Very informative article, great to know there are so many opportunities available already; hopefully would-be-investors will take this advice seriously and invest more deliberately in African social entrepreneurs.
Well researched and highly informative article that not only outlines and elaborates on the challenges, but suggests possible solutions that will create and expand social innovators and innovation across Africa. Well done.
I enjoyed the article and felt it explained why social entrepreneurs in Africa are often very small and have limited impact. I can see that the issue is not that they are bereft of ideas for change, but they do not have certain technical skills such as development of their theories of change and plans for implementation. I hesitate to say a business plan as these are social enterprises, but I find that many NGO’s don’t appreciate the need to articulate their plans and develop plans for sustainability. Thank you for clarifying this feeling I had. Now, what next? What are your plans for helping social entrepreneurs in Africa develop capacity? I know, I am never satisfied but I know that you are not a just a theorist but also a consummate, achievement-oriented doer.
Very, very informative article. I am on the verge of forming a non profit organization primarily to aid children in Africa. This article will help me a lot in creating and formulating my strategies. Thanks so much.
Funding is a major constraint for many who yearn for sustainability in this field of endeavour. This piece articulates the challenges faced by many innovators and suggests ways in which we can overcome the hindrances; very useful insights. Thank you, Ndidi. Brilliant, as always.
Very interesting article, and its right on the money. The good thing that Ndidi does is to not only mention the issues facing scaling of social innovation, but to point out in detail feasible solutions. I think that ‘closing the capacity gap’ might be the most challenging issue to overcome. This is because we need investors and foundations who really care and understand that there might not necessarily be returns to be made, but that assisting to close the gap is simply an investment in African human capital and a step in the right direction.
Thanks Ndidi for such a wonderful piece. As others have already commented, I particularly appreciate your suggestions and pointers for what can be done to continually improve the current situation.
In addition to the mention of MIT D-Lab’s Creative Capacity Building methodology, I would highlight the efforts of the International Development Design Summit (http://www.idin.org/idds) in building the pipeline of local innovators (in Africa as well as other regions around the world), with an upcoming summit in Botswana, and several past ones in Ghana, Zambia and Tanzania.
Also, in terms of being entrepreneurial in attracting funding in small quantities, keep an eye on Kiva Zip (https://zip.kiva.org/), currently in Kenya piggybacking on M-PESA.
Thank you for your kind feedback and words of support!
Victor, thanks for sharing information about IDIN and Kiva Zip. I will definitely connect with these initiatives as I continue the research process for my book on Scaling Social Innovation in Africa.
The sad reality is that there are so many new and exciting innovations and support structures emerging on the African Continent. We really have to work collaboratively to collate and share these resources more broadly.
The author herself entrenched the same stereotype she has set out to dispel. Both examples she chose were largely driven and funded from overseas. MPESA and USHAHIDI. Mpesa is British and most coders who worked on Ushahidi and the funders who kept it going were from the US. In the case of MPESA it was not only built entirely overseas, it was even conceived by British engineers. Why did she choose them? Because they are safe. She has seen them in the right places. If even for a brief article she couldn’t find two authentic, genuinely African, examples then why does she think international investors and donors would? After all, unlike her, they don’t live in Africa. So the problem is deeper than she makes it sound; even she is not immune.
Dear Jul, thanks for your honest feedback. Can you please explain what stereotype you believe that I am trying to dispel through the article which you argue I am not immune to? In addition, please share the problem which you believe is deeper that I may have missed.
My article is about creating a level playing field for social innovators operating in Africa. I simply used Mpesa and Ushahidi for my last section - “Build a body of knowledge from work in Africa and share it widely.” I used these two examples because they are well know innovations that were scaled from Kenya to other regions and have been widely studied and publicized. I understand your concerns about these choices, and I am not sure those involved will entirely agree with the view that these two initiatives are largely foreign. I am the founder or co-founder of some social innovations in Nigeria and I have a large network of friends and colleagues who have created initiatives in different African countries. I did mention and provide links to LEAP Africa and Teso Women Development Initiatives and in future articles and in my upcoming book, I will showcase these initiatives.
BYGreg Grothe, Land O'Lakes International Developmen
Thanks for this thought provoking piece. I believe local innovators will be essential for social enterprise growth across the continent and the three critical steps you raise are spot on. Ndidi, I appreciate the number of interesting initiatives and platforms you referenced. They’re certainly helping address some of the constraints to growth of social innovation.
As you’ve noted, incubators and enterprise accelerators can play important roles in unlocking the pipeline of innovation. They build entrepreneurs’ capacity and develop a body of knowledge. We’re currently implementing two USAID-funded enterprise acceleration programs in Kenya and Tanzania, and I’d love to hear what you think Ndidi. The Kenya Feed the Future Innovation Engine (KFIE) - http://kfie.net/ helps bridge the gap between social innovation and growth capital. It currently supports 17 entrepreneurs and businesses by: (1) promoting new products and services, (2) providing the ventures support for testing concepts, (3) piloting business models, and (4) ultimately linking the ventures to capital for growth and scale. In Tanzania, the Innovations for Gender Equality Program http://bit.ly/1ConMZc is incubating new social ventures and has supported over 20 innovations. Each is led by women and/or uses products and services that empower women in Agriculture.
