Be the change you want to see : or how to empower African businesses to succeed

Last week, the annual  African Enterprise Challenge Fund conference took place in Nairobi. It was an amazing conference bringing together social entrepreneurs from the whole continent to share their experiences and learn from each other.

Often those events have a huge registration fee, and i always wonder how social entrepreneurs who use all their small money to make the change they want to see happen spend 600 usd to attend a 2 day luxury event. So when you go to these events, you meet a lot of "wannabe save the world" people, who talk a lot but there is nothing behind.

AECF conference was different, not only i was allowed to participate for free, but even my parking fee was covered (the organizer were extremely generous as interested people could just register and join). People who joined the conference all where running businesses with their ups and downs or were investors in such ventures. For me, with my emerging poultry enterprise, it was mainly a space to learn, to understand new trends, and discover that my philosophy is part of a bigger movement. 

I learnt so many things, from contract framing, to poultry and investment strategy, which cannot fit in one blog post only. So let me start a new series under the label AECF on this blog, and take you through each of the lessons learned in small steps.

For today, the first lesson is about what AECF is. I discovered that this is a fund that allows start-up with disruptive ideas in agribusiness to get funded. It is a fund that does not help poor people with hand outs or any NGO, it just support enterprise who have the potential to bring a change to the poor in a business environment.
  
The ​​African ​​Enterprise ​​ Challenge ​​Fund ​​(AECF) ​​is ​​a ​​US$250m  ​​challenge ​​fund ​​for ​​agribusiness ​​in ​​Africa, ​​established ​​ in ​​2008. ​​AECF ​​provides ​​support ​​to ​​the ​​private ​​sector ​​for ​​new ​​and ​​ innovative ​​business ​​ideas ​​in ​​agribusiness, ​​rural ​​financial ​ ​services ​​and ​​renewable ​​energy/adaptation ​​to ​​climate ​​change  ​​that ​​will ​​benefit ​​Africa’s ​​small ​​farmers ​​and ​​rural ​​ households.
AECF is supported by ​some ​of ​the ​biggest ​names ​in ​development ​finance ​and ​hosted ​ by ​the ​Alliance ​for ​a ​Green ​Revolution ​in ​Africa ​(AGRA). The aim of AECF is ​to ​encourage ​private ​sector ​companies ​to ​compete ​for ​ investment ​support ​for ​their ​new ​and ​innovative ​business ​ ideas. AECF ​provides ​the ​minimum ​amount ​of ​concessionary ​finance  ​to ​make ​business ​ideas ​happen ​that ​otherwise ​would ​not. 
AECF funds ​innovative ​business ​ideas ​in ​agri-business, ​rural ​ financial ​services, ​renewable ​energy ​and ​technologies ​to ​assist ​ small ​farmers ​to ​adapt ​to ​climate ​change. (Taken from here)



It is a fund in which big donors make finances available for businesses, and it is managed by a committee chaired by Prof. Rudy Rabbinge, who I came already accross during my PhD time at Wageningen University, reminding me how small the world can be.

On Friday night I left the conference with the conviction that AECF is  one of these unique schemes that does things right : helping people to invest into their innovative ideas to lift smallholders out of poverty with their own means and let the market decide what works and what not. Isn't that how aid should be?

Is social entrepreneurship a model for agri-business?

No later than yesterday night i had a long debate with the co-founder of Jolly Poultry about what social entrepreneurship is, and what it would mean for an agri-business like us to be a social entrepreneur.

Are we supporting the poor to produce poultry? to consume poultry? what has potential to scale? Where is the entry point? and how do we disrupt the existing system to leverage the poor, the young people and women?

So i found today this video, showing what a social enterprise is :



The video does not say much about farming and agri-business : there are still plenty of opportunities! What do you think are criteria for making our poultry agri-business a social enterprise?

Want to help someone? Shut up and listen!

An inspiring talk to start this new week!

social entrepreurship : or what goes wrong with chartity?

Recently i have reported from a group of young people that started a social enterprise, named inside travel, that tires to offer authentic travels to Ethiopia and offer new tourism market opportunities to rural communities.

I have been thinking about how to support these communities to build up an institution/structure so that they  build a benefit sharing mechanism allowing the community as a whole to benefit from tourism, rather than just a few, splinting the community in to rich and even more poor. My first over the thumb computation showed that we would need about 100 000 USD in 5 years to make this happen. The dramatic part of this story is that not one dollar would go to the community. It is just about helping them with building up an institution that will enable them to raise money from markets when ever after and develop themselves out of their own effort... sounds like a very smart and sustainable idea, but who will be willing to fund a project where no money flows to the community? Who is willing to take the risk to fund a project that might fail?

But in the middle of these thoughts, I found this TED talk. Dan Palotta, talks out of my heart, showing what goes wrong in funding aid.



"Activist and fundraiser Dan Pallotta calls out the double standard that drives our broken relationship to charities. Too many nonprofits, he says, are rewarded for how little they spend -- not for what they get done. Instead of equating frugality with morality, he asks us to start rewarding charities for their big goals and big accomplishments (even if that comes with big expenses). In this bold talk, he says: Let's change the way we think about changing the world."