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EDITOR'S NOTE 03
IMPACT INVESTING 05
RESPONSIBLE BUSINESS, WITH E-LAB FOUNDER ALEX MATIVO 08
REAL IMPACT WITH OCTOPIZZO 14
Contents VENTURE PHILANTHROPY 21
THE SHARED ECONOMY- AN AFRICAN PERSPECTIVE 21
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Editor’s Note Hello & Welcome to White Collar! Charles Caleb Colton once said “If universal charity prevails, earth would be a heaven, and hell a fable.” As philanthropy gets more specialized we’re beginning to feel the impact in a whole new scale. For instance, the Bill & Melinda gates foundation played a huge role in the eradication of polio in India, and have now focused their attention on the eradication of Malaria. In this issue we look at what giving back means to different people and the different ways we try to create a better world for each other. We also examine the latest trends in philanthropy and how people are managing to build businesses around providing services that are friendly to the environment and the fellow man. We hope to nudge our readers towards adopting environmental friendly lifestyles and show value in us looking after each other. We discuss impact investing as a robust and profitable alternative to traditional investing. A way to ‘save the world’ while generating great returns on investment, at the same time. We love hearing back from you guys. Do not hesitate to reach out to us across out social platforms.
Contributors:
Michael Kiruthi, Esq Daniel Kathare Kyama Kivuva
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Kyama Kivuva
ManuKyama
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I
mpact investing is quickly catching on among funds worldwide. It is a fairly new practice that is built around a commitment to measure social and environmental performance, with the same rigor as that applied to financial performance.
This industry is still quite young. Just how young? Well, the term ‘impact investing’ emerged around 2007 and the funds that took on this challenge defined it as “investments made into companies, organizations, and funds with the intention to generate a measurable, beneficial social or environmental impact alongside a financial return.”
Some funds occasionally dip a toe in the shallow end impact investing for good publicity, but a few have decided to focus a majority of their resources, if not all, on impact investing. A good example of a fully committed fund is Generation Investment Management, which is run by former Vice President of the United States and avid environmentalist Al Gore. One of his favourite slogans is “sustainability is history’s biggest investment opportunity”. As time goes on the industry is attempting to create a standard that will be used to define what a ‘socially responsible’ company is. Currently,
companies that pass for socially responsible have a measure/rating called the Environmental, Social and Governance rating (ESG). An ESG rating is only awarded after looking at the policies and practices of the businesses and concluding that the business is making an effort to go green in one way or the other. A good example of how some companies achieve an ESG rating is when they use solar or wind energy to power their business. There are many ways a company could achieve this rating depending on how creative they are willing to get with their policies and practices. Many companies are figuring out how to bend the rules in order to get more ‘impact investing’ capital.
IMPACT INVESTING Investments to create a better future
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If you happen to look through some of these ESG portfolios with a fine tooth comb you would find a few oil and gas companies or even a random tech company. For example Facebook has recently made it onto ESG portfolios because their data centres are powered by renewable energy. This is a tremendous effort on facebook’s side, but in a way it defeats the purpose behind impact investing. The meaning of term ‘socially responsible’ is difficult to pin down so a lot of companies can get away with calling themselves that. However the tide is slowly changing.
To define what socially responsible means, the industry is beginning to look at companies through the lens of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
I mean renewable energy is always a plus but how does the core business of the company impact the sustainable development goals?
The Sustainable Development Goals are 17 goals established and agreed on by 193 world leaders to be the most important challenges that we’re facing as a planet.
There are a few legitimate ESG businesses out there that can hold their own weight when it comes to the Sustainable development goals. A good example of one of these companies is Mohawk Industries, a company that takes plastic waste and turns it into carpets or E-lab, a company that turns waste from electric gadgets into works of art.
Having the SDGs are a stable reference point, we can begin to ask the difficult questions like: Is a company that has 98% of its total revenue generated from advertising, really socially responsible?
