Panda Labs started operating locally in Kenya in 2018, with the objective of building strong and innovative ecosystems and building innovation capacity within WWF by initially supporting four prototypes as a part of its pilot acceleration program, two of which are still in production independently: Ukwenza & MIANZI Makaa
 
 
Since 2018, Kenya has progressively pushed the innovation agenda within the WWF Kenya office, building innovation capacities in WWF. With financial support from DANIDA in Denmark and WWF Finland, Kenya has launched several Panda Labs projects, hosted hackathons, and recently embarked on the journey to create a local Wildlife Credits as a part of a global Wildlife Credits Validation in 2020. One of the lastest endeavors is Panda Studios, which aims to help build and scale new ventures by using venturing activities to focus on the application and adaptation of digital and innovative solutions. 
 
 
Beneath are introductions to some of the projects in Kenya. For more information visit PL Kenya here.

© Martin Harvey / WWF
Global Moonshot Challenge 2019/20
Challenge: Tackling Unsustainable Agriculture
Dzame Shehi and a friend collect firewood from the local forest for cooking. Dzombo village. Kwale, Kenya.
© Greg Armfield / WWF-UK

Kenya's first Moonshot Challenge aims to create high impact, cost-effective, innovative solution(s) that address unsustainable agriculture practices among smallholder farmers, and facilitate the development of a green/local/circular economy in the Lake Naivasha Basin Landscape. 


In the first phase, the team went through a discover and create process mapping stakeholders and defining the challenge further, validating it as a top priority area with significant conservation potential.The challenge is currently in the second 'Experiment' Phase, with 4 different prototypes, two of which who have gained further support for development: Agronomy Plus, CropHQ

Prototypes

Agronomy Plus

Agronomy Plus proposes to create a USSD, web and android based platform. They will provide extension service access that will complement the Nakuru Farmers Call Centre by introducing Agronomists using the platform, to accelerate assistance by instant linking to the agronomist closet to farmers.

CropHQ

Crop intends to use remote sensing and drones to map smallholder farmer's fields. And to carry out crop health analysis. It also recommends variable rate application of fertilizer and pesticides, provide hyper localized weather alerts and create a database and a web-based application for farmer information. Read further here.

Watch the video

© Jonathan Caramanus / Green Renaissance / WWF-UK
Prototypes