Date Published: December, 2024

In December 2022, the Private Infrastructure Development Group (PIDG) Trust agreed to provide a Technical Assistance (TA) grant to InfraCo Africa for the JCM Salima and Golomoti Community Water Supply Project. The purpose of this grant was to provide match-funding with JCM to fund the installation and related surveys of boreholes for villages around the Salima and Golomoti Solar PV Projects, as well as the setup and training of community Water Point Committees (WPC). The total contribution of the grant was USD 68,520.

Over the course of 2023, JCM – together with its implementation partners – has conducted hydrogeological and geophysical surveys for the proposed borehole sites. Following this, 19 boreholes were installed across the Salima and Golomoti communities. A solar floodlight was also installed at each borehole. The Community Development and Water Development offices facilitated community meetings where WPCs, members received training. The purpose of this training was to provide capacity building to the WPCs so that the boreholes can be managed by the community in a sustainable manner. The training included topics such as practical dismantling of a borehole, group dynamics, leadership, sanitation and water hygiene as well as community financing for maintenance of the boreholes.

The installation of the boreholes has provided reliable and safe drinking water access to 7,023 community members. This in turn provides an opportunity for livelihood and wellbeing enhancement by freeing community members, mainly women and children, from the burden of waiting in line and carrying water long distances and therefore providing more time for them to engage in other activities. In addition, safe drinking water is having positive health impacts on the communities, limiting the transmission of infectious diseases and assisting in the maintenance of a sanitary home environment. Through the provision of solar floodlighting, the safety and accessibility of water at all times has also been improved. The project supports community empowerment (through the WPCs) in taking ownership for the ongoing functioning and maintenance of the boreholes. The community has been empowered with skills for borehole and tap maintenance, reducing the costs associated with employing external technicians.

Date Published: September, 2023

During the course of 2022, JCM identified children within the Hawa community whose guardians were willing to send them to school. The cohort identified was comprised of 57 boys and 31 girls of primary school-going age (4–14 years). 

JPL’s CSR Manager identified an abandoned school building in close proximity to the community, which could be renovated and re-established as a school. In 2023, the building was refurbished, and the Jan Muhammad Khaskheli Primary School was officially opened in September. JCM’s contribution towards the opening of the school includes the full-time employment of a teacher, the provision of all necessary furniture, equipment and materials for the school and providing uniforms to the 40 enrolled students (23 boys and 17 girls).

As with the other two schools that we support in the region, this school will be fully funded by JCM and our investment partners.

Date Published: January, 2024

To deliver on our gender commitments, JCM has taken significant actions over the past few years; namely the development of a multi-year Gender Action Plan in 2020 and formulation of the Inclusion, Diversity, Equality and Access (IDEA) Committee. A diagnostics assessment of JCM in 2021 carried out by Value for Women (VfW) revealed several areas of good practice across the JCM entities, in addition to opportunities for improvement. One such opportunity was that JCM is: “…positioned to take a more progressive stance on gender inclusion, going beyond the 2X Challenge criteria particularly in terms of leadership by creating a pipeline of future women leaders through training, networking, and mentoring opportunities.”

In response to this, in 2022, we developed the JCM Women’s Leadership Programme (WLP) with the overarching objective to support women’s progression in the workplace through investing in high potential women in the organisation and supporting their growth in areas such as leadership and strategic thinking. JCM received technical assistance funding for the WLP from Swedfund and IFU and, through this financial assistance, has been able to support the growth of five of our female employees through the following training programmes:

1. LAND ACQUISITION, RESETTLEMENT AND SOCIAL SUSTAINABILITY COURSE, 2022
   Grace Kaonga, (Malawi Senior Social Performance Specialist) attended this course presented by the University of Groningen, in partnership with the IFC and CiG. This practical training course promoted understanding about and developed skills in managing the social risks and impacts associated with the development of public and private investment projects and particularly issues related to land acquisition and resettlement and managing social issues.
   
