pilot proposal
Page summary
From Seed to Shelter plans to launch a vertical farm as a pilot project to assess its effectiveness in improving diet diversity within a refugee community and to evaluate its feasibility as a scalable solution.
Overview
Ideals to strive for:
Refugee communities have access to nutritious, diverse, and fresh foods
Food provision to refugee camps is not vulnerable to external shocks
Camp residents have a stake in food production and have agency in the process
Hypothesis:
The reliance on recurring humanitarian food assistance must be broken
Localised, intensive food production may help refugee camps to be more food secure, and residents to have healthier diets
This could take the shape of urban farming facilities
Theory of Change
Target context
Success factors
Design options
Sources: Interviews with hydroponics farms, and secondary sources: Optipolar, Gnagro, On the Grow, Agrotonomy
From Seed to Shelter will use field-visits as an opportunity to assess the camp context, and determine what type of farm design:
is most appropriate for growing crops that address local deficiencies;
might be feasible given technical limitations at the site.
Timeline
Steps to take
Strategy
Shortlist sites based on needs criteria and feasibility of working in the context
Visit farms to understand technical design options
Speak with humanitarian actors and grassroots organisations to craft possible endgame strategies
Design monitoring and evaluation (M&E) framework
Funding
Secure funding from grants or donors to run this project
Field-visits
Visit and collate learnings across multiple camps
Engage with community and stakeholders
Select a site from the shortlisted options
Pilot design
Build partnerships with local community or organisations to co-design pilot with
Create an actionable plan, including selecting what design option to adopt
Engage agronomists and experienced farmers to test pilot design with
Pilot
Build and operate vertical farms
Handover operation of farms to the community
Collect M&E data
Endgame
Evaluate the success of the pilot, and adopt an endgame strategy accordingly