Chamath Palihapitiya “There is this whole debate about climate change, on whether it exists or not. But what we know for sure is that we are ripping apart the biodiversity of our planet… what’s undeniable is that the human population will be forced to concentrate because certain parts of the world will be subsumed by water. Also keep in mind that we don’t have any sustainable food supply."
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Using the SDGs as a reference point you can begin to anticipate certain trends in policy that favour different kinds of businesses. For example, in response to SDG 3 (good health and well-being) and 7 (affordable and clean energy), some countries are banning Internal Combustion Engines (ICE) that most cars use. This might put electric vehicle manufacturers at an advantage in the long term.
Does impact investing have the same results at traditional investing? This is the question that makes the biggest difference because despite supporting a good cause most investors seem to be keener on ROI (Return on Investment). There have been a number of studies around this question and to properly answer it we need to first look at how performance is measured in traditional investing. A stock index or stock market index is a measurement of a section of the stock market. It is computed from the prices of selected stocks (typically a weighted average of the stocks grouped together for a given reason). It is a tool used by
investors and financial managers to describe the market, and is used as a benchmark for the performance of specific stock. You might have heard of a few of these indices which are used to describe stock, for example the Dow Jones Industrial Average (or simply the Dow, is a stock market index that shows how 30 large, publicly owned companies based in the United States), the S&P 500 (500 large companies with common stock listed on national stock exchanges) and the Russell 3000 (a capitalization-weighted stock market index, maintained by FTSE Russell, that seeks to be a benchmark of the entire U.S stock market). The mentioned indices act as a general measure of how well stocks are performing. Socially responsible businesses have also been grouped together as well and one of their indices is called the MSCI KLD 400 and for the past 25 years this index has met and outperformed various indices like the S&P 500 and Russell 3000. It’s a good sign if you can meet and exceed industry standards, all the while doing a whole lot of good.
Win- win When addressing the Stanford School of Business, billionaire and founder at Social Capital, Chamath Palihapitiya said “There is this whole debate about climate change, on whether it exists or not. But what we know for sure is that we are ripping apart the biodiversity of our planet… what’s undeniable is that the human population will be forced to concentrate because certain parts of the world will be subsumed by water. Also keep in mind that we don’t have any sustainable food supply. You guys, the students in this room, may not be able to hand off a planet to your children that they can predictably live in. And no one is doing anything to fix it! But if someone fixed it, don’t you think that that’s where all the money would be?! That person would be a multi-trillionaire!” ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊
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Responsible Business WITH E-LAB FOUNDER, ALEX MATIVO
W
ho is Alex? (How would you describe yourself?)
I'm a creative at my core, working at the intersection of technology and design to craft meaningful ideas that endure.
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Tell us more about your background. What was your childhood like? Did you enjoy it? Who were your role models? I grew up in the late 90’s and early 2000’s era. There was some sort of global Renaissance and a lot of things that we use today were just being invented. It was amazing time to grow up as I got to be part of the process , watching the internet boom and the creative industry evolve into the complex behemoth it is today.
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Do you feel education adequately equipped you for life, work and business? Not necessarily what i learnt in class but the meaningful connections I made out of class have tremendously shaped the person I am today.
ALEX MATIVO I always looked upto great minds like Alexander McQueen and Sean combs because of how they were able to heavily influence culture and create fashion labels that transcended time. Looking back were there any personality traits in your early life that signalled an inclination towards entrepreneurship? Looking back, I enjoyed thinking about different things in society and figuring out how i can make them better. Entrepreneurship is all about creatively solving problems and Improving a way of life. Tell us about your Education background i.e. primary, highschool and college (Were you a model student?) I was fortunate enough to go to good schools. I didn't regard myself as a smart kid but as someone who hard a certain work ethic that kept me at the top of my class. I attended Lenana school and later on the African Leadership University, a pan African institution that seeks to create the next generation of global leaders.