2. MANAGEMENT DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME FOR WOMEN IN RENEWABLE ENERGY, 2023
   Lisa Muller (ESG Associate), Tiwonge Hara (Malawi HR Manager) and Jessica Dragt (Principal Electrical Engineer) took part in this inaugural programme which was organised by the Witwatersrand University Business School and the South African Wind Energy Association (SAWEA). The aim of the programme was to explain the key functions of a leader in terms of setting a vision, maintaining a focus on the strategy and energising followers; and helping to create a pipeline of women managers and leaders who will help take the sector to the next level.
   
3. LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT AND ASSERTIVENESS SKILLS, 2023
   Alishba Khan (Business Analyst) and Sawera Khan (Senior Accounts Executive) from JCM’s Karachi office travelled to Canada to attend two courses run over five days (Leadership Development for Early Career Women at the Rotman School of Management, and ‘Assertiveness Skills for Women in Business’ at the Canadian Management Centre). The two courses offered practical strategies for effective communication in professional settings and a holistic approach to leadership.
   
4. GENDER LENS INVESTING AND PREVENTION OF AND RESPONSE TO SEXUAL EXPLOITATION, ABUSE AND HARASSMENT COURSE, 2024
   Tiwonge Hara, Malawi HR Manager attended this course in Nairobi, Kenya which focused on GLI, emphasizing the integration of gender perspectives in investment strategies and lending practices. The programme also covered the prevention and response to SEAH in the context of investment and credit processes and was organised by Swedfund in association with Value for Women.

Date Published: November, 2023

There are currently 36 operational wind farms in the Sindh Province and 31 are within the Jhimpir region in Pakistan. All the wind farms – including our Hawa and JPL wind power projects – are in remote locations where there is no wastewater infrastructure. Currently, the two projects generate approximately 300,000 litres of black water a month (also known as grey water, i.e. from washing, cleaning and kitchen use). This water is collected by a third-party contractor in a tanker truck and disposed of in accordance with Sindh Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) regulations to the closest licensed disposal site at Jhimpir City, approximately 22km from our projects. The cost of this disposal amounts to approximately USD 7,500 on an annual basis and therefore contributes to an unsustainable and fuel-heavy disposal method, having a cumulative impact on JCM’s carbon footprint.

Spearheaded by our operational site team, a pilot project for the treatment of wastewater using constructed wetlands was initiated in 2023. The treated wastewater is used to stimulate agricultural production and a beekeeping enterprise. Independent testing of the water quality from the pilot project has shown that all water quality indicators fall within the Pakistan National Environment Quality Standards (NEQS) and Sindh Province Environment Quality Standards (SEQS) limits. In 2025, we aim to expand this to a fully developed facility that will manage all the wastewater from our two projects. 

Date Published: December, 2024

In late 2021, JCM together with the community surrounding our Salima Project, identified several activities that were needed to improve education access, retention, equity, and quality for children. JCM, in collaboration with the CSR Committee, has since provided opportunities for learners to apply for bursaries from the company to support their schooling including tuition fees, examination fees, school uniforms, student allowance and other scholastic materials. We also provide sanitary pads for female students. The overall objective of the education support is to enhance academic progress, social skills, character development and practical life skills of children by:

• Increasing retention of youth in existing schools and educational programs.
• Increasing equitable participation in education by girls and boys, vulnerable and disadvantaged children.
• Strengthening parental and student commitment to education.

Since 2022, JCM has provided 39 students with bursaries, of which 21 are female. Many students in our project regions are prevented from proceeding to secondary school from primary school, despite qualifying and being selected to secondary schools, for financial reasons. The school bursary scheme has helped to mitigate this by providing access to financial support, enabling the students to proceed to secondary school. The students learn with less disturbance as they are not turned away from schools as a result of non-payment of tuition fees.

