Makerere Matters Foundation
Africa Centre for Social Enterprise
A. Introduction to a Leading Programme for Makerere
Social Enterprise is the third major programme identified for strategic investment by the MMF, the other two being leadership development and export marketing. Social Enterprise offers tremendous scope for investment at the bottom of the enterprise ‘pyramid’ suggesting that there is scope for supporting many small-scale enterprises based on community motivation and ownership as opposed to sustaining large businesses that have other sources of finance available to them.
The establishment of a specialist Centre for Social Enterprise presents opportunities for making a fundamental change in the way small enterprise will be supported in Uganda. This draft outline paper proposes the framework for introducing a generic programme under the auspices of MUPSF, with support from Makerere Matters Foundation.
B. Definition
“A social enterprise is a business with primarily social objectives whose surpluses are principally reinvested for that purpose in the business or the community, rather than being driven by the need to maximise profit for shareholders and owners”[2]. Social enterprises operate in all sector of the economy by using ‘business solutions to achieve public good’. Social enterprises also help to create an inclusive economy – all sections of society have an opportunity to contribute towards development. Also, the size and ownership of the enterprise does not preclude a role in addressing key economic priorities.
Experts in social enterprise development stress that a social enterprise is a business and as such can be engaged in trading but only to support a social purpose. Like any business a social enterprise aims to generate surpluses but it seeks to reinvest those surpluses principally in the business or in the community to enable it deliver on its social objectives.
C. Types of Social Enterprise
It is anticipated that many people in Uganda will know of ‘cooperatives’ as primarily socially driven businesses. They would be right except that the co-operative is just one of the many legal forms of social enterprise. Others can be voluntary organisations with not-for- profit objectives, community firms and social firms – all with a commitment to meeting the social and financial bottom line, with possibly a third objective, environmental.
Finally, social enterprises embrace a variety of ways of working and successful social enterprises can embody the following characteristics:
· Gaining independence and autonomy through trading;
· Entrepreneurial, innovative and risk taking behaviour;
· Customer and community focus;
· Stakeholder engagement;
· Democratic and participative management;
· Delivering socially and environmentally
· Financially viable and gaining income from selling goods and services.
Also, there is scope for developing support programmes to assist and develop sectoral programmes. Sectoral emphasis should mean support for specific sectors of the Ugandan economy, such as:
· Cultural Social Enterprise – enterprises aimed at developing product for the international cultural market, using live performances through touring, interactive media based productions and grant aid to generate new work and support for skills development.
· Agricultural Social Enterprise – Uganda has good experience of running cooperatives since the early 1950s. A social enterprise conference is planned for Kampala to start an evidence based approach to this sector and hear from the key participants about the priorities and needs of the sector
· Women’s Social Enterprise – whilst sharing some characteristics with cultural social enterprises mentioned above, women’s enterprises reflect many key areas of innovative enterprise doe which support will be necessary. Again, there is no clear evidence base with recent hard data to merit an objective approach.
· Inclusive Social Enterprise - a key feature of these enterprises is the ownership and control by people with disabilities and disabling health conditions. Many hundreds of such enterprises operate all over the world. The case for Uganda remains to be made.
D. A Framework for Implementation
The establishment of a Centre for Social Enterprise marks the formal commencement of a structured and strategic programme of investment to support social enterprise in Uganda. Of course, government must already have its own programmes for support – cooperatives have always enjoyed a major presence in the country and many community groups have become very experienced in running enterprises driven by community organisations. In other cases the cooperative movement has enjoyed support from external funders and have been re-launched and repositioned. Please see this link from the Google search engine:
The link provides an interesting range of issues concerning the operation of cooperatives but more research is needed to challenge the authenticity of several claims made in the various links assembled by the search engine.
The Africa Centre for Social Enterprise, based in MUPSF aims to cover the following programme of investment:
1. Act as a focal point for coordination and assist the development and implementation of social enterprise in conjunction with relevant government initiatives;
2. Help to drive up productivity and performance of existing social enterprises
3. Enable individuals and communities to set up new social enterprises to address key social policy objectives
4. Create new forms of enterprise to deliver public services. Examples are waste management and recycling,
5. Develop new goods and services and develop new opportunities where mainstream business may not succeed. A critical example of this type of social enterprise is the cultural social enterprise, arts organisations, music and dance groups, crafts cooperatives which would help to bring internal talent.
6. Help to provide solutions to some of the country’s most disadvantaged areas
7. Create social inclusion for disadvantaged groups such as employment for the elderly and people with disabilities
E. Resourcing the Africa Centre for Social Enterprise (ACSE)
CSE would have its programme board within MUPSF and affiliated to MMF, which would help to raise resources for a wide range of initiatives as follows:
- Operating the ACSE Board
- Working in conjunction with the relevant ministry of Government department responsible for social enterprise
- Developing the evidence base- covering the history of social enterprise in Uganda, the size of the sector, its critical needs and its impact on the economy and a business case for investing in social enterprise and a social policy case for supporting community enterprise.
- Funding new social enterprises on a selective basis via micro finance programme or other funding sources
- Helping to get higher productivity from existing social enterprises
- Providing dedicated training and development programmes
F. Conclusion
The MUPSF and the new ACSE Board should develop an action plan for early but selective implementation subject to preliminary consultation with key stakeholders: heads of cooperative groups, Government departments, community groups, training and development organisations and funders.
The MUPSF should also propose a systematic roll-out of the new Africa Centre of Social Enterprise as a strategic programme and provide initial estimates of funding need based on various options analyses. MMF would conterminously develop a fund-raising programme and test its viability with donors in the UK and Europe.
Kalwant Ajimal FRSA
Special Envoy for Makerere University, Kampala
Makerere Matters Foundation (MMF)
Guildford,
England
Email: Kalwant.ajimal@btinternet.com
27 April 2008
[1] Incorporated in the United Kingdom as a not-for-profit organisation.
[2]Department of Trade and Industry, UK. Known as Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) following a reorganisation. This paper draws extensively from a BERR Report entitled ‘Social Enterprise – A Strategy for Success.