When did it hit you that entrepreneurship was an option? It was during my 3rd year of highschool when everyone was meant to figure out what career they wanted to pursue. We had just successfully liquidated a company that we started with my peers. The company was part of a high school Entrepreneurship club and it had turned out to be a huge success and it saw us win numerous accolades after competing with great minds across Africa. That experience was an awakening for me. It was the path i wanted to pursue especially since society had set a linear path that I always wanted to defy. Is there a process to how you innovate? If so, elaborate? My process is basically falling in love with a problem and using that obsession to come up with a solution according to how i see the world. What was E-lab? What was the motivation behind setting up E lab? E-lab started out as a project to help eradicate electronic waste that was rampant in the community that I grew up in. I identified communities that had lots of electronic waste and With the help of the locals, we turned it into art. It then evolved into a business after I saw the opportunity to make it bigger and sustainable. How did you measure impact? (please also talk about amount recycled against the amount of e-waste present) My metric was the amount of electronic waste we recycled and the number of people we impacted. In two years we
Entrepreneurship is all about creatively solving problems and Improving a way of life.
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eradicated 4000tons of the 17000 tons in Kenya.
embraced because of how it defied the norm.
It still remains a huge problem but we're working hard every day to mitigate the problem and come up with Innovative ways of doing so.
What is Ethnic brand? What is Bit Couture?
What was the business model? Who were your clients? My clients were retailers in the fashion industry. We made products like wearable accessories from the waste and numerous Global retailers
The Ethnic brand is a bigger and better version of e-lab. I took all the lessons I learnt from running e-lab and founded it. After working with a lot of communities and artisans with e-lab. I realized that the biggest problem they faced was getting access to a sustainable source of income. The artisan industry is Africa's biggest
employer but unfortunately, majority of them are still trapped in poverty. Ethnic brand platform connects such Artisans living in emerging markets to fashion Brands all over the world. The bit couture is my creative outlet. It's my own line of products made from electronic waste. My goal is to collaborate with Designers in every dimension in the fashion industry and incorporate the e-waste aesthetics in apparel and accessories that we use every day. From eyewear to sneakers.
It [E-Waste] still remains a huge problem but we're working hard every day to mitigate the problem and come up with Innovative ways of doing so.
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H
enry Ohanga, better known by his stage name Octopizzo, is quickly becoming an outstanding example in philanthropy in Kenya and East Africa through his organization, the Octopizzo Foundation.
he released 'on top’, a catchy rap song which showed an authenticity that was previously missing in the local Kenyan rap industry. The song ‘on top’ quite literally put Octopizzo on top!
Octopizzo was born and raised in Kibera. He attended Mashimoni Primary, then transitioned to Kibera Glory Secondary and specialized in computer science at St Mary's Changamwe College in Mombasa. He also studied to beome an electrician and worked a few years at a jua kali (open air) garage. He kept pursuing an education and is currently studying at Upenn (University of Pennsylvania), an Ivy League University. He announced his admission to the prestigious institution with the caption ‘Lazma ni-upgrade akili’ meaning he is eager to upgrade his wit.
Smart rap, puns and notorious word-plays kept Octopizzo in the spotlight. He showed Kenya and East Africa that his breakout song wasn't a lucky fluke and he confirmed it over and over again with numerous hits and by dropping incredibly provocative albums. His album, LDPC, even took the #1 spot on iTunes on the week it was released. His music gave people something to dance to, but it also gave people something to think about. Case in point, the album Refugeenius, where Octopizzo collaborated with over 20 refugees from Kakuma and Dadaab refugee camp. His eagerness to share the spotlight with others helped people see the value of diversity and shaped the way his listeners saw refugees. To his listeners, refugees weren’t a burden anymore, but an asset. 3 albums in, everyone knew that he was the real deal, but he didn't stop there. He kept pushing, releasing hits until his
Throughout his childhood, Octopizzo was inspired by Hiphop. He cites Jay-Z, Nas, Biggie, 2 Pac among many more as personal inspirations. He had always wanted to do music and after working at the jua kali garage he decided to shoot his shot at a music career. He had his big break when A MAGAZINE FOR THE CAREER-PERSON AND ENTREPRENEUR
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music earned him an invite to the 60th Grammy awards. Today, he seems to have found where he belongs, and that's up in the sky, with the rest of the world's biggest stars. Octopizzo is a committed music artist and a dedicated businessman, and even more than that, he is passionate about people. He demonstrates this by how attentive he is to his family and the lives that he touches through the Octopizzo Foundation. Even through the highest heights of success, his passion for the underprivileged has never wavered. He is constantly going back to Kibera, through good and bad times, to encourage, advice and support. Octopizzo actively points at himself and says “if I could get out, then so can you.” He goes a step further and rigorously searches for talented youths from underprivileged backgrounds to partner with and promote. A good example of one of these remarkable individuals is Biko, the lens behind Slum Photography, who used photography to display Kibera and life in the slums to the world. Here are some of the highlights from the interview with Octopizzo:
At what moment did you decide to form the Octopizzo Foundation? (What was the situation in your life, personally and career-wise?) I remember it was after high school, before I even started rapping, around 2008. We really didn’t know what to do with ourselves so we decided to be a part of a community based organization that would help us show our talent. We used to call it ‘Young, Gifted and Black’.