It is truly exciting to see so many compelling business models emerge from the ingenuity of local innovators! To achieve the full potential of innovation in the market, it will be imperative to develop more connections across different platforms which facilitate social innovation.
Thanks Greg. Your work is extremely important and the links you shared are terrific. I would be delighted to speak to some of the social innovators that you have supported in Tanzania and Kenya as part of my research for the book on Scaling Social Impact in Africa.
This is a nice piece which is quite thought provoking. Consistent withe the step “Build a body of knowledge from work in Africa and share it widely” an opportunity exists among the youth in our universities in Africa to contribute towards filling the gap of innovations for social entrepreneurship. Albeit the innovations may not be investment ready, they could contribute to building a critical mass for pushing the contributions by locals in the sphere of innovations. A regular audit among students and lecturers is likely to unearth great potential among them which will also contribute towards a change of mind set and focus among the students and faculty in African universities.
Recognizing the incredible talent pool across the continent, the Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders supports African social innovators from the private, civic and public sectors through intensive executive leadership training and follow on professional development support. The program aims to bolster 4,000 young African leaders over 5 years. You can learn more about the program by visiting the website here: https://www.irex.org/projects/yali
You can also check out the profiles of the 1,000 Mandela Fellows (500 from 2014 and 500 currently in the U.S. for their executive leadership training) here: https://www.irex.org/projects/yali.
Thanks Ndidi for this revealing, all engaging and innovative article at this critical time in Africa history. Africa social entrepreneurs surely need a concrete bridge across this widening capacity gap to square up with others across the globe.
COMMENTS
BY orode doherty
ON June 3, 2015 03:35 PM
Very informative article, great to know there are so many opportunities available already; hopefully would-be-investors will take this advice seriously and invest more deliberately in African social entrepreneurs.
BY Abolade Durojaiye
ON June 3, 2015 06:00 PM
Well researched and highly informative article that not only outlines and elaborates on the challenges, but suggests possible solutions that will create and expand social innovators and innovation across Africa. Well done.
BY Folasade Adefisayo
ON June 4, 2015 04:23 PM
I enjoyed the article and felt it explained why social entrepreneurs in Africa are often very small and have limited impact. I can see that the issue is not that they are bereft of ideas for change, but they do not have certain technical skills such as development of their theories of change and plans for implementation. I hesitate to say a business plan as these are social enterprises, but I find that many NGO’s don’t appreciate the need to articulate their plans and develop plans for sustainability. Thank you for clarifying this feeling I had. Now, what next? What are your plans for helping social entrepreneurs in Africa develop capacity? I know, I am never satisfied but I know that you are not a just a theorist but also a consummate, achievement-oriented doer.
BY Kofi Adade
ON June 5, 2015 06:26 AM
Very, very informative article. I am on the verge of forming a non profit organization primarily to aid children in Africa. This article will help me a lot in creating and formulating my strategies. Thanks so much.
BY shadracck Agaki
ON June 6, 2015 02:00 AM
Ndidi you made my day this sataday morning, i am hungry for social innovation knowledge and i got a piece from this article
BY Maryam Uwais
ON June 6, 2015 01:38 PM
Funding is a major constraint for many who yearn for sustainability in this field of endeavour. This piece articulates the challenges faced by many innovators and suggests ways in which we can overcome the hindrances; very useful insights. Thank you, Ndidi. Brilliant, as always.
BY Akwugo Nnama
ON June 7, 2015 02:10 PM
Very interesting article, and its right on the money. The good thing that Ndidi does is to not only mention the issues facing scaling of social innovation, but to point out in detail feasible solutions. I think that ‘closing the capacity gap’ might be the most challenging issue to overcome. This is because we need investors and foundations who really care and understand that there might not necessarily be returns to be made, but that assisting to close the gap is simply an investment in African human capital and a step in the right direction.
BY Victor Grau Serrat
ON June 8, 2015 08:53 AM
Thanks Ndidi for such a wonderful piece. As others have already commented, I particularly appreciate your suggestions and pointers for what can be done to continually improve the current situation.
In addition to the mention of MIT D-Lab’s Creative Capacity Building methodology, I would highlight the efforts of the International Development Design Summit (http://www.idin.org/idds) in building the pipeline of local innovators (in Africa as well as other regions around the world), with an upcoming summit in Botswana, and several past ones in Ghana, Zambia and Tanzania.
Also, in terms of being entrepreneurial in attracting funding in small quantities, keep an eye on Kiva Zip (https://zip.kiva.org/), currently in Kenya piggybacking on M-PESA.
Thanks again,
Victor
BY Ndidi Nwuneli
ON June 8, 2015 02:34 PM
Thank you for your kind feedback and words of support!
