# Vignette 21: Cameroon's solar kiosks
When Hamza Youssoupha lost his father at age eight, he found himself on the streets of Yaoundé, joining thousands of other vulnerable youth struggling to survive. While he managed to start a small food stall, challenges with food storage and nighttime operations limited his ability to build a sustainable livelihood. Through previous interactions with street youths in Cameroon, the UNDP Cameroon Accelerator Lab identified a unique opportunity for collaboration. Recognizing the challenges these young people faced, such as their reliance on street food vending as a means of survival, the Lab aimed to co-create innovative solutions to enhance their livelihoods and facilitate their transition off the streets.[\[1\]](#endnote-1)
The team began by conducting field research, surveying 216 street vendors across Yaoundé and Douala. Through conversations with vendors like Hamza, three key challenges emerged: they couldn't preserve perishable goods without refrigeration, they lost potential income by being unable to operate after dark, and their makeshift stalls offered little protection from weather.[\[2\]](#endnote-2) The survey, carried out by ten student volunteers using the Kobo Collect app, helped map where these challenges were most acute and which vendors were already attempting their own solutions.
The Lab brought together street youth, civil society organizations, and renewable energy engineers to co-create solutions. Working with Ocalucoper, an organization supporting street youth, they identified potential users and developed requirements for a solar-powered mobile kiosk equipped with refrigeration and lighting.This solution was chosen after analysis revealed solar power to be the most sustainable option for these vendors, eliminating recurring costs and bureaucratic hurdles associated with traditional electricity.
"We tried to analyze to come up with concrete challenges and to understand if this hypothesis of Solar Mobile kiosk could really be a solution," explains Roberteau Tchoffo, Head of Experimentation at UNDP Cameroon’s Accelerator Lab. The team used an agile approach, continuously gathering feedback and refining the design through multiple iterations.
Two teams of engineers worked on prototypes: one focused on supporting street food vendors (Figure 36), the other on fruit and vegetable sellers. They refined the designs based on weekly feedback from users about what worked and what needed improvement.
The results were encouraging. Hamza's daily income increased by 60% with the new kiosk. "I can now sell at night, which I couldn't do before because of the lack of lighting," he noted. The design attracted new customers, particularly young students. More importantly, this initiative shifted perceptions of street youth, reframing them as potential catalysts for development rather than simply a security concern. This change in perspective led other development partners to invest in developing people's skills through targeted training. For instance, impressed by the initiative, one partner sponsored professional culinary training for Hamza and 11 other youth at a renowned Yaoundé restaurant. This highlights a broader shift towards recognizing and fostering the potential of these young entrepreneurs.
{% hint style="info" %}
#### **Key takeaways:**
* **Map challenges directly with users:** Conduct thorough field research to understand the specific needs and challenges of the community, ensuring solutions are relevant and practical.
* **Prototype and iterate:** Develop prototypes and incorporate regular feedback from users to refine and improve designs.
* **Leverage existing networks:** Partner with organizations already working in the community to maximize impact and avoid duplication of efforts.
* **Celebrate small beginnings:** Recognize that even small changes can significantly improve livelihoods; no change is too small.
{% endhint %}
***
## Notes
1. See Tchoffo (2024) for a more in-depth report on this initiative. [↑](#endnote-ref-1)
2. See Tchoffo (2023) [↑](#endnote-ref-2)
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