Posted on May 15th, 2007 by Author Goldstuck at www.thebigchange.com

South Africa’s socio-economic challenges can be addressed far more quickly if poverty alleviation becomes a business development task shared between the private sector, local governments and local entrepreneurs.

That’s the bold prediction of social entrepreneur Lee Elliott, whose innovative model of for-profit social upliftment is rapidly grabbing the attention of some of South Africa’s most progressive companies, including the African Bank.

Elliott is the MD of Shujaa Holdings, whose Sustainable Economic and Environmental Development (SEED) methodology framework is starting to catalyse poor and disadvantaged communities across the country into prosperity using its unique integrated development system (IDS).

Announcing SEED’s sponsorship of innovationTOWN, an initiative that seeks to change the way South Africans think about innovation, Elliott said innovation is the key to addressing the socio-economic challenges faced by South Africa and Africa. “There’s an immensely compelling business opportunity in our poorest communities,” said Elliott. “By working together with communities to introduce sustainable upliftment programmes, South African companies can ease poverty, create jobs and earn BEE points – while boosting their bottom lines.”

Elliott says SEED’s involvement with innovationTOWN, as headline sponsor, is a natural extension of its innovative and life-changing activities across South Africa and the continent.

“Our model provides a new growth opportunity for the private sector and a forum for innovations. Old and tired solutions cannot work at this level.”

SEED’s IDS has several characteristics, the first of which is to cause disruptive change in the community it is operating in to create momentum for positive change and movement. It then makes interventions in specific areas like economic development, communication, the youth, leadership, technology and personal development.

There is a strong focus on developing the youth as strong spiritual, business and community leaders, with young people owning and running the majority of the Shujaa companies. As Elliott points out, if a new business venture in a community employs 100 people, those 100 people now have more disposable income, which means more products and services are needed to satisfy them. The more products and services are available, the more money cycles through the community, and the more people have an income in what she calls “a glorious cycle of abundance.”

“Innovation is something everyone is born with – but people don’t know how to tap into it. We in South Africa and Africa must find and nurture our innovation heroes who are changing and uplifting this country and continent,” said Elliott.

A previous innovation award winner, Uniep, addresses poverty and unemployment in the Uniondale area by intermeshing a number of projects to create a sustainable micro-economy within this impoverished area. Formerly unemployed women have created small business that supplies food to destitute members of the community and other community support groups, such as community carers (also unemployed women).

They use fresh produce from community gardens, once again run by previously unemployed women, while more unemployed people produce furniture. More than 400 people and their families have benefited.

CIDA City Campus and innovationTOWN co-founder Dr Taddy Blecher says entrepreneurial solutions such as these place a minimal financial burden on the regions in which they occur. “Africa is bubbling over with innovation. If we can just recognise and nurture it, we would be a far more prosperous and balanced country and continent.”

innovationTOWN is a national campaign to champion innovation as part of a 2010 initiative to recreate South Africa as an innovative country. innovationTOWN seeks to promote innovation as a solution oriented attitude that can be harnessed to help alleviate the social and economic challenges that face South Africa.

Elements of the campaign include the iHERO Awards that finds and rewards innovators; an education initiative; a programme that seeks to match innovators with investors; an innovation faire that exhibits award-winning innovations; a photo and narrative exhibition on innovation; and a national advertising and publicity initiative aimed at putting innovation back on the local agenda.

innovationTOWN is co-founded by CIDA City Campus, Axius Publishing , SoulCircle and the CIDA Investment Trust , to help reposition South Africa as an innovative country by teaching people that innovation is more than a product or a process, but a ‘can do’ approach that helps build a better world.

innovationTOWN is sponsored by Shujaa Holdings and the Sustainable Economic and Environmental Development (SEED) framework, as well as African Bank, South African Post Office and the Branson School of Entrepreneurship. Other supporters include Sci-Bono Discovery Centre in New Town, Brand South Africa, TBM, The Gordon Institute of Business Science, DSG and Media Tenor. At the heart of the campaign is the iHERO Awards, the awards programme of innovationTOWN which identifies and rewards innovations and innovators who are making a positive contribution to South Africa. A

(For more information, visit the innovationTOWN web site)

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A while ago while researching e-learning and related subjects I came across the One Laptop Per Child project. It’s a brave initiative which, though it inspired me I struggled to conceptualize the realization of the goal. Their stated goal is:

“It’s an education project, not a laptop project.”— Nicholas Negroponte

Our goal: To provide children around the world with new opportunities to explore, experiment and express themselves.