Victor, thanks for sharing information about IDIN and Kiva Zip. I will definitely connect with these initiatives as I continue the research process for my book on Scaling Social Innovation in Africa.
The sad reality is that there are so many new and exciting innovations and support structures emerging on the African Continent. We really have to work collaboratively to collate and share these resources more broadly.
BY Jul Akpe
ON June 11, 2015 06:47 AM
The author herself entrenched the same stereotype she has set out to dispel. Both examples she chose were largely driven and funded from overseas. MPESA and USHAHIDI. Mpesa is British and most coders who worked on Ushahidi and the funders who kept it going were from the US. In the case of MPESA it was not only built entirely overseas, it was even conceived by British engineers. Why did she choose them? Because they are safe. She has seen them in the right places. If even for a brief article she couldn’t find two authentic, genuinely African, examples then why does she think international investors and donors would? After all, unlike her, they don’t live in Africa. So the problem is deeper than she makes it sound; even she is not immune.
BY Ndidi Nwuneli
ON June 11, 2015 07:19 AM
Dear Jul, thanks for your honest feedback. Can you please explain what stereotype you believe that I am trying to dispel through the article which you argue I am not immune to? In addition, please share the problem which you believe is deeper that I may have missed.
My article is about creating a level playing field for social innovators operating in Africa. I simply used Mpesa and Ushahidi for my last section - “Build a body of knowledge from work in Africa and share it widely.” I used these two examples because they are well know innovations that were scaled from Kenya to other regions and have been widely studied and publicized. I understand your concerns about these choices, and I am not sure those involved will entirely agree with the view that these two initiatives are largely foreign. I am the founder or co-founder of some social innovations in Nigeria and I have a large network of friends and colleagues who have created initiatives in different African countries. I did mention and provide links to LEAP Africa and Teso Women Development Initiatives and in future articles and in my upcoming book, I will showcase these initiatives.
BY Greg Grothe, Land O'Lakes International Developmen
ON June 24, 2015 02:56 PM
Thanks for this thought provoking piece. I believe local innovators will be essential for social enterprise growth across the continent and the three critical steps you raise are spot on. Ndidi, I appreciate the number of interesting initiatives and platforms you referenced. They’re certainly helping address some of the constraints to growth of social innovation.
As you’ve noted, incubators and enterprise accelerators can play important roles in unlocking the pipeline of innovation. They build entrepreneurs’ capacity and develop a body of knowledge. We’re currently implementing two USAID-funded enterprise acceleration programs in Kenya and Tanzania, and I’d love to hear what you think Ndidi. The Kenya Feed the Future Innovation Engine (KFIE) - http://kfie.net/ helps bridge the gap between social innovation and growth capital. It currently supports 17 entrepreneurs and businesses by: (1) promoting new products and services, (2) providing the ventures support for testing concepts, (3) piloting business models, and (4) ultimately linking the ventures to capital for growth and scale. In Tanzania, the Innovations for Gender Equality Program http://bit.ly/1ConMZc is incubating new social ventures and has supported over 20 innovations. Each is led by women and/or uses products and services that empower women in Agriculture.
It is truly exciting to see so many compelling business models emerge from the ingenuity of local innovators! To achieve the full potential of innovation in the market, it will be imperative to develop more connections across different platforms which facilitate social innovation.
BY Ndidi Nwuneli
ON June 25, 2015 10:35 PM
Thanks Greg. Your work is extremely important and the links you shared are terrific. I would be delighted to speak to some of the social innovators that you have supported in Tanzania and Kenya as part of my research for the book on Scaling Social Impact in Africa.
BY Justin Mabeya
ON June 29, 2015 04:44 AM
This is a nice piece which is quite thought provoking. Consistent withe the step “Build a body of knowledge from work in Africa and share it widely” an opportunity exists among the youth in our universities in Africa to contribute towards filling the gap of innovations for social entrepreneurship. Albeit the innovations may not be investment ready, they could contribute to building a critical mass for pushing the contributions by locals in the sphere of innovations. A regular audit among students and lecturers is likely to unearth great potential among them which will also contribute towards a change of mind set and focus among the students and faculty in African universities.
BY nicole
ON June 30, 2015 09:33 AM
Recognizing the incredible talent pool across the continent, the Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders supports African social innovators from the private, civic and public sectors through intensive executive leadership training and follow on professional development support. The program aims to bolster 4,000 young African leaders over 5 years. You can learn more about the program by visiting the website here: https://www.irex.org/projects/yali
You can also check out the profiles of the 1,000 Mandela Fellows (500 from 2014 and 500 currently in the U.S. for their executive leadership training) here: https://www.irex.org/projects/yali.
BY Evans Odhiambo
ON July 13, 2015 06:06 AM
This is quite informative. We need more social innovators from Africa to spearhead Africa’s growth.
BY Ritchie Felix
ON May 24, 2016 07:02 AM
Thanks Ndidi for this revealing, all engaging and innovative article at this critical time in Africa history. Africa social entrepreneurs surely need a concrete bridge across this widening capacity gap to square up with others across the globe.