10 thoughts on Africapitalism and social enterprise | Global Developme...

1 of 3

http://www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals-networ...

Search

10 thoughts on Africapitalism and social

enterprise
Can the economic alternatives deliver on their promises? We hear
from our panel
Holly Young
Guardian Professional, Monday 23 June 2014 17.18 BST

How do you ensure that social enterprises involve and benefit local communities? Photograph: Dan Kitwood/Getty
Images

David Rice, director, Africapitalism Institute,

Lagos, Nigeria @AfricapInst
Africapitalism places development in the hands of Africans: We emphasise the
importance the private sector must play in Africa, where it has not typically been
viewed as a catalyst for driving broad economic development and prosperity.
Fundamental to Africapitalism's values is that businesses must operate within the law
and ethically as well. The 'triple bottom line' philosophy is a developed economy
construct, and Africapitalism is about Africa creating its own best path forward in the
context of what's important to Africans.
The state has an important role to play: The state is still essential in protecting the
public interest, enforcing health and safety regulations, and providing essential services.
The more successful the private sector is, the more resources the government has to
help those in need through increased tax revenue.

Kenneth Amaeshi, director of the sustainable

business initiative, Edinburgh, UK, @kenamaeshi
Africapitalism is not all about social entrepreneurship: It equally applies to
other business models and shares a lot in common with other constructs and
movements out there, for example inclusive capitalism, responsible capitalism,
sustainable capitalism and progressive capitalism.

Clara Wanjiku, social enterprise consultant,

05/08/2014 11:51

10 thoughts on Africapitalism and social enterprise | Global Developme...

2 of 3

http://www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals-networ...

Nairobi, Kenya, @WanjikuClara

Involve local communities: I find in Kenya especially that the social enterprise
space is absolutely closed off to locals. They hire interns from abroad and only see
Kenyans as customers or a way to get funding.
Improve the data: I think part of the prominence of Africapitalism is the joy of finally
having some say in the growth of your country. It does have limitations however, and
this is partly to do with the fact it is still relatively new. We do not have concrete data to
prove it is working.

Emily Darko, researcher, Overseas Development

Institute, London, UK, @emily_darko
Rethink incentives: Neoliberal capitalism has failed to deliver sufficient benefit to
much of the global population. What incentives could drive capitalism in Africa to be
more inclusive? And how do we achieve them?
My suspicion is that without change to incentives, most entrepreneurs will carry on with
profit-seeking business as usual, and socio-economic approaches of community and
family support will decline as they have been in the west.
Ensure social enterprises remain accountable: The debate around fees for
services vs tax relates to a bigger question of who should provide services. In the UK,
social enterprise is filling a gap where the state is rolling back. But in Kenya, social
enterprise are providing goods and services that the state never provided. This opens up
big questions about their democratic accountability and the potential impact their
existence may have on future state capacity.
Resources:
David Erdal does interesting work on employee ownership and it is also worth looking
at the work of Joshua Ngoma about his employee-owned mining company in South
Africa.

Gbenga Sesan, executive director, Paradigm

Initiative Nigeria, Lagos, Nigeria
Africapitalism empowers, but also creates a new elite: On one level, African
elite could say they were under-served because of the structure of markets and capital
that locked some out. However in empowering the African elite, Afrocapitalism does
favour some. It is inaccurate to say Africapitalism isn't elitist.
Social impact is context specific: Measurement can't be removed from the context
of the local environment as far as social impact is concerned. The ideal is that before
action commenced, the social enterprise did its homework by understanding the needs
of the 'local community' benefiting from intervention. Hence, you can't measure outside
that context.

Serena Natile, researcher and teaching associate,

Kent Law School, Canterbury, UK
We need to rethink 'inclusive growth': I have a problem with 'inclusive growth'.
The new development agenda focuses on 'bottom-up approaches' and 'development
from below' rather than aiming at the more complicated goal of including the poor in
the formal market.
In doing so they have adopted the strategy of expanding and legitimising the informal,
as this is an easier and cheaper strategy. This has resulted in a shift of responsibility
from the state to the household and created new forms of vulnerability, impacting
particularly on women.

05/08/2014 11:51

10 thoughts on Africapitalism and social enterprise | Global Developme...

3 of 3

http://www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals-networ...

Read the rest of the Q&A here.

Read more stories like this:
Youth entrepreneurship: your stories
Philanthropy: what would you change?
Erik Solheim: the future of aid
Join the community of global development professionals and experts.
Become a GDPN member to get more stories like this direct to your inbox.

More from the guardian

More from around the web

Promoted content by Outbrain

Orlando Bloom v Justin Bieber: history's most pathetic

celebrity scuffle 01 Aug 2014
Italian bad parking reaches new level as drivers pull up
on Pergole beach 31 Jul 2014

Educating Your Children in Foreign Countries (HSBC

Expat)
Whos Afraid of the Big Bad Boss? Nine Tips (PEOPLE
TOOLS)

Banksy graffiti rival King Robbo dies 01 Aug 2014

The New Normal Within the Data Center (Building the
Activists complain to IPCC over police efforts to recruit
them as informers 04 Aug 2014

Strategic Data Center | Transform your data center into a

strategic asset)

Letter: 'Martin Dent's eccentricities ought not to be lost

with his passing' 29 Jul 2014

Common Core Does WHAT!? Myths and Facts About

the Common Core (HotChalk Education Network)
5 Essential Study Skills That Every Middle School
Student Should Master (Huntington Learning Center)
Recommended by

2014 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved.

05/08/2014 11:51