Piloting a Micro-Franchise Model for Biogas & Bio-Fertilizer Production in Peri-Urban Zambia

ReachAll, a Zambian NGO, and International Development Norway (IDN) have submitted an application to the 2025 UNDP Czech Challenge Fund for a project titled “Piloting a Micro-Franchise Model for Biogas & Bio-Fertilizer Production in Peri-Urban Zambia.”

The project targets peri-urban communities in Livingstone and Lusaka. Households and market areas in these communities generate organic waste that currently goes unused, while high fertiliser costs and continued reliance on charcoal for cooking remain daily challenges. The proposed solution is five commercially operated Micro-Production Hubs, each built around a standardised biogas digester that converts organic market and household waste into clean cooking gas and packaged bio-fertiliser.

ReachAll will handle local implementation and community engagement on the ground. IDN is contributing engineering design for the digesters, a quality assurance protocol adapted from Norwegian standards, and a Digital Logbook system for monitoring production and sales at each hub. The monitoring approach is the first of its kind applied to Zambia’s informal waste sector, and it is intended to shift production from a subsistence activity toward a commercially run franchise model.

If approved, the pilot will run for 12 months starting in March 2026 and reach approximately 50 direct beneficiaries, of whom 70 per cent are expected to be women and 30 per cent youth. At the end of the pilot, ReachAll and IDN plan to produce a feasibility study and a Green Franchise Toolkit to support replication, with an ambition to scale from five to 100 production units across Zambia over time.

The project touches on several UN Sustainable Development Goals: SDG 2 (Zero Hunger), SDG 5 (Gender Equality), SDG 7 (Affordable and Clean Energy), SDG 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth), SDG 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production), and SDG 13 (Climate Action).