This trip to Tanzania is focused on social entrepreneurship in Tanzania, which is a topic with which I have not been familiar. However, upon looking further, it seems that social enterprises are a major focus in developing countries because they allow growth of the economy while also providing improvements in other aspects of the society.
Recently, many entrepreneurs are attempting to make their mark on society. But, one social enterprise, known as the Diana Women Empowerment Organisation, or DIWEO, has been around since 1998. Their goal has been to serve youths, orphans, widows, and older folks who have HIV/AIDS. Over the years, their work has evolved with the changes they are making and the needs of the people. Initially, a majority of the work was funded by grants and donations, but as the flow of those sources slowed, DIWEO turned to trading. The organization has set up a vegetable farm where women with AIDS/HIV can plant and harvest their own crops to sell. The profits from these trades are reinvested in the organization to fund other aspects of improving the lives of affected people. Currently, the organization has two main orphanages - one in Dar es Salaam and another in Tanga - that provide a safe place for those whom DIWEO serves. There are many other groups like the Diana Women Empowerment Organisation in Tanzania, and I look forward to the opportunity to listen to their stories and provide any assistance I can to their noble causes. Posted by: Saukhya
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As social entrepreneurship is something I was not too familiar with before my trip to Tanzania, it is something I did a fair amount of research on before the trip; both social entrepreneurship in general and especially social entrepreneurship specifically in Tanzania. One social enterprise in Tanzania that I came across in my research, Arusha Women Entrepreneurs (AWE), struck my interest as it seems fairly simple, very successful, and has a wonderful mission. AWE was established in 2008 and employs low income women to process groundnuts that are roasted and ground with no artificial sweetners or preservatives to create peanut butter. Not only does this social enterprise provide employment opportunities to disadvantaged and deprived communities, specifically low-income women from peri-urban Arusha, but it also delivers social and development benefits for smallholder peanut farmers and positively impacts the environment and economy.
The women and smallholder farmers that are employed are trained with technical and management skills. One of their partners, World Training Nzega Cluster, is a nonprofit organization which helps to source smallholder peanut farmers and provides training assistance for nut growers on climate change. AWE has grown and created a value supply chain from production and marketing of their natural peanut butter. Their social impacts however go far beyond training women to work in food safety management, processing, management, and marketing. This then allows women to qualify for the job market; women from AWE have in fact obtained employment outside of the enterprise. Furthermore, AWE empowers women to improve their social status by improving their economic independence. Beyond impacting Tanzania socially, they also have made significant environmental impacts: they have educated and trained over 1,000 smallholder farmers on food security, climate change, best agricultural practices, and aflatoxin management; they have increased demand for organic peanuts, promoting sustainable land; they have also reduced greenhouse gas emissions by looking at ways to produce briquettes (charcoal) as cooking fuel. Additionally, their economic impacts include securing 200 peanut farmers income and hosting forums to educate communities about the value of the peanut industry. AWE was one of many social enterprises I researched before our trip and definitely shed some light and insight on entrepreneurship in Tanzania. It was very beneficial to have some background and knowledge on SE in Tanzania before actually going and starting our consulting projects with entrepreneurs/startups/companies. Below are some photos of the social enterprise, Arusha Women Entrepreneurs. Posted by: Ivy Petsinger Tanzania: A Social Entrepreneurship, Progressive Health, & Mobile Currency-innovation Emblem?2/18/2018 Thisisbillgates, or Microsoft’s co-founder and world’s richest man, Bill Gates, took to Instagram for the first time in Tanzania (January 2017). His post highlights that, he, and Melinda, have been fortunate enough to frequent Tanzania over the years. He notes that the country has made large strides to improve health and provide opportunity for its citizens. A perspective emphasizing progress, from such an influential shaper, is resounding. It should speak volumes of the learning we should expect from our visit, and the strives the country will make following our visit. His post is indicative that the very essence of social entrepreneurship is alive and well in Tanzania. Find more @Bill Gates Joins Instagram from Tanzania via Forbes, Au-Yeung. Inside Billionaire Bill Gates’ trip to Tanzania, from CNBC Africa, provides further detail about the visit. First, The Bill & Melinda Gates foundation announced a $15 million investment to help digitize health data-systems within the country. The investment marks a new partnership with the Tanzanian government and intended to support innovative policies neccesary to speed the use of existing and developing health data. Second, the foundation engaged discussions with stakeholders from both private and public sectors, geared toward harnessing and embedding the expansion of digital payment systems usage within Tanzania. With a Vodacom visit on our itinerary, the latter is an interesting finding. The article highlights that half of Tanzania’s population has adopted some form of “mobile money technology.” Vodacom’s M-PESA presentation should be enlightening to gain knowledge on the subject, as the platform is regarded as a leader in Africa’s mobile-currency markets. Very excited for the road ahead! To comment on an article about social entrepreneurship, it's vital that one first understands the concept of social entrepreneurship. At the time this post was supposed to be written ("pre-trip") I can't say that I understood the concept. However, after spending a week in Tanzania and meeting a wide variety of individuals whose businesses fall into this category, I can finally say that I understand that statement, "Doing well by doing good" that seems to embody the motives of these companies.
