By Wallace Mawire
Green Governance Zimbabwe (GGZ) Nyasha Frank Mpahlo, Executive Director of Green Governance Zimbabwe (GGZ) was selected as one of four 2026 Climate Breakthrough Awardees.
The cohort was announced on 15 September 2026.
Through the award, Mpahlo will develop an initiative to connect African innovators and help locally led energy solutions move from promising pilots towards wider-scale systems.
Each 2026 Awardee will receive US$4 million in multiyear, flexible, non-directive funding.
Climate Breakthrough estimates that around 600 million people in Africa lack access to electricity, while roughly one billion continue to cook with polluting fuels.
Africa also holds mineral resources important to the global energy transition and has a rapidly growing young population entering the workforce.
The initiative addresses a practical challenge, locally developed energy solutions may show promise but still face barriers to connection, support and wider adoption.
Its focus is on strengthening the ecosystem around African innovators, not simply promoting individual technologies. For Zimbabwe, the recognition links local experience in climate governance and community participation to a wider African conversation about energy access, innovation, accountability and community benefit.
The issue matters to households and communities facing limited electricity access or relying on polluting cooking fuels, African innovators developing locally relevant energy solutions and young people seeking opportunities in a changing energy economy.
It is also relevant to policymakers, funders, investors and civil-society organisations that influence how energy solutions are financed, supported and adopted.
The award will support Mpahlo to build an ecosystem connecting African innovators and strengthening pathways for locally led energy solutions to grow beyond isolated pilots.
A central element is the proposed Energy+ Innovators Platform, intended to connect innovators and home-grown solutions across areas including electricity, water, food systems, agriculture, transport, health and renewable energy.
The initiative is at a development stage. The award enables the next phase of work, it should not be read as evidence that the proposed platform is already operating at continental scale or that future outcomes have already been achieved.
Mpahlo has more than 14 years of experience in research, policy influencing, climate governance, transparency and accountability. His work has focused on public participation and accountability in climate and natural-resource governance, including community engagement in climate finance and decision-making.
Under his leadership, GGZ has worked on climate governance, climate finance, just energy transition, natural-resource governance, youth participation, climate resilience and policy advocacy.
Mpahlo has also advocated for an energy transition that considers not only infrastructure, but also ownership, governance, accountability and community benefit.
GGZ is a Zimbabwean public-interest organisation working to advance sustainable environmental management, climate governance, natural resource governance, community participation, research and policy advocacy.
The organisation works to strengthen citizen participation and accountability in environmental and climate decision-making and to support communities, young people and other stakeholders to engage meaningfully in issues affecting their environment and livelihoods.
