Kisumu Platform for Sustainable Livable Settlements

Description of project

Quercus Group is the facilitator of the Kisumu Initiative for Sustainable and Livable Settlements – a multi-stakeholder platform for developing, testing and scaling sustainable business models for inclusive solid waste management and sanitation solutions targeting the informal settlements of Kisumu Quercus has been engaged by Plan Denmark International who is the project owner.

The point of departure is that country governments, city administrations, projects, private businesses, entrepreneurs, communities, financial institutions, and NGOs are working to promote better waste management and sanitation solutions in Kenya’s informal settlements. However, the level of collaboration and synergies between stakeholders and initiatives is limited and many projects suffer from “pilot disease” and lack of scaling due to limited collaboration across projects and public and private stakeholders.

The project thus operates in the nexus between NGOs, businesses, public institutions and local communities. The ambition with the Kisumu Initiative for Sustainable and Livable Settlements is to establish the first of its kind platform that facilitates coordination, collaboration and business development across stakeholders and value chains in order to create business models and solutions that improves the lives of people in the informal settlements in Kisumu.

Type of services provided

The approach is comparable to establishing a “launch pad” where entrepreneurs., SMEs, Larger companies, public institutions, NGOs, financiers, academia and projects & initiatives can find each other, find partners, get directed to funding, get support for business development, access knowledge etc. in order to subsequently form partnerships, business collaborations, projects and solutions.

The services provided by Quercus Group include:

• Mapping of existing slum upgrade initiatives, stakeholders, practices, political framework, interests, and current practices
  
  Developing business cases with local entrepreneurs – addressing the challenges related to waste, water and sanitation
• Facilitating partnerships between local entrepreneurs, utility companies, public authotities and Danish solution providers
• Facilitate the development process of a cluster platform where the local stakeholders can meet, collaborate, exchange and engage in business partnerships. This includes; activity scoping, organisational setup, financial model, evaluation model, communication model, definition of KPIs/ outputs
• Facilitate multi-stakeholder dialogue and engagement through workshops and 1:1 meetings in order to create local ownerships to the cluster platform
• Developing a long term sustainable business model for the cluster platform identify Kenyan and foreign investors (foundations, companies)