Social Innovation In Africa

A practical guide for scaling impact

Ndidi Okonkwo Nwuneli

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN: 9781138182806
• eBook ISBN: 9781317294276
• Topic: Economics
• Subtopic: Development Economics
• Index: Economics

Encouraged by the emergence and early impact of social innovators on the African Continent, but frustrated by the slow pace of large scale change, this book is focused on filling the knowledge gap for those tackling Africa's serious social problems.

It lays out the required building blocks for achieving scale at impact. By creating clear mission, vision, and values statements and piloting and rolling out business models that are demand-driven, simple, and low-cost, with compelling measurement and evaluation tools that leverage technology. It also explores the steps for attracting and retaining talent and financing and forming strategic partnerships with the private, public and non-profit sectors to foster scaling. Practical case studies provide inspiration for those who seek to become innovators or to be employed by them.

Finally, it outlines the crucial steps for key stakeholders to take in order to support the emergence of more social innovators on the African continent, create an enabling environment for the scaling of high-impact initiatives and advance collective efforts to build stronger communities for current and future generations.

This is a practical and inspirational guide for all entrepreneurs and individuals that seek to combine business and social goals and for those in the public, private and non-profit sectors that aim to foster and support these projects.

1	Vision for scale

Scaling solutions to the world’s social and economic problems is already astonishingly difficult. Yet nonprofits, funders, and social ventures make it even harder by falling prey to stifling incrementalism, where ‘success’ is measured just a few marginal increments from the status quo—often still light years from really solving our problems. This positioning quashes real innovation by never aiming high enough and ultimately leads to rationalized mediocrity. We set the bar lower and lower because the problems are hard, and we often declare success despite the fact that our impact is embarrassingly small compared to the size of the problems we are trying to solve.¹

(Ben Mangan, a social entrepreneur, Executive Director of the Center
for Social Sector Leadership and Lecturer at Haas Berkeley)

Introduction

In the development landscape, the concept of ‘small is beautiful’ has often been held up as the ideal. Clearly, Africa’s future cannot be hinged on this premise as there is a real sense of urgency for change, driven by demographic, environmental and social trends. How can this continent possibly feed, educate, house, and provide health care, energy, sanitation and transportation for 2.4 billion people by 2050, when it struggles to meet the needs of 900 million people today? Indeed, the depth and breadth of the needs in Sub-Saharan Africa deserve bold attempts at scaling what works.

This chapter lays out the critical building blocks for scaling which are universal but amplified by the examples of social innovators on the continent. Their experiences reinforce that social innovators clearly need to define their vision for social change and outline what success looks like. This vision has to be anchored in a clear mission and values which set the boundaries required for focus and intensity. The structure of the intervention and the selected pathways for scale provide the medium through which the social innovator builds a compelling business model, a clear talent and financing strategy and identifies strategic partnerships to enable scaling.

Figure 1.1 Building blocks for scaling social innovation

Source: Developed by Ndidi Okonkwo Nwuneli.

This chapter focuses on the vision, mission, values, structure and path ways for scaling, leveraging examples from the African context. Subsequent chapters focus on the other components of the model.

Mission, values and vision

As social innovators work diligently to pilot, roll-out and scale impact, one of the easiest traps that many fall into, especially in the African context, is the loss of focus. This is often driven by two issues. First, the more one delves into a social problem, the more needs he or she discovers. The depth and breadth of social problems often overwhelms the innovator. Focusing on a predefined set of needs requires discipline.

Consider the innovations identified by the Innovation Countdown 2030 in their publication titled, ‘Reimagining global health: 30 high-impact innovations to save lives.’² The list of interventions includes the uterine balloon tamponade – a low-cost kit to manage postpartum hemorrhage, which could potentially save 169,000 lives for $29 million. Another innovation is the use of chlorhexidine for umbilical cord care, which can save over 1 million babies for $81 million. There is also the portable Phone Oximeter which improves pneumonia detection and can save 772,000 children for $101 million. These interventions look very promising and the innovations linked to the largest numbers to be saved look even more attractive. Which intervention would you focus on if you were a social innovator working to save lives especially in the area of maternal and infant health? There is clearly a temptation to work on all innovations.

Second, many credible social entrepreneurs face intense funding challenges and pressure from society which compels them to tackle more social problems than they can adequately handle. It is not uncommon to find nonprofit organizations that offer school to work and microfinance and HIV/AIDs programs, all under the same roof, simply because a funder has offered to support such projects. Sadly, many of these social enterprises quickly become a ‘jack of all trades’ and are unable to achieve any measure of excellence in their social interventions. In addition, they gradually drift from their social change agenda and eventually become contractors or program implementers for funders and other stakeholders.

A critical first step to staying focused, especially in the early days of implementing and scaling a social innovation, is to develop clear mission, values and vision statements. These terms are often confused with each other and many organizations use them interchangeably or even merge them. However, it is important to understand that each term is different and important.

• A mission statement expresses the core purpose of an entity, clearly stating why it exists and setting clear boundaries around its key activities.

• Values define the enduring character of the entity, outlining key principles that are critical to the organization’s existence, which it is unwilling to compromise.

• A vision statement provides a glimpse of success – the future desired state of achievement that the innovator and his or her team are working to achieve.

For example, South Africa’s Ikamva Youth’s³ mission is to enable disadvantaged youth to pull themselves and each other out of poverty and into tertiary education and/or employment.

Its five explicitly stated values are:

• a culture of responsibility for self and others

• collaboration and peer-to-peer support

• commitment to impact through democratic processes

• integrity and openness

• paying-it-forward.

Its vision statement states – ‘Our culture of responsibility is creating a ripple effect of thriving individuals and communities. Our intergenerational ikamvanites provide access to quality education in inspirational spaces everywhere. We are an integrated network driving change by paying it forward.’

These three statements guide every aspect of Ikamva Youth’s operations and keep the team focused. For example, the explicitly stated value – ‘paying-it-forward’ is an integral component of Ikamva’s business model. According to Joy Olivier, the co-founder and director of the organization, ‘Learners who benefit from the program become tutors and some even become employees of Ikamva.’

East Africa’s One Acre Fund⁴ has defined its purpose as follows: ‘We serve small-scale farmers. In everything we do, we place the farmer first. We measure success in our ability to make more farmers more prosperous.’

Its six values:

• Humble service: we meet farmers in their fields, and we get our shoes muddy. Farmers are our customers, and we serve them with humility.

• Hard work: we work hard every day. We execute with world-class professionalism and business excellence. Farmers de...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• List of illustrations
• Acknowledgements
• Foreword
• Introduction
• 1 Vision for scale
• 2 Sustainable business models that scale
• 3 Talent for scaling
• 4 Financing scaling
• 5 Partnerships for scaling
• 6 Supporting scaling: the roles of key stakeholders
• 7 Looking to the future for social innovators
• Appendices
• References
• Index