Zimbabwean climate governance leader Nyasha Frank Mpahlo has been named one of four recipients of the 2026 Climate Breakthrough Award, receiving US$4 million in multiyear funding to develop an initiative aimed at connecting African energy innovators and helping locally led solutions move beyond the pilot stage.
The award was announced on 15 September by Climate Breakthrough, which provides each recipient with US$4 million in flexible, non-directive funding to develop, launch and scale new climate initiatives.
Mpahlo, who founded Green Governance Zimbabwe, will use the award to develop what he calls the Energy+ Innovators Platform, a proposed continental hub intended to connect people developing home-grown energy solutions and enable them to learn from and collaborate with one another.
The platform is expected to extend beyond electricity, covering areas including water management, food systems, agriculture, transport, health and renewable energy.
According to Green Governance Zimbabwe, the initiative is designed to address a practical challenge facing locally developed solutions: moving from promising pilots to wider adoption by strengthening the networks and support around African innovators.
The initiative is still being developed. GGZ has cautioned that the award should not be interpreted as meaning the proposed platform is already operating at continental scale or that its future outcomes have already been achieved.
An energy transition shaped by African needs
Climate Breakthrough estimates that about 600 million people in Africa still lack access to electricity, while roughly one billion continue to cook with polluting fuels.
The organisation also points to Africa’s significant mineral resources, which are important to the global energy transition, and a rapidly growing young population entering the workforce. Mpahlo’s approach places communities and locally developed solutions at the centre of the energy transition.
Climate Breakthrough says his work has grown from community-centred climate action in Zimbabwe into a broader focus on energy governance, youth engagement, gender justice and urban food systems. It highlights the Green Villages model developed through his work, which combines renewable energy, agroecology, sustainable water management and fuel-efficient cooking technologies.
The organisation says the model has been implemented in communities in Zimbabwe, Zambia and Mozambique, where residents have engaged in agroecology, clean cooking and solar energy initiatives.
Mpahlo has more than 14 years of experience in research, policy influencing, climate governance, transparency and accountability. His work has included public participation in climate finance and decision-making.
Under his leadership, GGZ has worked across climate governance, climate finance, just energy transition, natural-resource governance, youth participation, climate resilience and policy advocacy.
The proposed Energy+ Innovators Platform will therefore focus not only on developing or promoting individual technologies, but on creating connections between innovators and strengthening the conditions that allow locally developed solutions to grow.
Mpahlo also plans to explore blended finance models to help enterprises move beyond their pilot stages, while measuring the initiative’s impact through changes in people’s access to energy, food and clean water, as well as health and livelihood outcomes.
The award marks the beginning of that next phase of work.
Mpahlo joins Delphine Lévi Alvarès of France, Josimara Baré of Brazil and Valmir Ortega of Brazil as the four 2026 Climate Breakthrough Awardees.
