Orange launches second edition of the Orange African Social Venture Prize. Orange, the telecommunications corporation has launched the second edition of its Orange African Social Venture Prize.
The goal is to promote social innovation that supports development through information and communication technology (ICT). The Orange African Social Venture Prize will be awarded to three entrepreneurs or start-ups that offer solutions based on mobile networks or IT systems that are designed to address various social and welfare issues faced by Africans across the continent. Projects may range from banking or payment services to applications in essential areas such as healthcare, education and agriculture. In addition to the prestige of winning the award, Orange is committed to financially supporting and offering expert assistance to the winning entrepreneurs or start-ups. The three prize winners will receive an endowment of between EUR 10,000 and 25,000, and will benefit from six months of support from management and ICT experts at Orange.
Bright Simons. In 2003, Bright’s work as a citizen journalist took him to the U.K, where he started an organization to market organic produce from Ghana. In order to maintain quality standards among a group of small scale farmers, he researched a number of verification options utilizing new technology. After extensive work, he realized that an SMS based system was the most appropriate due to its low cost, high access and the rapid growth of affordable GSM telephone in the region.
With help from an engineering team, he designed an appropriate verification system to use SMS messages to authenticate codes, enabling buyers to track producers and produce standards. Logistics and poor stakeholder engagement stalled the implementation of the project in Ghana. KickStart: Social entrepreneurs use technology (and more) to eradicate poverty in Africa. Last week, Global X had lunch with Martin Fisher and Nick Moon, the two social entrepreneurs who founded KickStart, the organization formerly known as ApproTEC.
Now in its 15th year of existence, KickStart is operational in Kenya, Tanzania and Mali, and is about to expand into six new African countries. Martin Fisher, who has a PhD from Stanford, is based in San Francisco. He first discovered poverty in Peru as a graduate student, then in Kenya on a Fulbright Scholarship. That’s where he met Nick Moon, who was raised in India and Singapore, and who started his career as a woodworker and carpenter in a commune in London. While trying to help Africa, they first made a few mistakes.
They launched Appropriate Technology (ApproTEC) in 1991 to help rural people escape from poverty and to kick-start sustainable economic growth in developing countries. Their product: the KickStart Super-MoneyMaker pump, a foot-activated pump that can irrigate several acres of land, which they sell for US $95. Technology, Innovation and Social Entrepreneurship. How can new technologies reinforce efficiency and impact social business? This was one of many intriguing topics discussed at a recent sustainable business conference organized by Danone and attended by 200 experts from five continents.
The “Danone Communities” social business model was initiated by Franck Riboud (CEO of Groupe Danone) and Muhammad Yunus (banker, economist and Nobel Peace Prize recipient). The mission of Danone Communities: To fund and develop local businesses with a sustainable economic model, oriented towards social goals: reducing poverty and malnutrition. Our team at work I was selected to be a member of the Social Media panel and collaborated with a group of participants that included members of the Grameen Foundation, Orange, BNP, Ericksson, NGO thought leader WiserEarth and clever startups such as Make Sense.
We analyzed several business cases and explored the challenges and possibilities for these technologies: They make social business/Social Business day : Ismail Chaib. “Happy Social Business Day to Ismail Chaib !
He is constantly looking for ways to connect new technologies with social issues. He kickstarted the social business movement in his homecountry Algeria and he created a startup there. Today he works on the project OpenBank in Berlin to get banks to be more transparent. I like : his open source philosophy + his algerian crazy dance moves + his ability to connect people :)"