Solar Sister is a company that began in Uganda to bring clean energy to even the most rural areas, with the idea to allow the women to have more control over the energy of their homes. It's traditionally the responsibility of the women to provide energy in the home already, whether it be by getting firewood or kerosene for lamps. Both of these methods reduce toxic emissions into the home and put the inhabitants at risk for burns, as well as house fires. Solar Sister sells solar panels, energy efficient stoves, and cell phone chargers. They provide the necessary equipment and training to the women that invest in the company. These female entrepreneurs purchase the equipment from Solar Sister and sell it to other families and businesses in their various communities. The business owners make a profit from their direct sale of the solar equipment. Started by a former investment banker, the company has now expanded from 10 trainees in Uganda to over 2,200 in Uganda, Nigeria, and Tanzania. Donations account for a large part of the capital used for the initial purchase of the solar equipment. Excess funds are funneled into training programs for the entrepreneurs, educating them in book keeping and formation of business plans. The impact of the program goes far beyond providing safe light for homes. It allows the children of the home more time to read and study for school. It also empowers the women of the home by putting them in a position of financial independence. Studies also show an increase in the respect for the women in these communities when they are contributing financially for their family. In the grand scheme, Solar Sister has the potential to change the lives of 600 million lives in Africa. Solar power will reduce greenhouse gas emissions from kerosene use, and through implementation of the energy efficient stoves Solar Sister sells, fuel use can be reduce by up to 60%. The energy savings and additional income have the potential to lift a family out of poverty, with 90% of income generated by a women being reinvested into the family household. Beyond the statistics, giving the women of these communities an opportunity to become entrepreneurs and business owners in a sense, sets a positive example for the up and coming generation of females to strive to do more with their lives, to aim higher for their futures. This scholarly article provides fascinating insights through research on University of Dar es Salaam graduates. It gives a granular analysis of the reasons students in Tanzania do not pursue entrepreneurial efforts. Business start-ups in this region are
a critical component of lowering unemployment, which is vital to the future success of Tanzania’s socioeconomic landscape. Universities and higher education in Tanzania have an increasingly significant impact on developing the country’s entrepreneurs and their business acumen, management capacities, and encourage Entrepreneurial Intentions (EI). This article looks at what the barriers are to business startups among university graduates and whether or not education specifically in entrepreneurship made a difference. Many new graduates still prefer the comfort and stability of formal employment. Katundu and Gabagambi inform policy makers of actionable strategy and universities of designing appropriate curriculum to work through these obstacles. They used statistical analysis to identify to top barriers and opportunities in this area. Barriers include financial backing, guidance and training, culture, teaching methods, government support, social networking, bureaucratic tendencies, and obligations to extended family. Entrepreneurship needs a sociocultural environment where it is valued and failure is held in high esteem as an important part or learning and development. Katundu and Gabagambi recommend opening a comprehensive government information center specifically dedicated to providing all the information entrepreneurs need related to business start-ups, especially for recent university graduates by either expanding the current Tanzania Employment Services Agency (TAESA) or opening a new independent agency. They also recommend universities include practical training and a more holistic approach to teaching business as a whole, instead of staying so discipline focused, which often results in students being underprepared for the workforce. I enjoyed the analytical approach they took and focused on the process as a whole with specific action items. I think it’s common to focus on specific entities or sectors to engage with, but I thought it was refreshing reading about a strategic and specific approach. Posted by: Hannah I recently read A World of Three Zeros: The New Economics of Zero Poverty, Zero Unemployment, and Zero Net Carbon Emissions by Muhammad Yunus, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize and founder of Grameen Bank. The book was thought-provoking on a number of levels, but some of my main takeaways were as follows. One of the main punchlines of the book is that many of the big problems that the human race faces today (i.e., massive wealth inequality, environmental degradation) stem from flawed assumptions that capitalism (the world's dominant economic system) makes about humans, namely, that people only act in self-interest (and never altruistically) and that people are job seekers (rather than job creators). On the road to a world of three zeros, Yunes argues that if we were to tweak our current capitalistic model