What goals did you have when you started? When we started we had 2 goals. First, we wanted to change the stereotypical perception that people had towards Kibera and show people that something good can come from there. Secondly and more importantly, you need to remember that most of us couldn’t afford to go to university and get white collar jobs so we had to rely on our talents to help us earn a living.
Are these the same goals you still have at the Octopizzo Foundation or did they change? The goals are still the same now as they were when we started.
The biggest challenge is getting grants. It’s not to get funding. When I first started, for the first 3 or 4 years, every time I would perform I would take a part of what I made in that event and invest it in the foundation.
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You have a lot going on right now. How do you balance between your music career, studying abroad, business, personal life, and your philanthropic endeavors? It’s not easy. I mean, it is possible one thing at a time, but doing all at once is difficult. That’s why I have a good trustworthy team that helps me run the foundation.
How does running a philanthropic organization compare to running a company? It is different in that, running a foundation you need to have a team that understands where you come from and your vision. They have to be passionate about what they do, and understand why they do it. They need to now that it’s not about getting paid but about doing something that matters and making an impact. My foundation is more focused on impact. I hate to use the word ‘impact’. People throw that word around a lot without it meaning anything to them. I’ve grown up in Kibera and I have seen very many organizations use that word. They all go around saying and doing the same things, all of them supported by the same beneficiaries but end up not having any real ‘impact’. For me, I’d rather work with a very small group or even just one
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person a year but end up actually seeing a change in the person’s life, rather than having these big ‘save the world’ ideas, trying to change a million people and end up failing all of them. To be a part of a foundation you have to have the heart for it, you need to feel for these people whether you are being paid or not. But when running a company, like with the Octopizzo brand its pure business. A company is focused on profit not impact!
Your website mentions that there is a wealth of artistic talent and potential residing in slums, refugee camps and other marginalized settlements across the country. What criteria does your foundation use to identify them? We hold auditions! After the auditions we can tell who is talented whether it’s in soccer, music or even art. But with my foundation
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we look further than just talent. In the second phase, after we’ve selected the talented individuals, we push them to their limit so that we can see what values they have and how well they collaborate with other people. We need to know, if this individual makes it, is it going to be about them and their ego & riches or will they come back to the community and help others?
What kinds of challenges have you faced while running your foundation? The biggest challenge is getting grants. It’s not to get funding. When I first started, for the first 3 or 4 years, every time I would perform I would take a part of what I made in that event and invest it in the foundation. I believed if I could make a change for one person then it would change the community because changing that one person would change their family. But we’ve also been very lucky because we’ve had a lot help from the US Ambassador, the British Council and UNICEF. We’re really grateful because they have been our biggest supporters. In some cases some friends
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What are your thoughts about the ongoing evictions in Kibera? I have heard people talk about it, but personally I don’t talk about it because I feel like I don’t fully understand. So, I haven’t seen anybody who has been evicted who is complaining. I went down there to see the people and… you know as much as I love Kibera and always stand up for them there is also some level of ignorance that I cannot put up with! I mean, if you want help you need to work as a community, we all come from families and have friends and are a part of something. No one has ever done anything alone. From what I understand there was a vetting of those houses, and the people living there were paid and they also knew the time when the evictions were supposed to take place. If there was an issue they were supposed to alert the local MCA and MP and inform them that ‘there’s someone here trying to move us’. But what I know is most of the people moved to different places like Kawangware. have really come through and offered what they had, it doesn’t have to be money; some gave their time and even their services. A producer could say that they want to sponsor 3 songs for a talented young individual. Sometimes I look at all the people who really want to give from the heart and who have a lot of compassion, and wish that it was not about the money, but the world is weird in the way that it works, eventually you will need money to make things happen.
