Fourth EATLF Meeting: Social Enterprise (Part 2)

Country: Uganda
Created By: loiccomolli on 4-Dec-2007 7:07 AM

At the Fourth EATLF meeting in Kampala, Uganda, NESsT conducted a presentation on social enterprise, which it defined with three elements: 1) An activity generating income for the telecentre; 2) An activity strengthening the mission impact of the telecentre; and 3) An activity that is on-going and central to the telecentre’s strategy.

Participants discussed and agreed that sustainability is not limited to financial resources. Other factors influencing sustainability include having a clear mission; strategic plans that are executable and flexible; measurable and effective social impact; competent staff; strong leadership; and awareness of technology trends.

When discussing potential ranges of social enterprises, NESsT presented a framework that demonstrated that social enterprise can be related or unrelated to the telecentre mission: a mission-related social enterprise is close to the mission of the telecentre (i.e., ICT4D-related), while a non-mission social enterprise is not directly related to it (i.e., IT support to small and medium enterprises). While mission-related social enterprises are probably easier to identify and implement, and have a more direct mission impact, non-related social enterprises probably have more revenue potential because they explore new services and new markets. However, EATLF participants correctly identified that non-mission related social enterprises are also more risky, because they require new knowledge and skills not previously present in the telecentre. One strategy to lower these risks is to do in-depth business planning prior to launch the social enterprise.

Working in groups, participants discussed three social enterprise related items:

1.      How to implement social enterprise in telecentres: participants developed an six-step process as a roadmap for telecentre social enterprises. These steps are:

a.       Developing a community needs assessment and undertaking market research to identify new services;

b.      Developing a plan of action (e.g., business plan) for meeting the community need;

c.       Mobilizing resources to implement the social enterprise;

d.      Developing the new service;

e.       Delivering the new service; and

f.        Communicating the new service to the community (through advertising, etc.)

While everyone agreed this framework was useful to implement social enterprise, participants acknowledged that at the moment no telecentre operator used such framework.

2.      Potential products and services: participants identified potential products and services that could be implemented in the East Africa region.

a.       Consulting services in IT and ICT

b.      Training services in IT and ICT

c.       Secretariat services (printing, etc.)

d.      Services in computer accessories and spare parts

e.       Counseling services (HIV/AIDS, etc.)

f.        Content development to generate income (in particular for telecentres operating community radios)

g.       Renting physical assets (computers, meeting rooms, etc.)

h.       Helping the community to access valuable market information

i.         Mobilizing and sensitizing the community about government and other agencies’ programs and projects (and act as a broker for these programs/projects)

j.        Library services (to be accessed by the community through membership contributions)

In identifying products and services, NESsT challenged participants to ‘identify community needs’ and ‘think beyond ICT’. Along these lines, Paul Barera from Njamata telecentre in Rwanda shared two services he sells. The first one is mobile phone airtime and maintenance for a local telecommunications company. The second one is gas, whereby the telecentre buys gas upfront from Electrogaz (the local gas company) and resells the gas to the community. This saves the community time since they don’t have to travel to the Electrogaz offices.

Later on participants picked up on this concept and some proposed to equip groups of rural women with cell phones and to send them daily SMSs with market prices information.

3.      Challenges to telecentre social enterprise: participants identified the types of challenges that could be encountered in trying to implement social enterprises. These included both internal and external challenges:

a.       Internal: these included telecentre administration (decision-making, management, need for a strategic plan), human resources enterprise skills and customer orientation, and the physical location of the telecentre.

            b.   External:  these included interference from                       political or community leaders, a lack of                            community involvement, poor infrastructure                       (connectivity, power supply, and computer                       equipment), competition, and technological                       changes.

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