to include room for (rather, mere greater awareness of) altruistic economic behavior (via what Yunus calls “social businesses”; that is, any for-profit business with a “social” mission whose sole purpose is not profit maximization, but that is, importantly, financially self-sustaining), as well as to empower the entrepreneurial spirit within us all (Yunus argues that (wo)man has been a natural problem solver and entrepreneur since the dawn of time), many of the world’s poor could found their own businesses thereby pulling themselves out of poverty (zero poverty) and create jobs for others in the process (zero unemployment). As for “zero net carbon emissions” (a proxy phrase that Yunus uses to refer to all 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG)), Yunus says that this is not a problem that any one individual can solve and that, of course, we as a global community must implement sustainable practices, particularly at a business level if we are to achieve this zero. Now, if you’re thinking that it sounds pretty far fetched that the impoverished masses would 1) have the know-how to start a business and 2) have the money to start a business, I had my doubts as well. But this is exactly what Muhammad Yunus has been doing at Grameen Bank and many of its offshoots since the 1970s. Using microfinance and providing entrepreneurship training, Grameen Bank has helped start thousands of new small business around the world (even in the US with Grameen America), and one of the most amazing things about Grameen Bank is that they enjoy a more than 98% repayment rate of their loans. To people with no prior credit history, mind you! It is important to note that Grameen Bank is itself a social business with all profits being reinvested in more Grameen Bank projects, thus lending credibility to the economic reforms that Yunus proposes. I am not certain what the counterarguments to such reforms would be, but I thought that Muhammad Yunus made a compelling case for the idea of social business. At the very least, it is a much better idea than embracing the status quo, and I think we will be seeing a lot social business in Tanzania! Posted by: Ian The Stanford Social Innovation Review (SSIR) is a great source for articles and case studies about social ventures. Here is a recent article about a successful impact investment in Tanzania. Upon first glance, the deal seems straightforward—a private fund invests in a new recycling plant in Arusha if the company meets certain milestones. The story twists when the private fund explains what they look for in an investment. Instead of listing typical MBA financial terms, like margin, payback, and free cash flows, the firm looks for “significant potential for social and environmental impact; an acceptably clear path toward financial viability; strong, driven leadership; and a business where our investment makes a difference.” In this case, the investment created strong financial returns and positive social/environmental impacts, so everyone walked away happy. What happens when financial returns fall short and social & environmental impacts exceed expectations? Are traditional financial terms the proper way to assess the “success” of impact investments? Are there other ways for a social venture to “sell” excess social and environmental impacts to balance financial shortfalls or for an impact investor to “reinvest” social or environmental impacts into a new venture? I don’t have answers to these questions, but I’m hopeful impact investors and social entrepreneurs will helps find answers. Smart Lab, a Tanzania based company, has drawn a bit of attention recently. This company aims to assist developing start-ups to help them grow. Their CEO, Edwin Bruno, says "Smart Lab is an opportunity for the young talent in Tanzania who are building great products, but lack the financial resources and connections, to finally get their chance to shine. When we see a startup with great promise, we utilize our creative capital and business acumen to help grow their impact." Their website says, "At Smart Lab, we work with Africa-based companies + committed African entrepreneurs located anywhere in the world who are building innovative products impacting Africa for the better."
This company seems like it could be a very useful tool for start-ups or young companies. It would be interesting to see how people feel about using such a program for assistance, and perhaps what some of the downsides to consulting with this company could be. I have been following both Vijay Govindarajan and Muhammad Yunus for quite some time and I think their ideas marry nicely, with huge applications to our social entrepreneurship projects that we'll be taking on in the coming weeks. Let's start with some definitions:
At Weatherhead we espouse the strategic importance of applying design thinking to businesses. It allows us to discover a specific problem that people are living out, acknowledge constraints of the situation, and design a better future, sometimes from scratch. This inherently optimistic view is also seen at events like the Tanzania Social Entrepreneurship Forum, and the Scale Tanzania Forum. With such a buzz about social innovation already on the ground in Tanzania, I am excited to learn from all of the entrepreneurs that we encounter and hopefully apply some of the principles learned from Yunus and Govindarajan to contribute in some meaningful way. |
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