How do you make sure there is transparency and accountability in how the grants are being used? We have an accountant and an auditor just for that. The way we spend our money is per project. We’re not a big organization that has many projects per year, we work with what we have. When we don’t have funding we do the small projects that we can. And when funding comes in we go deeper, build on what we already started and do even more projects.
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My only criticism is… why do we care more about building a road than improving the lives of people. They say that the road will improve business, but that isn’t practical for a slum because most businesses there are small shops or vegetable sellers. They could have at least made a hospital, social hall, art center or even a gym where young people can nurture their talents or even some form of low income housing.
What level of government (local and/or national) engagement do you get in your effort to assist the youths in impoverished and marginalized areas? How goes it compare to that of your partners in the corporate and non-profit world? I haven’t worked with the government, but I have worked with a few government officials to help refugees and give them passes to come to the city. That’s about it. I think a while back I met Hon. Rachel Shebesh, she promised
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that we were going to collaborate on something but she never got back to me. This interview should be a call out to Hon. Rachel Shebesh to inform her that I’m still waiting for her to get back to me on all the projects we could collaborate on. I’m really looking forward to that. For corporates, amm… I don’t think I have worked with any corporate. The thing about corporates is that they’re always looking for the commercial value of every project. And when they come on board they want to implement their projects that are different from what we already have going on at the foundation. And when corporates agree to give funds for the foundation, there’s always strings attached like ‘we’ll fund you but you have to advertise for us as Octopizzo.’ But the foundation and the brand Octopizzo are different. If you want Octopizzo you have to pay! It has been easier to with organizations that don’t look for a commercial value in collaborations like Embassies and diplomats.
Your foundation focuses on empowering the youth and nurturing them to reach their potential through art, music, sports, and other creativity-based
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engagements. Do you believe that the Kenyan industry has enough avenues to sustainably provide income for creatives? I’ll put it this way many of the creatives I know in this country are either employed by foreigners or self -employed. The Kenyan industry… the Kenyan market, I’m not sure how to refer to it, doesn’t really see the value of creatives. But at least today there are more options available for creative people. They could go into social media marketing or photography. When I was 18 none of these options were there for young people. If you weren’t a doctor or a lawyer you were f*****!
In what ways could we do be better in philanthropy? We need to learn how to create a social impact. Also for every wealthy people or very profitable businesses there needs to be a form of social responsibility. We need to look after each other and the people in the west have realized this. I read a story a while back about how the Bill & Melinda Gates helped eradicate polio in India. We need to do similar projects here. Most wealthy people in Africa don’t want to give back. We all look up to
Dangote but what is he doing for the community? It’s really up to our generations to change this in Africa and start giving back!
What are the key achievement(s) that you are most proud of, as head of the Octopizzo Foundation? I think my refugee program. I did an album where I featured a few refugee artists, and it helped change the perception people had of refugees. People used to reject and judge them a lot and that’s started to change. We’re also seeing the conversation around refugees start to change and them having better integration in the country. I’m also very proud of the team at the foundation. These people do it from the heart. Whether I’m there or not they still have the same enthusiasm. I want this to be bigger than me, and even hope to pass it to my daughters so that they can continue to build the vision. As an individual I’ve started the change the narrative in Kibera. Young people look at me and feel as though anything is possible because I am one of them and I made it out without assistance or having a team to help me. I used to
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try and be better every day and work on my talent and I made it out. It’s tough in Kibera, but they look at me and say if this guy can do it, then I can also do it. when I’m done with rap in a few decades I want to go into the foundation full time and focus all my energy on it.
she was back in good health. People in the slum are superstitious, they see malnutrition and say ‘huyu mtoto amerogwa’ (This child has been hexed) and just like that many kids are dying. It’s something that I’ve seen a lot. So I really want to go into health in the future!
