N’Gunu Tiny, Founder and Executive Chairman of the Emerald Group is an expert in Transformative Technology and Social Innovation.
The population of Africa is set to increase to 2.4 billion over the next 30 years. And across a continent that is finding itself after decades of uneven economic growth, there is an urgent need for social innovation.
There are persistent and systemic problems across Africa in sectors ranging from healthcare to digitisation and housing to employment. Most African countries are now officially democratic and there has been substantial lessening of cross-border problems.
Why social innovation in Africa is more important than ever
Life expectancy is rising, more than 70% of children are in formal education and the average economic growth rate pre-pandemic is around 5%. The social, education and healthcare improvements in Africa can be linked to businesses, corporations and individuals who are working as social innovators.
These innovative problem-solvers work across the non-profit, private and public sectors. And while many of them concentrate specifically on energy, sustainability, health and education there are many emerging across agriculture and financial services too.
Digitisation and transformative technology is propelling social innovation across Africa. During the last few years there have been huge strides in mobile technology and accessibility, which allows so many advances that address these social issues. From mobile payment systems to mobile health and education, these initiatives are tackling problems in a way that just hasn’t been possible until now.
Social enterprises in Africa that are well known and popular include:
- The African Leadership Academy.
- African Leadership University.
- Ashesi University.
- One Acre Fund.
- Bridge International Academies.
Many of these enterprises are supported by the international community, with fundraising and awards boosting their efforts. However, away from the globally recognised and supported initiatives listed above, there are many much smaller home-grown initiatives making strides across the continent.
What kind of challenges are faced by social innovators in Africa?
Social innovators in any country face many challenges. And while in Africa, the challenges are not different they tend to be more severe. Examples of the types of challenges in Africa are:
- Lack of verifiable data
There is a severe lack of high-quality, credible and verifiable data for all of the regions, local communities and countries. This obviously makes progress much slower when it comes to planning, launching and testing social innovations. Key stakeholders have a much harder job than in other countries that have high levels of data available to them.
- The vast diversity across African countries
Due to the complex colonial history of Africa, the countries within the continent offer a significant diversity in religions, culture, language, history, social development and assets. There is no single strand story for Africa’s legacy. This means that any social innovations must be changed to fit the specific country or region in order to scale up. This makes the process much slower and more expensive.
- Fragmented sectors
Everything from education and health to agriculture and small businesses is heavily fragmented across the continent. Again, this hinders the progress of social innovators who are always trying to improve something for a vast number of people. For example, in the African agricultural sector, 85% of arable land is cultivated by extremely small level farmers. Any attempt to scale this sector must therefore find a way to work with many farmers are once, rather than the individuals. In these circumstances, social innovators must create groups or clusters of farmers (or any other sector worker) before they can begin. This takes a long time and a lot of money.
- Infrastructure and financing gaps
There are significant gaps within finance, infrastructure and education which slow scaling. This makes it far more expensive and difficult for social innovators to extend and implement healthcare, agriculture and healthcare. Social innovators are forced to work across every single step of the value chain and fill in major gaps that in developed countries would already exist.
How can social innovators succeed in Africa?
Any social innovator must invest in certain steps towards success. These are the same kinds of building blocks that lead to a successful business, including clear values, vision statement and overall missions.
For social innovators in Africa, there are also specifics that must be covered:
- A solid business model
Successful social innovators know that their business model must be compelling. They should be defined by the demand for their social innovation solution. They must also be measurable, simple to understand and implement, properly engage the community, leverage the most appropriate technology and remain at the lowest possible cost. Without these, it’s all too easy for the initiative to fail during its pilot phase or when the first round of funding runs out. An example of a sustainable social innovation business model that is driven by demand can be seen with Off Grid Electric. Operating in East Africa, this initiative provides solar energy to more than half a million households.
- Accessing talent
The under-developed education system across the continent leads to a constant lack of available talent across all growth sectors. Traditionally, those that access education and do well tend to leave the continent for global opportunities. This means that every social innovator must understand the need to finance, support and retain a team of talented people from the local community. This means investing in recruitment, volunteers, consultants and many more. For example, EDUCATE! in Uganda has successfully implemented ways to attract, develop and retain talent by investing in education and a culture of excellence.
- Accessing funding
Social innovators in Africa have a range of financing options that depend on whether they are non-profit or for profit. These range from grants, challenge funds, crowdfunding, impact investing and loans. Despite this wide range of options, many social innovators at local levels struggle to get the funding they need. External investors tend to want to engage with fully established organisations that come complete with Government support, financial management systems and regulatory systems.
- Creating partnerships across different sectors
It’s not possible for social innovators to make an impact or scale their solution without key partnerships. These must be with stakeholders across private, public and non-profit sectors. This is particularly relevant in sectors that have complex and established regulations, such as education and health. Partnerships are arguably more difficult to find and implement in Africa than in other countries. This is due to perceptions of mistrust and high levels of red tape. Successful social innovators develop their own strategies for engaging with like-minded groups and stakeholders.
What is the future of social innovation in Africa?
There is an urgent need for social innovation across the continent. The population is growing, life expectancy increasing and urbanisation increasing too. The continent needs more social innovators that can operate at the necessary scale. They will need to develop innovative solutions across healthcare, education, infrastructure, sanitation, education, electricity, digitisation, transportation and housing.
To make this happen, social innovation must incorporate critical management and leaderships skills and a strong network of stakeholders to beat the obstacles in their path. This is what will transform Africa and solve the systemic problems that stop it from reaching its true potential.