Social Innovation
5 inspirational TED talks on African social entrepreneurship
The success of African businesses that are centered around the needs of the community are worth documenting and celebrating.
From re-defining the role of charity, digital innovation in Ghanaian churches to re-imagining the role of South African stokvels, these TED Talks shed light on how social entrepreneurship can change the face of the continent.
Change your channel | Mallence Bart-Williams | TEDxBerlinSalon
German-Sierra Leonean writer, film-maker and social entrepreneur Mallence Bart-Williams pursues creative solutions to Africa’s common problems like the street child phenomenon in her home country. She founded FOLORUNSHO, a ‘sharity’ that sees Sierra Leonean street kids working in conjunction with companies to produce sneakers and even a short movie. By partnering with, rather than providing aid to street kids Bart-Williams empowers them to change their circumstances. Using this mentality, she aims to re-define the relationship between Africa and the West. Highlighting how the continent is depended upon by the developed world, she believes that Africa should become a partner of, rather than a mere aid recipient, of Western countries.
The Big Lie of Small Business | Vusi Thembekwayo | TEDxUniversityofNamibia
Vusi Thembekwayo sees the growth of micro-businesses in Africa as an opportunity to uplift local communities. As CEO of My Growth Fund - a funding, incubation and enterprise development platform - Thembekwayo explores how traditional African business systems can thrive in the same way ‘big businesses’ do. By using Siyanqoba Stokvel - a collective savings society - as a departure point, he advocates seeing the stokvel model as a potential rival to the formal banking system that essentially operate with the same principles of collecting and investing money.
I got to witness the African startup revolution |Marcello Schermer | TEDxVienna
With entrepreneurial experience in over 17 African countries, Marcello Schermer has first hand insight into the continent’s comparative advantages. He sees the disruptive solutions courtesy of African startups as solving both local and global problems. Initiatives like that of a Ghanaian company introducing hi-tech solutions to the church, that allows the tracking of membership, improved communication and mobile payment of tithes are an example of this. With accounts such as these, Schermer relays how each African country offers its own surprises and how different industries are creating forward-thinking solutions rooted in their specific ecosystems. Through creative entrepreneurship that has society’s interests in mind, Schermer sees Africa as the future of the world.
The future is social entrepreneurship | Kerryn Krige | TEDxJohannesburgSalon
As head of the Network for Social Entrepreneurs at the Gordon Institute of Business Science, Kerryn Krige focuses on achieving social and economic change through social enterprise. Her notion of introducing profit as a driving factor in why businesses are supported offers a startling look into community enterprise. Krige contends that social entrepreneurship thrives because it operates in areas where traditional businesses see challenges and not opportunities. By citing the example of the insurance industry beginning through the clergy, Krige argues that social enterprise should be at the center of Africa’s accelerated growth.
Commodifying the African experience | Velani Mboweni | TEDxYouth@CapeTown
Velani Mboweni is co-founder of Phambili Mzansi, a social venture created to connect young and old with a network and resources to help solve Africa’s pertinent issues. With interests in healthcare, education, technology and social entrepreneurship; Mboweni seeks to find African ways to solve Africa’s unique challenges and export these ideas to the world. The notion of the African experience being valuable is at the center of his outlook. Citing the founder of Rethink Education Doug Hoernle’s micro distribution of learning materials amongst his peers, Mboweni shows how the commodification of a specific experience (or lack thereof) is exchangeable for the attention of companies and brands.