Overview
The Green RISE Africa (Resilient Impact through Sustainable Entrepreneurship) Fellowship delivered by Acumen Canada (together with Acumen Fund, Inc. and its affiliates, “Acumen”) in partnership with the Mastercard Foundation is designed to equip women and youth living in poverty to build a more inclusive and sustainable green economy. Throughout the Fellowship, entrepreneurs gain practical tools, frameworks, and community to strengthen their leadership capacity, refine their business models, expand inclusive green jobs, and grow climate-aligned solutions across the region.
The Green RISE East Africa Fellowship is open to entrepreneurs working in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Burundi, South Sudan, and Somalia who are driving climate solutions and solving problems of poverty by creating dignified work and green job opportunities for young rural women and youth.
We offer a transformative leadership experience
Through the program curriculum and a supportive cohort, participants develop the leadership and enterprise-building skills required to grow resilient green businesses. Fellows build moral leadership by strengthening their self-awareness, ability to lead teams, navigate values in tension, and communicate their vision. They also develop the tools to design business models that create inclusive green job opportunities and deliver long-term social and environmental impact.
Participants leave the program better equipped to grow their enterprises, motivate teams, navigate complex stakeholder relationships, and build solutions that strengthen both livelihoods and climate resilience.
“The Acumen community has been critical to my success both as a leader and a social entrepreneur. I have co-founded three social enterprises with Acumen Fellows and hired our leadership team from the Fellows community.
All three of our companies, Enlight Institute, Village Energy, and Flip Africa, have received technical and financial support from the Acumen community which has been instrumental for our growth. ”
— Abu Musuuza, Co-founder and CEO of Village Energy, and a 2012 East Africa Fellow based in Uganda
We accompany you with tools and community
Upon successful completion of the program, Fellows join the Foundry, Acumen’s global community of more than 2,000 alumni social entrepreneurs and leaders. Through the Foundry, we provide Fellows with the lifelong tools and community to build and scale their enterprises.