Where do you see you foundation in five years’ time? Well I want to broaden our programs and go into education, health and entrepreneurship. Health is a very serious issue in the slums and we only hear about it when someone is dying. But there are so many sides to health like malnutrition is a very big problem in the slums. We have very many young parents in the slum who don’t know how to deal with malnutrition. I had my daughter when I was 20 years old and still in Kibera. She was very ill because of malnutrition to a point where she almost died, but I encountered an organization that taught me how to take care of her until
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T
he charitable nature of people is as old as humanity itself, but where does it come from? What influences the decision to give?
Our instinct for self-preservation has led to our obsessive compulsion with accumulating as much material wealth as we possibly can. Looking at the 1% that does succeed in accumulating wealth, we can see a few traits both good and bad that govern the way they live. Some try to preserve this wealth by passing it down to their children who they hope would it for the improvement of their lives and those of others as well. Other wealthy patrons realize that they can’t take their wealth with them, case in point, the Egyptian kings who were buried with their wealth and it was later unearthed. There are two paths to follow when you realize that you can’t take wealth with you, one is, you could squander it and the other is use it to do a little bit of good in this world.
Warren Buffet, one of the world’s wealthiest men, once stated “Doubling your net worth won’t make you happier.” Following this statement, he pledged to be a part of the Bill
and Melinda Gates Foundation where he would give a lot of his wealth to improve the lives of others. Despite the fact that extreme poverty has been cut in half over the past 30 years, there are and might always be the less fortunate who will lack the bare minimum necessities to lead a dignified life. Today, philanthropy defines the charitable undertakings to human causes by wealthy patrons and organizations. World-renowned philanthropists Charles Bronfman and Jeffrey Solomon define the art of giving as the place where the soul meets a business plan. For wealthy donors, the art of giving has become a science of sorts, with several paradigms, each defined by distinct traits. This is far from the more common and traditional impulse philanthropic model where individuals and corporates gave simply out of concern and the ‘feel good’ effect of being generous. Today, donors focus on endeavors such as impact philanthropy, where monitoring and evaluation of the recipients of aid is religiously undertaken. Organizations
VENTURE PHILANTHROPY Could this be the next step in Charity?
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call it impact-based CSR initiatives, which focus on achieving some set sustainability goals. In the same vein, a new class of philanthropists who seek to leave a significant impact on the public sphere has emerged over the past decade or so. A 2014 report by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) described such emerging models as hybrid forms of philanthropy, which essentially involve leveraging business thinking. As such, this new wave of philanthropy features extensive research and capacity building that has enhanced the relation into one of partnership. One such form is venture philanthropy. There have been many attempts to define venture philanthropy. The term was coined way back in 1969 by Rockefeller III, but has surprisingly only caught on in the 21st century. It seeks to borrow the principles of venture capital investment and apply them to philanthropy. The OECD report, Venture Philanthropy in Development: Dynamics, Challenges and Lessons in the Search for Greater Impact, remarked that it has no specific definition. Similarly, I will also refrain from an attempts to define it, but rather, this article only endeavours to describe its nature. A graphic comparison between venture philanthropy and the traditional model in terms of investment and engagement is shown in the image below:
Venture philanthropy is a sweeping term that articulates the emerging models of philanthropy which many organizations, individuals, and donor foundations are now gravitating towards.
