Quick snippets from our morning read on Wednesday, 24th March 2021
Today’s morning read is an examination of social-entrepreneurship in Africa. A reality Check; 5 things we are not yet getting quite right
1. LET’S NOT OVER-RATE SOCIAL BUSINESS IN AFRICA
When jumping on the bandwagon and creating a buzz on social entrepreneurship, actors risk to forget to go through a careful iteration and adaptation phase of the concept in concerned societies.
One example is that many African entrepreneurs now claim being “social”, because they are creating jobs and serve people by increasing incomes which makes them pay for their basic needs. However, this might actually rather be creating positive externalities, which is a different kind of impact we must understand and define when talking about social business in Africa.
All this shows is that the “social” and “the business” mean different things in West-Africa than they do in Europe or America — so perhaps “social business” must, too !
2. DONT FORGET THE BARRIER TO ENTRY FOR (SOCIAL)ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Trying new things, being innovative and thus taking risks has a very high barrier to entry in poor countries. Even though slowly changing, as of today, few youngsters in francophone Africa want to be entrepreneurs, because it is perceived as too risky. And yes, in societies without social safety nets, the “risk of being an entrepreneur” in the west is not even remotely comparable to what that means for entrepreneurs in societies without social security.
If you fail, there is no security to help you recover. There is your family, but its means are limited and the shame and guilt of driving your family into even deeper poverty is far too great to imagine.
So, let’s not take it lightly: people wanting to build innovative entreprises in Africa are risk-takers — People wanting to build innovativesocial enterprises in Africa are pioneers !
3. PUTTING THINGS INTO PERSPECTIVE
Although supporting these pioneers called social entrepreneurs is clearly one important part of building sustainable solutions to social and environmental problems, it is not a realistic path for the 99% of the population. This kind of entrepreneurship might even exclude them from contributing to development, as it confronts them with an unfamiliar, new kind of entrepreneurship and mindset.
So let’s be careful not to preach social entrepreneurship to every actor of society before even having a clear definition of what it means in the local context. Rather, it should be driven by the few local pioneers that slowly adapt it to local contexts.
4. PROOF TO PEOPLE THAT THEY CAN MAKE MORE MONEY FOR GOOD WITHOUT TELLING THEM THEY NEED TO DO GOOD
SOCIAL is very linked to “free” and “charity” . Speaking about social in relation to business often leads to confusion and a lack of acceptance in the entrepreneurship world.
Most of the aspiring entrepreneurs i meet in Africa focus on industries that add to the top % of the pyramid instead of adding value at the bottom by resolving the most pressing issues.
So we should rather focus on how to show the economic value of environmentally and socially relevant sectors. For example that producing LED lightbulbs locally will bring you more money than running an events agency.
Sometimes, there is no need to speak about “social” to encourage business that solves a social issue.
5. LETS THINK OF WHAT SOCIAL BUSINESS EMBODIES MORE BROADLY
So, no matter how much we love social business, lets keep in mind that the pathway to promote a new way of thinking or doing is hardly ever direct. Promoting social business means more than making everyone become a social business entrepreneur, it means understanding and adapting to local notions and constraints of the concept.
And it means thinking outside of the box by seeing more than just the mere business activity of social entrepreneurship:
Collaboration and Creativity are the very basics of social business and social innovation — promoting and engaging people around these concepts will ease the path and make social business an accessible tool for all of society
This is what we are up to with MAKESENSE to enable any actor in society to become a social innovator or entrepreneur — at their pace and their level !
You can read the full article here.
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