Kick against poaching

3. To advocate for wildlife policy

Objectives

1. Establishment of biodiversity clubs in schools

2. To have peer education training for students and teachers

3. Family education and organizing com - munity outreaches

4. Leverage on social media to promote awareness

5. Creating short documentaries on wild - life protection

6. Empowering community security against poaching

7. Attaching incentives for people who rescue wildlife

8. Creating means of adequate communication with stakeholders

9. Regular review of environmental laws in order to stay up to date with environmental information

At the end of the focus group discussion, the Facebook website page “Voice for Wildlife Advocacy Campaign” was created for advocacy purposes.

SUMMARY FOCUS GROUP ACTIVITIES

The focus group discussion enabled the participants think out of the box and brain - storm to raise ideas and solutions to the issue of illegal wildlife trade. It encouraged peer to peer engagement, team work and expert analysis. This increased their knowledge base about these issues and helped promote

awareness. They have pledged to become Wildlife ambassadors and lead their lives taking action to combat illegal wildlife trade.

Training in Numbers

131 participants

62 organizations represented

30,231 people reached with wildlife protection information on Facebook

105 participants signed a joint declaration pledge to show zero tolerance for the illegal trade of wildlife products and to take appropriate action to protect endangered species.

A joint declaration pledge page was created at our website www.glowinitiative.org. The goal is to get 1,000,000 more people on the social media space to take the pledge. At this time over 15,000 persons have signed the pledge to be responsible towards the environment and protect it.

(5.) Community Centers for Clean Energy and Education

August 2016 – January 2017

Donor – InstaSolar Energy LLC

Support Provided – USD 1,000

Aim of Project

To carry out a needs assessment in 10 communities and select appropriate 5 for the establishment of InstaSolar’s Community Centers for Clean Energy and education.

InstaSolar Energy Africa is a sub division of InstaSolar energy LLC. Our work in Africa is to establish an intervention- "Community Centers for Clean Energy and Education" in rural communities of Africa, in this case Nigeria. The whole goal is to promote the use of Renewable Energy especially Solar, investing in educating the community members on health, environment and combating Climate Change and generally improve their living conditions.

We carried out a needs assessment in 10 communities interviewing the Men, Women and children to find out their greatest needs as it relates to the environment and general wellbeing.

The project was successful and we were able to select 5 communities that qualify (in terms of their immediate needs) for the center to be established.

(6.) National Climate Change Awareness Program

Planning and Awareness campaign of project currently ongoing

Campaign funded by Glow Initiative for Economic empowerment and awaiting more sponsorship to scale up

Aim of Pilot Project

To create and promote public awareness about Climate Change in Nigeria through the Educational sector and the media.

Objectives

1. To train 250 secondary school students (Pilot project) on Understanding Climate Change (50 student leaders per school who will serve as Climate Change Champions (3C PEER EDUCATORS) to enable them change their behavior to enable a sustainable environment.

3. To build the capacity of 10 (2 teachers per school) selected teachers in the secondary schools by training them on Climate Change education to serve as guides to the students.

3. To establish Green Clubs in the Secondary schools where students would be engaged as climate change peer educators. They would study the climate change book and implement the school activities designated for the clubs in the book.

Project Description

Glow Initiative for Economic Empowerment under its Climate Smart Nigeria Initiative seeks to significantly promote Climate Change Education in secondary schools and increase public awareness. Through NCCAP we will work with students training them on understanding Climate Change with our illustrated book - “Something is Happening; Our World is Changing”. This book elucidates on key issues such as:

The concept and science of Climate Change written in simple English for easier comprehension.

Illustrated with Climate Change art and comic for easier understanding and relativity

Climate Change short story on impacts on livelihood.

Several simple activities that reduces greenhouse gas emissions that readers can practice weekly.

Quarterly activities that the students will undertake.

Children will grow and become leaders. It therefore becomes paramount that the children gain a firsthand information and training on understanding Climate Change without the barrier of price and access. Thereby, to help them further understand Climate Change, we will create Green clubs in their schools which would build their consciousness and enable them get engaged constructively in the subject matter. The students will meet once in a week in the club to read and discuss a chapter of the book. In the same vein, teachers are very important aspects of information dissemination. We will train selected teachers in the schools on Understanding Climate Change to guide and monitor the students on their meeting days.

Our extension plan/longer term goal is to later work with the sensitized students and community members to create content for a Climate Awareness TV program to further sensitize Nigerians about Climate Change. We would also host an annual essay competition and debate (on the subject matter of Environment and Climate Change) where the students in the Green clubs will compete for a prize and win the Green champion award. This will serve as a motivation and means of healthy competition among them which will enable them strive continuously to learn all they can and subsequently lead their lives taking action to combat Climate Change.

Desired outcomes

1.) Awareness creation in the beneficiary secondary schools – our goal is to ensure that the students gain knowledge and become fully aware about climate change and practice the climate change reduction activities designated in the book so that they can become ambassadors for climate change.

2.) Enlightened Teachers - Many teachers we interviewed could not define climate change. They knew it was a problem but don’t exactly know what’s happening. We desire to see enlightened teachers who will be able to guide and monitor the students.

3.) We desire that the project turn-out, success and impact will serve as a case study to the Ministry of education to enable them consider integrating the learning of climate change as part of the curriculum of secondary schools and adopt our illustrated handbook for use in all secondary schools.