Date Published: May, 2024

In 2023, JCM commenced with agripower initiatives that are mutually accretive agricultural enterprises co-purposed/located with renewable energy power projects, which, in turn, promote biodiversity and sustainability through a thriving ecosystem. We view agripower projects as an example of combining the sustainable use of land, the protection of bio- diversity, while generating value for our communities. Our agripower initiatives thus far have included the planting of vegetable crops, honey production and livestock, namely sheep. 

In Malawi, we have been able to success- fully prepare land, plant and harvest within our solar PV array at Salima. In addition, we have created a small nursery, grown and transplanted seedlings, install drip irrigation, and grown a variety of vegetables including butternut, spinach, watermelons, chilli, and eggplants. We have grown crops both within the array and in open areas. All vegetable pilots were successfully harvested and sold to local off-takers.

Our second initiative – beekeeping and honey production – has many benefits including providing a sustainable source of honey and other byproducts; promoting biodiversity and pollination, which can improve the overall health of the local ecosystem; and supporting local agriculture.

In 2023, we started with 10 local ‘mother swarm’ hives at the Salima and Golomoti project sites and recently expanded by a further 40 high quality hives imported from South Africa. A group of employees and two community members underwent an introduction to beekeeping training in January 2024.

At our wind power projects in Pakistan, we have established 10 hives at each project and supported the beekeeping initiative by planting recommended flora in the vicinities as a source of food for the bees. These plants are watered with water from our pilot wastewater treatment project. We were delighted to harvest our first batch of “Jhimpir Reserve Wildflower Honey” in early 2024.

In 2021, we launched a pilot project at our projects in Malawi introducing sheep to the plant as a means for vegetation control. We now have over 140 sheep and will continue to grow this flock as sheep provide three sources of value: maintaining areas of vegetation; providing manure of organic fertilizer; and financial value by selling mutton/lamb to the local market.

Date Published: December, 2023

Our flagship livelihood restoration programme over 2022 and 2023 has been Ulimi Ndi Moyo (“agriculture is life”) which has targeted all 367 people affected by the land acquisition and economic displacement process at our Salima and Golomoti projects. We partnered with external specialists to develop and implement the programme, which focused on improving each step of the subsistence farming process.

The first step to improving subsistence agriculture was land preparation. Working together with the project affected people and local commercial agriculture service providers, JCM collectively cleared and ploughed more than 180ha of land at Salima and Golomoti at the end of 2022. Using a learn-by-doing approach, the community members were trained by our field officers on land clearing and preparation so they would have the knowledge and tools to do it themselves in the future.

Following the preparation of the land, the next phase was planting. This focused on the provision of improved seed and fertiliser as well as crop protection kits (knapsack sprayers with herbicides and insecticides). We provided more than eight tonnes of seed and 70 tonnes of fertiliser to the 367 project-affected people. Our field officers provided training on the importance of seed variety selection, how to plant the seeds they were provided with, and the safe application of herbicides.

Leading up to the harvest, those affected by the projects received further training on pest and weed management; crop harvest and residue management; and crop storage and marketing. The harvest of season one of the Ulimi Ndi Moyo programme saw JCM connecting the project-affected people with commercial buyers so they could sell their produce and gain access to the formal market. Typically, smallholder farmers are not always able to participate in the formal market owing to various barriers. JCM worked to remove these barriers by:

• Training farmers on how to harvest and store their produce so that they can meet the buyers’ specifications.
• Providing safe and secure storage locations so that produce could be aggregated
• Purchasing agricultural weighing scales and moisture meters to facilitate the aggregation and quality control process
• Developing and implementing robust record-keeping processes
• Facilitating the logistics between the project-affected people and the buyers.

Working with a global agricultural company, JCM assisted the project affected people to complete the sale of over 19 tonnes of groundnuts at both the projects combined. For many participants this was the first time they experienced selling to the formal market.

It has been incredible to witness the impact of Ulimi ndi Moyo on the yields that the farmers had in this season. Many of them reported yields of up five times what they achieved in previous years. This means these households would be food secure for the coming year and affirms just how effective improved farming methods and practices can be when they are implemented well.