Africa : Serving others to change the world – By Myriam Ouedraogo

Africa : In today’s globalized world

Africa is the only continent to face urgent social and economic issues despite the fact that some countries have seen their growth rate increase. This growth is not easily sustained and a large part of the population does not benefit from it. A very small percentage of the population is considered to belong to the middle or high class.

The continent is home to the world’s youngest population with 70% of sub-Saharan Africa under 30. There is no doubt that the youth is Africa’s greatest asset. Yet, poverty fosters issues like lack of education for this youth and especially girls, health issues for infants, unemployment…
The concepts of social innovation and social entrepreneurship offer insight into the possible solutions to increase and sustain the growth in African nations.

“In simple terms, social innovation consists in the creation of new products/services/process with the only purpose to tackle social issues and meet urgent social needs not well handle by governments, corporations and/or global organisations. Often made by social entrepreneurs, The first motivation is to bring innovative and/or out-of-the-box solutions to pressing social needs”.

Despite the social motivation, the word “entrepreneurship” reflects the will to create, develop and manage a business in order to generate profit. In this sense, all entrepreneurial initiatives should be reflected in the overall economic health of a country.

It is Myriam’s belief that entrepreneurship is an efficient way to develop the economy of African nations. It starts with tackling new markets, especially those at the bottom of the pyramid. These markets are usually untapped by big corporations who do not see in them a strategic advantage to maximize their profit since the people at this stage are defined as poor.

In the particular case of social entrepreneurship, answering social needs help unlock features for economic development that can be expended regionally or nationally. It is also important to highlight the importance of the business model of the social enterprise that needs to consider the economic outcomes first to remain financially sustainable and then to open more development opportunities.

Entrepreneurs need to keep in mind the core definition of entrepreneurship and think like big corporations in order to promote economic development through social innovation. Indeed, most social enterprises tend to despise growth at a certain level.

There is a fear among social entrepreneurs toward profit generation in the sense that it might alienate the social purpose of the enterprise. The difficulty of expansion and creation of new businesses due to government and banking regulation and the lack of reforms is certainly a great pain point.

Nevertheless, more and more people take the road of social entrepreneurship, which denotes a big motivation to see real economic and social changes in Africa and alleviate poverty.

If this assessment is true for African nations, it is also true for developed countries. Social entrepreneurship is a way of serving others without shying away from capitalism and profit generation. Truth be told, one need fund to achieve and implement social change on a larger scale.

So why not go for it?

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If you would like to read the original article: By Myriam Ouedraogo