Our Mission
The Mbale Center for Innovation and Design empowers Ugandan Youth by providing tools, training, and networking opportunities focused on design-thinking, entrepreneurship, and indigenous environmental preservation.
MAPLE country director, Rogers Muduku, and field officer, Kimono Suzan, measure stove emissions.
“Indigenous peoples, in exercising their right to self-determination, have the right to autonomy or self-government in matters relating to their internal and local affairs, as well as ways and means for financing their autonomous functions.”
seven principles for our projects
Receive an invitation to help. We believe the sustainability of any project depends on the willingness and ability of communities to participate fully in project design, implementation, and management.
Engage in community dialogues. We gather stories from community members about their lives, values, goals, and practices related to that need, which we then translate into tangible projects.
Strengthen economic resilience. We are devoted to Article 4 of the U.N. Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Therefore, while we work with resilient, marginalized communities with strong connections to ancestral lands, we ensure they can achieve financial autonomy in relation to projects to avoid dependence on outside agencies and achieve self-determination in relation to their own traditions and values.
4. Engage youth. We are devoted to long-term, cross-generational sustainability and involve youth as learners and leaders in all project phases.
5. Start small using co-design processes. We reduce risks to the community by starting small, prototyping and testing solutions together, and redesigning as necessary prior to designing sustainable micro-enterprises to distribute solutions more widely.
6. Build on local expertise and provide capacity building as needed. We engage in processes of reciprocal learning, build on existing wisdom and expertise, and collaborate as needed to train leaders who live in the community.