Sustainability and Follow on Activities

Our activities to reach the goals of the projects have been designed in a sustainable manner. Training of the teachers at the secondary schools and establishing Green clubs that will be managed by the teachers would ensure sustainability of the intervention. There will be a weekly monitoring for a duration of 2 months post intervention, to determine the impact of the green club on students. Our extension plan/longer term goal is to later work with the sensitized students and community members to create content for a Climate Awareness TV program to further sensitize Nigerians about Climate Change. We would also host an annual essay competition and debate (on the subject matter of Environment and Climate Change) where the students in the Green clubs will compete for a prize and win the Green champion award. This will further ensure its sustainability. The successes recorded in this pilot intervention will inform the design; policy thrust and will guide the thinking for a larger scale up plan for secondary schools in Nigeria both at national and sub-national levels in the subsequent years.

Impact/Measurement and evaluation

Success would be measured by taking data of the number of students aware about climate change before the intervention and comparing it with the data that will be gotten from same schools after the intervention. For a period of 2 months after creating the Green Clubs we will monitor the activities of schools to check the impact of the Club on students, to note number of functioning clubs. After 2 months of monitoring, we will compare results before intervention and after intervention. Success is when 70% of schools club are functioning, and students are practicing Climate Change mitigation measures based on the report from their weekly activity.

(7.) Green Guild School Initiative

Planning and Awareness campaign of project currently ongoing

Campaign funded by Glow Initiative for Economic empowerment and awaiting more sponsorship to scale up

Aim of Project

A sustainability project for the National Climate Change Awareness Program to provide a platform of mentorship and incubation for the trained green ambassadors (secondary school students).

Children will grow and become leaders. It therefore becomes paramount that the children gain a firsthand information and training on understanding Climate Change without the barrier of price and access. Thereby, to help them further understand Climate Change, we will create Green clubs in their schools which would build their consciousness and enable them get engaged constructively in the subject matter.

Activities of the Green Guild Club

The students will meet once in a week in the club to read and discuss a chapter of the book. In the same vein, teachers are very important aspects of information dissemination. We will train selected teachers in the schools on Understanding Climate Change to guide and monitor the students on their meeting days. They will carry out quarterly activities as follows:

In the first quarter of the year they’ll take on the challenge of recycling paper. The number of

trees that are cut down every year would be drastically reduced if paper is recycled.

In the second quarter, they will carry out a plastic recycling drive. Recycling plastic creates a

cleaner environment. This is because plastic takes so much time to decompose from 450 years

to a thousand years! By recycling plastic the kids will not just be making the environment safer,

they will be saving the energy that it will cost to create new ones.

In the third quarter they will embark on a massive tree planting exercise. They will advocate to

ensure that the law that says - cut a tree and plant two is followed and they will be guided by

their teachers to lead by examples in their schools and environs.

In the fourth quarter, they will organize beach clean-ups. The ocean is at the receiving end of

garbage and dirt and not enough work has been done to secure its health. The oceans are more

than 70 percent of the entire earth and what goes on in the oceans affects everyone whether

we know it or not.

The above activities will enable behavioral change in the students in the way they live their lives at home and at school. It’ll cause them to be constantly engaged in the subject matter of environmental cleanliness, health and beatification and they’ll grow up with the knowledge of it embedded in their memory.

Our extension plan/longer term goal is to later work with the Green Ambassadors (sensitized students) and community members to create content for a Climate Awareness TV program to further sensitize Nigerians about Climate Change. We would also host an annual essay competition and debate (on the subject matter of Environment and Climate Change) where the students in the Green clubs will compete for a prize and win the Green champion award. This will serve as a motivation and means of healthy competition among them.

The strategic activities of the Green Guild School Initiative have been carefully conceptualized to enable the kids strive continuously to learn all they can and subsequently lead their lives taking action to combat Climate Change.

Financials

Total Monies received in the year 2016

Donors Amount

Climate Smart Nigeria NGN 10, 000

Access Bank NGN 5,100, 000InstaSolar Energy LLC USD 1,000Natural Eco Capital NGN 1, 000, 000

Total NGN 6, 410, 000

Administrative Expenses

Adverts and Promotions 150, 000Computer Hosting 60, 000Computer Internet 150, 000Education and Trainings 2, 150, 000Events and Projects 2, 450, 000Transport Logistics 200, 000Web Design and Development 150, 000Printing and Publications 75, 000Staff Trainings 150, 000Travel Expenses 200, 000Office Supplies 150, 000Rent 300, 000

Stipends 1, 000, 000

Sustainability

Based on its current model of raising funds mostly through grants by charity foundations and impact investors, revenues are unpredictable, and this calls for more strategic models that guarantee sustainability, most especially for the impact growth of the organization.

We believe that if revenues keep fluctuating and are also tied to the dictates of grant organizations, there might be little chance to innovate with new products and also have a consistent impact pattern. This is why it is important to consider corporate offerings as a spin-off of the organization.

The approach is to ensure that by 2018, Glow Initiative for Economic Empowerment generates 40% of its revenues on an annual basis from corporate services which focuses on the following but is not limited to:

Consulting for Companies, Governments and NGOs on Green Growth, Renewable Energy and Climate Education and charge a service fee.

Training workshops for companies and organizations on production of renewable energy technology and charge a service fee.

Massive continuous sale of our books to the public Sale and marketing of Renewable energy products Training conferences for teachers of Geography in secondary schools and University lecturers on

Environmental sciences departments for a fee Explore online fundraising platforms Increase collaborations and partnerships with for-profit organizations