Scaling grassroot climate action in Tanzania: Climate Hub’s journey
Growing up in Tanzania’s Maasai community surrounded by sweeping plains, enduring droughts and prolonged downpours, Laurel Kivuyo learned early on how deeply her community’s survival depended on understanding the land and weather patterns. Now, as the founder of Climate Hub, she applies that knowledge to help communities address the climate crisis.
This article is part of the Climate KIC series on shaping inclusive climate entrepreneurship and supporting women entrepreneurs. Together with Salesforce Foundation, we supported six women-led Entrepreneurship Support Organisations (ESOs) with flexible financial grants, capacity-building programmes and access to a supportive community, to scale and accelerate their impact on the ground.
Grassroots climate action led by women and young people
Founded in 2021, Climate Hub is a youth-led organisation dedicated to grassroots climate action through nature-based solutions (NbS), environmental education and community empowerment. Working across Tanzania, Kivuyo and her team focus on women and young people — two groups disproportionately affected by climate change yet often overlooked in policy decisions. “They bring unique perspectives and resilience,” Kivuyo says. “Empowering them means strengthening the whole community.”
Climate Hub’s “Trash to Treasure” project is a powerful example of climate entrepreneurship. The programme tackles waste management and teaches participants how to transform various waste materials — including paper waste, charcoal dust and even cow dung — into eco-friendly products like fuel briquettes. The project’s impact is already rippling through local economies and inspiring young women to lead green enterprises. “Our goal is to build a community that understands sustainability from the ground up,” says Kivuyo.
Scaling impact through strategic partnerships
Despite its successes, Climate Hub faces several challenges, including limited funding, knowledge gaps and a continuous need for capacity building. Partnerships with Climate KIC have been instrumental in addressing some of these obstacles. Through these collaborations, Climate Hub has gained access to essential resources, mentorship and financial backing, helping Kivuyo and her team reinforce the organisation’s foundation and expand their impact.
“The training on governance policies and strategic planning gave us a systematic framework,” she explained. This wasn’t theoretical: her team’s enhanced capacity led to tangible successes, like being shortlisted for international grants, including the Elsevier Foundation Chemistry for Climate Action Challenge.
“Climate KIC has helped us think bigger,” Kivuyo explains. “The support goes beyond funding; it’s about having access to people who understand climate challenges and can help us shape our strategies.” Climate Hub has developed internal policies, refined its organisational structure and extended support to other small, women-led ESOs. For Kivuyo, leadership is deeply tied to inclusion. “The most significant learning has been the value of inclusive leadership,” she reflected. By integrating diversity, equity and inclusion into their organisational policies, Climate Hub Tanzania has developed gender-sensitive programmes that resonate with their communities.
Bridging the gender gap
For Kivuyo, climate justice is at the heart of her mission. She points out the disparity between Africa’s low carbon emissions on a global scale and its high vulnerability to climate impacts — a challenge compounded by structural inequities. “Africa didn’t cause this crisis, but we’re feeling its effects intensely,” she notes.
Kivuyo believes women’s involvement is essential to creating lasting change, citing the African proverb, “When you educate a woman, you educate a community.” Climate Hub actively works to empower women farmers, ecopreneurs, and leaders — recognising their pivotal role in strengthening adaptability across entire communities. Through targeted training and mentorship, Climate Hub teaches sustainable practices and ensures women gain the confidence and skills to lead within their communities.
Merging traditional knowledge with modern tools
The organisation’s unique approach lies in blending traditional Maasai knowledge with modern environmental science. For centuries, the Maasai have used observation and ancestral techniques to predict weather patterns and manage resources sustainably. Kivuyo and her team are bringing these methods into the present, combining them with digital tools to co-create initiatives alongside local communities. “We don’t want to impose outside ideas; we want to respect and integrate local knowledge,” she says.
For instance, Climate Hub uses traditional weather forecasting techniques to improve water management systems and combat erratic rainfall patterns. By co-designing projects with community input, Kivuyo builds trust and ensures that each solution aligns with local needs and values. This approach increased programme uptake and deepened the participants’ commitment to climate action.
Expanding the vision: Climate Hub Africa
The continent has experienced a drastic temperature increase, and extensive areas will exceed 2°C of warming above pre-industrial levels before the end of the century, with projections indicating potential further rises. This warming contributes to more frequent and severe droughts and floods, adversely affecting agriculture and water resources. Looking forward, Kivuyo envisions transforming her project into “Climate Hub Africa” — a continent-wide initiative focused on empowering citizen-driven organisations.
“The vision is to co-create programmes with communities all over Africa, learning from each region’s unique environment and challenges,” Kivuyo explains. Achieving this ambitious goal requires a robust network of collaborators, consistent financial support and dedicated training programmes for leaders in key locations heavily impacted by climate change.
To realise her dream, Kivuyo emphasises the need for sponsorships that are willing to go beyond financial contributions. “We need partners who are invested in this vision, who understand the value of empowering local communities to drive their solutions,” she notes. By developing a coalition of stakeholders who believe in sustainable, community-led action, Climate Hub is poised to catalyse climate resilience across Africa.
Supporting local leaders
As Kivuyo reflects on the journey so far, she’s clear about what’s needed next: a global commitment to support grassroots leaders like herself. “Climate resilience doesn’t come from one organisation; it requires a network of leaders and advocates,” she says. By supporting women-led ESOs like Climate Hub, investors and allies can contribute to climate solutions and build resilient communities capable of withstanding the next major climate event.
This is a pivotal moment. With the right support, Kivuyo’s vision of Climate Hub Africa could become a reality — creating a model of resilience and empowerment that stretches across the continent. For those who believe in the power of people-centered leadership and sustainable climate solutions, this is a chance to join forces with one of Africa’s most promising young leaders and create change that matters.
About this programme:
At Climate KIC, we’re committed to driving systemic change in inclusion across the climate innovation sector. Our programme, supported by CATAL1.5°T, Irish Aid, Green Hub and Salesforce Foundation helps partners identify gaps in their understanding of gender inequity and implement concrete actions for organisations to embed a gender lens into their everyday work.
We work with different partners and institutions to support our work on inclusive climate entrepreneurship. Contact us today to see how you can become a partner.