By Jessie Elisberg
This summer has been a busy and exciting time for me,
because in addition to the Laureate Global Fellowship, I get to work on
YouthActionNet’s efforts to adapt our model for local and regional institutes
in Sub-Saharan Africa. For years we have seen amazing Global Fellows coming
from a number of countries in the region, and we know there are so many other
young social innovators whose efforts to create real change we could support if
there were fellowship programs based in Africa.
At the end of August, I had the chance to spend some more time with a handful of fellows from the Laureate Global Fellowship program in Uganda. We got together over lunch with the team from MUBS to discuss the challenges and opportunities for young social entrepreneurs in Anglophone Africa, and brainstorm ideas for the new program based at MUBS.
Some of the challenges identified by the fellows were what you might expect to hear – difficulty with convincing people to support their ventures and spreading awareness of what they do, lack of funding opportunities – but some of the challenges these innovators face aren’t so predictable. For example, there is a major youth bias and hesitance to take seriously the efforts of people under 30, even more so if they aren’t married. Several of the fellows also indicated that government policies frequently hinder young entrepreneurs from starting their own ventures, whether they are for-profit companies or focused on a social mission.
Another common challenge encountered by social entrepreneurs
is balancing supply with demand while trying to manage community expectations.
Because they are working hard to address real issues, these young people are
often simultaneously praised for their leadership and efforts to serve
community needs while being criticized for not doing enough.
How wonderful that you’ve built a school for disadvantaged youth, now why isn’t there enough space for my child to enroll there?
You’re offering support groups and services for women in this village who have been affected by conflict, but why aren’t those services in my village?
It seems to me that
this is the double-edged sword of grassroots social entrepreneurship – the
opportunities for creating real and lasting change are boundless, but there is
always more that needs to be done.
The same thing can be said about YouthActionNet itself. Every day is bringing us closer to seeing the YouthActionNet community blossom in Africa, to seeing more and more young leaders benefit from what we offer. It’s so exciting to realize that by early 2014, we’ll have up to 70 new members of our global network of social entrepreneurs, all from Africa, but our work is far from done. What country will be next?
Be sure to join the YouthActionNet newsletter list to stay in the know!
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| Fellows from Uganda meet with the MUBS team |
Not only is this vision becoming a reality, but it’s
happening quickly! As I mentioned in an earlier
blog post, in partnership with USAID and The MasterCard Foundation, two new
regional institutes are joining the ranks of YouthActionNet membership. Synapse Center, based in Dakar, Senegal,
launched Innove4Africa
earlier this year, which will provide training, coaching, networking, and
support to young social entrepreneurs across Francophone Africa. The program
recently closed its application period and will be announcing its first class
of fellows later this year.
As Innove4Africa prepares to announce its first cohort, Makerere University Business School (MUBS) in
Kampala, Uganda is busily readying itself to open the application period for
the other new YouthActionNet regional institute, this one for Anglophone
Africa. This program brings together the Entrepreneurship Centre, Leadership
Centre, and ICT Centre at MUBS to provide training, coaching and advocacy to
young innovators from Anglophone countries in Africa.
At the same time, LEAP
Africa is readying to launch the Social Innovators Program and Awards, a
YouthActionNet institute that will offer training, advocacy, and network
support to strengthen the initiatives of young social innovators in Nigeria.
The first class of fellows will also be announced later this year!
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| Fellow Charles Batte and the village
library he is constructing in Katiiti Village, Mpigi District |
At the end of August, I had the chance to spend some more time with a handful of fellows from the Laureate Global Fellowship program in Uganda. We got together over lunch with the team from MUBS to discuss the challenges and opportunities for young social entrepreneurs in Anglophone Africa, and brainstorm ideas for the new program based at MUBS.
Some of the challenges identified by the fellows were what you might expect to hear – difficulty with convincing people to support their ventures and spreading awareness of what they do, lack of funding opportunities – but some of the challenges these innovators face aren’t so predictable. For example, there is a major youth bias and hesitance to take seriously the efforts of people under 30, even more so if they aren’t married. Several of the fellows also indicated that government policies frequently hinder young entrepreneurs from starting their own ventures, whether they are for-profit companies or focused on a social mission.
 | ||
| Excel Education Centre in Bwaise slum, Kampala, an initiative of Fellow Muhammed Kisirisa's organization AFFCAD. |
How wonderful that you’ve built a school for disadvantaged youth, now why isn’t there enough space for my child to enroll there?
You’re offering support groups and services for women in this village who have been affected by conflict, but why aren’t those services in my village?
 |
| Muhammed manages several different community programs, using educational slum tours for revenue generation. |
The same thing can be said about YouthActionNet itself. Every day is bringing us closer to seeing the YouthActionNet community blossom in Africa, to seeing more and more young leaders benefit from what we offer. It’s so exciting to realize that by early 2014, we’ll have up to 70 new members of our global network of social entrepreneurs, all from Africa, but our work is far from done. What country will be next?
Be sure to join the YouthActionNet newsletter list to stay in the know!
