From the Ground Up: Mapping Functional Community Structures for Climate Resilience in Uganda and Kenya
Imagine a bottom-up world where climate action doesn’t cascade from the top down but rises from the ground up, where the most effective solutions are not imported but grown in the soil of local culture, governance, and trust. Do local structures have what it takes to lead?
This two-year project, coordinated by members of the Bosch Alumni Network, set out to find out exactly that with two guiding questions: 1) What is already working well in developing countries that could be leveraged for climate action? 2) How can such efforts be strengthened to champion locally led climate action?
As you very well know, climate change is a global threat, but its impacts are felt most sharply in developing countries. The prevailing narrative, reinforced by principles such as Common but Differentiated Responsibilities (CBDR) under the UNFCCC and the Paris Agreement, casts these nations as recipients of finance, capacity-building, and technology from the industrialized world. While this support is vital, it often comes packaged in top-down approaches that overlook the systems, cultures, and governance structures already in place at the grassroots.
Yet, across Uganda and Kenya, functional local structures, from savings cooperatives to women’s associations, youth clubs to farmer field schools, are quietly delivering climate solutions that are culturally embedded, socially trusted, and economically viable. The critical challenge is that they are rarely documented, celebrated, or scaled.
Against this background, our collaborative mapping effort brought together an extraordinary team of the Network’s Alumni: Mary Namukose (Entebbe, Phase I and Kaberamaido Phase I), Ann Grace Akiteng (Kaberamaido Phase I & II), John Mugabi (Entebbe Phase I & II), Daphne Naudho (Entebbe Phase I & II), Stephen Bright Sakwa (Bududa & Manafwa Phase I & II), Simon Peter Okoth (Bududa & Manafwa Phase I & II), Hannah Bamwerinde (Kabale Phase I & II, Mpigi Phase II), Atuhuura Marjorie (Mpigi Phase II), Rachel Vichei (Kenya Phase I & II), Sharon Nga’ayo (Kenya Phase I and II), Esther Gacigi (Kenya Phase i and II), and John Muia (Kenya Phase I and II). Together, they identified, visited, and documented local initiatives that demonstrate that bottom-up climate action is not only possible but already happening.
What we learned
Across Entebbe, Bududa & Manafwa, Kabale, Kaberamaido, Machakos, and Mpigi, one truth stands out: local structures are not the weak link in climate action. They are SACCOs that become waste-management hubs, farmer associations that double as pollinator sanctuaries, teacher networks that turn climate literacy into a daily practice, and women’s collectives that transform recycling into livelihoods. They are trusted, embedded, and adaptive. They blend traditional knowledge with modern techniques. They sustain momentum after external actors leave. Collectively, they are the missing link in climate policy. However, their potential must be powered by appropriate means of implementation, capacity, finance, and technology.
For the Bosch Alumni Network, this project is both a map and a mirror:
- A map of where functional structures are already delivering, from Uganda’s villages and highlands to Kenya’s classrooms and farms.
- A mirror reflecting the role of peer networks in amplifying them, connecting them, and ensuring their stories are heard.
The challenge now is to keep documenting, connecting, and strengthening these networks, not as charity, but as partners in a shared climate future.
Next Steps: From Mapping to Story-Making and Capacity Strengthening
The mapping has done its job; it has surfaced the people, places, and practices that prove locally led climate action is real, effective, and scalable. The next chapter is to equip these structures to tell their own stories and strengthen their capacity to act on the opportunities those stories create.
When stories are told well, they travel. They land in the ears and hands of relevant actors: policymakers, technical experts, private sector partners, and peer communities, who can help scale and expand these efforts. But for that to translate into lasting impact, communities also need the organizational, technical, and financial skills to absorb and manage growth while staying rooted in their values and context.
The Small Chunks Foundation was founded against this background to serve as the bridge between local functional structures and partners who can collaboratively address common challenges, especially means of implementation such as finance, capacity and technology, that hinder the scaling of sustainable local efforts. Explore our various partnership opportunities.
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