I’m still a bit skeptical on how to achieve such a high goal with so many efforts being made to inject positive influence into society being brushed aside or merely given lip service by governments and other key figures. Because this project aligns very well with my vision for The One Project I’ve started thinking how we could get a few prominent local players involved in getting OLPC going in SA. Thinking positively and proactively is the only way to get anywhere when it comes to endeavours of this nature and though the odds are stacked heavily against it any Noble endeavour is worth some effort.
It was a recent post(Most Governments won’t buy OLPC - will you?) I came across which got me thinking about this seriously. If governments who had promised participation and support for this project are not keeping their promises, as governments usually do, what can we do as ordinary citizens to make a difference and get this project out in the open.

The OLPC organisation has provided us with an option which seems a little more attractive to those willing or able to part with a few bucks. Get one give one is what they’re calling it and it allows you to buy 2 of these laptops, one for your child and one for another child who is much more in need of it at the cost of $399.

If we look at what some parents spend on playstations, mobile phones, iPods & the like for their kids then the price tag should be nothing to blink at at least that’s if you are by the means.

It seems there has been a little activity surrounding the OLPC project in South Africa and Nigeria in this interview with RUSSELL SOUTHWOOD of Balancingact-Africa. How do you think we can get this project on the go in South Africa and start empowering our children towards a brighter futures?

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It strikes me that we are at present a country desperately in need of its national identity. During apartheid, South Africa was defined as such. Then came the “miracle years” of Madiba and 1994, and the next decade we held a national identity of the celebratory freedom of the rainbow nation. But this period is largely over. The populace’s rose-tinted tolerance has given way to a harder realism around service delivery, security and cleaner governance. The world’s interest in the Madiba years has waned, and South Africa sits with the broader challenge to develop a longer-term identity.

Now, this is naturally not something that can just be created; a national identity stems from much internal debate, challenges to the status quo and a collective understanding of what holds us together as a nation. South Africa is in the throes of debate at the moment; debate about the right governance path, debate about what our collective morals are, debate about the capitalist/socialist mix and debate about what makes us African. All of these factors make up our national identity, and this is a process that we must go through, lest we flounder in national division rather than national unity.

We’re only at the beginning of this journey now, but it has never been as important. Our national identity is a set of guidelines, like a company philosophy that guides management decision-making. The United States’s national identity is centred on individuality, opportunity and equality. On what should our national identity be centred?

Well, our strengths should filter out of what was so hard-fought during the struggle: tolerance, equality and the principles of ubuntu. For me, the principle of hope should also be part of our make-up, both as a beacon of hope for oppressed peoples of the world and as a beacon of hope of what can be achieved on the African continent.

On those principles alone, one can see that our current leadership structures, from municipalities to the Union Buildings, are not answering the brief. Tolerance of debate and opposing viewpoints is not robust enough. Neither is equality, both in class structures and in access to opportunity. Ubuntu is such a noble premise and South Africa could do with more of it in spades. Collectively, these threaten to dampen some people’s vision of hope.

Whatever the outcome, it is critical that we as South Africa’s people, from the street-sweeper to the captain of industry, enter this debate and add our perspective. South Africa needs a new national identity, a guideline for a new moral, social and governance platform to take us forward for another half-century. What’s important to you? What would you add to Project South Africa?

This entry was posted by Jonty Fisher on www.thoughtleader.co.za on Monday, October 29th, 2007 at 10:04 am and is filed under Perspective, News & Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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