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The report noted that many models of venture philanthropy exist, but that they share several common attributes. For one, it involves a strategic coordination of donor resources in order to bring fundamental transformation. The main focus is also on systems and is sectoral, as opposed to targeting individual people or organizations. This allows venture philanthropy the freedom to involve and engage with several stakeholders, including individuals, social enterprises, local communities, private equity and corporations, foundations, and government. Unlike the classic model of philanthropy, it employs a mix of donations and investments in funding its undertakings. As such, the donors are much more participative and form a close relationship with aid recipients. Additionally, this relationship is long-term, often lasting more than five years and even up to ten. This exposes venture philanthropists much greater risk than traditional forms, necessitating the use of business-level monitoring and evaluation mechanisms to ensure performance levels mimic those of a corporation. The European Venture Philanthropy Association (EVPA) defines venture philanthropy as a forms of social investment. This exemplifies its goal of supporting social enterprises and other such socially oriented organizations in order to build their capacity to solve societal challenges. The image below brings together the multiple pieces and components that make up the term venture philanthropy. Does venture philanthropy work? Is this new social entrepreneurism all that it’s cracked up to be? While pairing philanthropic efforts with the demands of bottomline capital is easier said than done, there are several examples of success stories in venture philanthropy from OECD studies. The Emirates Foundation for Youth Development and Financial Literacy is a public-private funded group that supports initiatives which enhance the well-being of youths in the UAE. The foundation
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The Venture Philanthropy Model (EVPA, 2018)
remodelled its operational approach to educating the youth with the aim of building leadership skills, develop emergency aid skills, and lately, financial literacy. The change included commitment to long-term funding, a collaborative partnership approach and committed monitoring and evaluation. Since the change took place, the impact of its activities has been felt across the board. Social inclusivity and financial literacy has increase among the youth; more support has increased from financial and non-financial organizations, while collaboration between traditionally competing organizations has increased. The Lundin Foundation and Comaco also used the venture philanthropy approach in its wildlife conservation efforts in Zambia. Their research based model found that poaching activities had a causal connection with poor food security in the communities around national parks. This helped to redirect funding from prior conservation efforts to these communities, helping to restore the ecosystem in the various areas, assisting farmers to increase food
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production and find market for their produce. After dedicated monitoring and evaluation, results showed that the population of wildlife in national parks had stabilized and also revived in areas were then animals had been decimated. Similarly, food security had returned to the local populations and had drastically improved their welfare. Many other such examples exist across the globe, whether it is Shell Foundation in its environmental programmes, or the Rockefeller Foundation and its climate-focused endeavours. So to allay your doubts, yes, venture philanthropy does indeed work, not just well enough, but profoundly and emphatically so. Actors with philanthropic affiliations and those already participating should adopt venture philanthropy in order to leverage well known and established commercial approaches to solve social challenges ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊
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The Shared Economy
An African Perspective
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I
t has been touted as the fourth industrial revolution and aptly branded as ‘Industrialization 4.0’.The marriage of the physical world and advanced digital technologies is quickly and irreversibly changing the way people live, work and interact today. As Bernard Marr of Intelligent Business Performance puts it, “first came water and steam power, followed by electricity and assembly lines, then computerization. Now comes the sequential merging of the cyber-physical elements on an industrial and sector-wide global scale that is known as the Internet of Things”. This simple concept of linking infrastructure, machines, systems and everyday things with web connectivity has, within the shortest of times, kick started the fourth major industrial era since industrialization started back in the 18th century.
The forth industrial revolution is characterized by several individual facets. One such aspect is its social impact that has redefined the concept of ownership. Prior to Industrialization 4.0, managerial capitalism had hard-wired individualistic attributes into people, where the accumulation and control of resources was designated for central agents of power, as Peter Fleming put it in his book when discussing management theory. Today, digital innovation has moved capitalism into a crowdbased iteration, known as the shared/sharing economy. Essentially, this is a highly disruptive economic model which leverages digital technology to enable the collaborative consumption of resources. It involves the peer-to-peer facilitation of the acquisition of products and services in order to distribute them through an online platform.
