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Social innovation and entrepreneurship are fast becoming critical drivers of sustainable development in Africa and institutions of learning are tapping into this.
Lagos Business School in collaboration with the Ford Foundation commenced the first round of the Nonprofit Leadership and Management Programme (Certificate course) in February 2018, in response to this phenomenon.
As part of the Programme, a team of MBA students and members of the Sustainability Centre of Lagos Business School visited Ashesi University in Ghana to explore how the University has been able to successfully engage students in social entrepreneurship and design thinking – an important component of innovation.
Despite the busy schedule due to the project-based teaching and learning methodologies used at Ashesi University, students are quite receptive to the introduction of social entrepreneurship and design thinking, and put their hands to work in designing projects that have often grown into social enterprises that outlive the tenure of their academic degrees.
Youths are at the epicentre of social problems and problem solving – they are at the age where they have become aware of prevalent and persistent challenges around them, and are at the same time in the position to dissect problems and design corresponding solutions. This comes at a price though – it takes a certain level of social and personal awareness, a change in how individuals see themselves, as well as skillful preparation and some structured learning to achieve this.
Social and personal awareness increase the chances of becoming socially and personally responsible, which in turn increases the chances of social innovation and entrepreneurship. These cannot happen in a ‘garbage in-garbage out’ system – they occur where there is room for questioning; unlearning and relearning; design thinking; and crucial critical thinking and problem-solving skills development.
Two of the current realities of youths in developing economies like Nigeria are large youth populations (youth bulge) and unemployment. The youth bulge – where the larger percentage of a population is between the age of 15 and 29 – is a common and important demographic phenomenon in many developing countries.
The youth bulge can be a demographic dividend, where individuals of employment age can become productively employed, which then leads to average income per capita increase; or a demographic bomb, where such individuals cannot find employment or do not earn satisfactory incomes, become frustrated and become a social menace. The youth bulge creates a huge challenge for many developing economies that have limited employment/business opportunities and cannot cater for all members of the youth cohort.
Many African countries are developing but lack most basic amenities and infrastructure such as education, healthcare, technology, access to funding, in addition to opportunities. Opportunities do not always come in straitjackets as ‘jobs’, when people reach the working age; many times they are disguised as challenges – problems that are sometimes complex and at other times easy as can be – waiting to be discovered through awareness and solved through creativity.
Oftentimes, individuals can discern problems, but most do not see them as potential opportunities. When students and youths do not have the ability to discern a problem, break down complex challenges, or make exigent decisions, these potential opportunities do not come to life.
One of the smartest ways to solve grand challenges is to empower individuals with information and the ability to think outside the box. This is not so much the case in Africa, and closer to home, Nigeria. Many institutions in Africa still reinforce the ‘garbage in-garbage out’ system of teaching and learning – students ought to give lecturers exactly as they have received, sometimes getting penalized for not doing so.
This is one of the reasons why most developing countries are stuck. Students are taught science, technology, arts, and social sciences topics that were relevant twenty years or more ago, thus creating knowledge that does not evolve with the times. While nanotechnology and artificial intelligence are corridor conversations of students in some parts of the world, many students in developing nations still argue about theories that have been debunked for possibly decades.
Crowdfunding, mobile technology, social media, the Internet, alternative learning credentials, co-working office spaces and incubation hubs, are all platforms and tools that are changing the way problems can and are being solved. More than any time in history, resources are becoming available through the platforms and tools listed above, and access to resources means the ability to solve problems.
Businesses do a good job of creating wealth when they solve problems at a profit, while nonprofit organizations solve problems at a cost, not necessarily creating any wealth. This cost is often borne by businesses, charitable foundations, and donations. However, problem-solving and wealth creation are changing.
Social innovation and entrepreneurship utilise platforms and tools, including those listed above, to create wealth by solving large-scale social problems. This form of job and wealth creation through social problem-solving is relatively new across the globe and must be projected in a deliberate manner if youths are to take up such responsibility, especially in Africa. Even Business Strategist, Michael Porter believes that solving social problems is where real profit comes from. Now, this is part of the solution to the problems of limited opportunities and sustainable development challenges.
Social innovation and entrepreneurship have the ability to lift much of the population within the youth bulge out of jobless and hopeless situations, and give them a higher cause that will enable emancipation from arduous conditions. They have the ability to take Africa and other developing countries out of the drought of ideas and innovation, and seem like the most plausible and sustainable methods if Africa is to rise.
As much as social innovation and entrepreneurship are great, even closer to home is Personal Social Responsibility, through which many social innovation and entrepreneurship ideas and projects are often birthed. Personal Social Responsibility (PSR) describes how individuals act in the best interest of themselves and others, taking responsibility to solve problems when they identify them.
Personal Social Responsibility, social innovation and entrepreneurship are fundamental to creating social and economic balance, hence should be embedded into educational systems and cascaded down into social and cultural conversations. Several institutions around Africa have identified the importance of innovative social ventures and have embarked on making these a reality.
Ashesi University in Ghana is one of the foremost educational institutions in Africa that are deliberately using best practices to embed components of social innovation and entrepreneurship into its curriculum. One of these is the Foundation in Design and Entrepreneurship (FDE) programme that features student-led business simulations; a problem festival – where problems are dissected to their root cause without thinking about solutions; as well as small grants to support student community service projects.
Ashesi University has done a great job, enough to have produced several innovative projects that have grown to become social enterprises – solving problems while creating wealth. One example of this is Tech-Era, a technology education company that equips teachers and students with skills to effectively use technology to improve efficiency in daily learning activities. The company emanated from a project done during a year-long first year course in design and entrepreneurship taught at Ashesi University, and is running as a full-service company by the same students that will continue to run the company when they graduate.
Lagos Business School is also thinking ahead and looking in the direction of social innovation and entrepreneurship. The School has introduced Personal Social Responsibility into its programmes and is seeking the best way to effectively engage students in this area. The recent visit to Ashesi University was an exploratory trip to learn best practices Ashesi uses in embedding these components into its curriculum, and hopes that such PSR projects will form part of the learning and development process as students work towards piloting their ideas to drive social and economic change.
STEPHEN ONYEKWELU
