I. Introduction

With social business models that are designed around impact creation and financial sustainability, social enterprises have been hailed as being particularly durable organizations. As such, they carry the potential of being providers of decent employment opportunities in areas that are often neglected by traditional commercial market players. However, knowledge about the actual job creation potential of social enterprises in Africa – and elsewhere in the world – remains very fragmented.

Commissioned by the Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), Siemens Stiftung has approached the task of identifying job creating as well as job inhibiting factors for social enterprises working in different

country contexts. Overall, the results were used to derive specific recommendations for the development of technical and financial interventions that may significantly increase the number and the quality of jobs created by social enterprises in Africa.

This document features elaborated case studies of five social enterprises: MeshPower (Rwanda), Sesi Technologies (Ghana), Tebita Ambulance Prehospital Emergency Medical Services (Ethiopia), TakaTaka Solutions (Kenya) and WASHKing (Ghana). Together, the case studies belong to the database of the study “Social Enterprises as Job Creators in Africa”, which has been published as a trilogy:

We hope the case studies can inform players who seek detailed information about social enterprises, such as analysts, researchers, potential investors and local organizations or other stakeholders whose mission is related to the creation of decent jobs in Africa. For an embedded perspective on the case studies as part of the larger study, please refer to the main document (Part I).