Potential
record time. Uber hit a 2 billion dollar valuation in just over 3 years, while Airbnb hit a billion dollars after 2years 11 months. In Africa, the disruption of the sharing economy has slowly found its fair share in the market. Traditionally, the continent of Africa has had a long standing culture of community and sharing. However, both urban and socio-economic developments have put the rapidly growing population of the continent and its resources under strain. The result is that a high number of people have limited access to resources and utilities that could afford them the opportunity to generate income and boost economic development. The question then, is how do you support the economic ambitions of a youthful population that is rapidly urbanizing, but with minimum opportunities for employment and a high attrition rate of businesses? You guessed it, the sharing economy! Several transformative innovations in agriculture, telecommunication, banking, and health mark Africa as ripe for a systemic intervention that will reshape education, transport, healthcare, agriculture, commerce among other sectors. The sharing economy as a societal model is a natural fit for Africa’s communal practices and way of life. The introduction of technological innovations will only galvanize this trend. The potential for creation of employment is unprecedented with the shared economy model.
Sharing Innovations in the Continent
As an emerging market, Africa is undergoing intense growth The sharing economy has caught on across markets in in telecommunication and infrastructure. This has allowed for Northern America, Europe, and Asia like wildfires. Billiondollar companies such as Uber (car hire/ taxi service), Freecycle (gifting) and Africa is one melting pot of creativity on its own, and true to this Airbnb (hospitality/rental) moved from creative nature, the continent has responded in kind and developed its concepts to billion dollar valuations in
own tech products which may appear better adapted for the locals.
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affordable internet access which has ensured that western innovations such as global leaders Uber and Airbnb have been swiftly accommodated by many cities and towns across several countries in Africa. Today, these two have taken over the hospitality and transport sectors of several countries, providing employment opportunities to many and utilizing otherwise underutilized resources. Statistics from Emerging Market Investors Association (EMIA) indicate that Airbnb witnesses a 95% rise in listings (39,500 to 77,000) and a 143% increase in unique users (up to 770,000) on its platform in 2016 alone, while Uber amassed over 60,000 drivers across 15 cities. Such impressive growth signals to a need for simple and practical technological solutions to Africa’s inadequate resources. A lot could be said about the uptake of western innovation in Africa, as most of the time they are initiators of tech related innovation. However, Africa is one melting pot of creativity on its own, and true to this creative nature, the continent has responded in kind and developed its own tech products which may appear better adapted for the locals. In South Africa, Okazi is one such innovation that has monetized employee downtime. This is a business-to-business platform that allows employers to outsource manpower by placing salaried employees who are underutilized at the disposal of other companies temporarily. In the medical sector, Medici and Hello Doctor are platform that connect patients to practitioners, and has proved to be useful in rural setting where access is difficult. Uber and Airbnb also now face local competition from Zebra Cabs, AfriStay, Find a Lift, and Jozibear In Kenya, Uber now jostles with Lyft and Little Cab for customers, with a new entrant, Lynk, providing 50plus more service categories, including plumbing to party planning and everything in between. Many other countries such as Nigeria, Ghana, and Uganda are following suite in the adaptation of the sharing economy in their unique ways. Perhaps one of the most impactful application of the shared economy is SafeMotos in Kigali, Rwanda. The World
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Economic Forum reports that road users (motorists, cyclist, riders and pedestrians) are 700 times likelier to die in the country than in the UK. To solve this problem, taxi-hailing app SafeMotos leverages data that it collects from its drivers’ phones to analyze how safely they drive. This allowed it to differentiate between safe and reckless drivers, helping to weed out negligent ones who endanger the lives of road users. Additionally, it designates female drivers to female passengers to reduce incidences of sexual abuse.
Conclusion The underlying currency of the shared economy is trust. A high level of trustworthiness is required between the service/resource providers, end customers, and owners of the platforms. Regulatory authorities have pushed back on several innovations under the shared economy due to this, along with other reasons. It is imperative for African governments to understand that cooperation between itself and market players in the shared economy is important for the development of their countries due to the vast benefits that precipitate the accommodation of such digital technologies. New laws should be implemented to improve the economic, social and legal operating models of the shared economy. It would be prudent for African to embrace this new reality that is on the ascent, lest we pay the price for willfully failing to conform to change. ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊
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Ad space
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