Social Entrepreneurs Transforming Africa Fellowship

Social Entrepreneurs Transforming Africa (SET Africa) is a fellowship program for young social entrepreneurs from across Anglophone Africa. SET Africa provides these young leaders with training, networking, and funding opportunities. The programme is managed by the Makerere University Business School (MUBS) Entrepreneurship Centre in Kampala, Uganda. SET Africa is part of the YouthActionNet® global network of 16 institutes supporting 889 young social entrepreneurs around the world who are impacting 1.3 million lives annually.

SET Africa now invites applications from young social innovators in Anglophone Africa who are founders or co-founders of ventures with a social mission to apply for the SET Africa fellowship run by MUBS. Fellows under this programme will be trained in entrepreneurship and leadership. They will also receive funds to help grow their social enterprises and implement activities to achieve their vision.

The SET Africa programme is managed in collaboration with MUBS, the International Youth Foundation, The MasterCard Foundation, and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

What Kinds of Ventures Are We Are Looking For?

a)      Ventures led by youth between 18 and 29 years old that are making a difference in their community.

b)      The venture should have at least one year of impact in the community.

c)      The venture should be able to demonstrate evidence in addressing social problems such as improving access to services like education, finance, health, counseling,  capacity building, helping households increasing incomes, helping children grow in a good environment etc.

d)      The venture can be a non-profit, for-profit, or hybrid business model.

Eligible Applicants:

a)      Must be a founder or co-founder of a social venture.

b)       Should be a citizen from an Anglophone Country (See list of Countries).

c)      Should be between 18 – 29 years by February 24, 2014.

d)       Can demonstrate innovative approaches in addressing social problems.

e)      Should be proficient in English

f)       Must be willing and able to attend a leadership retreat in Kampala, Uganda.

For more information, click here.

Weekly Roundup

Hello everyone and welcome to another Africa-focused review of progress initiatives and reports. Among the highlights this week we have:

• Africa 2.0: Harnessing natural resource wealth for economic transformation will be the theme of the 13^th International Economic Forum on Africa that will take place in the OECD Conference Centre on Monday 7 October, 2013.Organized by the Development Centre brings together OECD and African policy-makers with academia, civil society and private sector leaders to discuss Africa’s main challenges and opportunities. This year, the Forum will focus on strategies to promote greater economic diversification and inclusive development in the continent.
• Education is Essential for Development, an article by Pauline Rose of EFA Global Monitoring Report discusses the importance in equality in the access to education and its impact on different components of well-being and development through the insights of new data.  “If education inequality in sub-Saharan Africa had been halved to the level of Latin America and the Caribbean, for example, the annual per capita growth rate over 2005-2010 would have been 47% higher”.
• In this article, Africa and climate change: What's at stake?, Richard Munang and Joy Hyvarinen discusses the impact of climate change in Africa and the upcoming negotiations on this topic in 2014-2015 in Poland (Warsaw), Peru and France (Paris).  African countries have always called for more political commitment in this area, face several obstacles and needs to capitalize on this reality to meet this challenge by forcing world countries to compromise for a better future. A lack of progress will have dire impacts in Africa and on its inhabitants.
• Seaulidarité in Dakar. Facing a water shortage for the last two weeks, citizens in Dakar have been using the web as a way to find and share water. A ruptured pipe having caused a severe shortage in some areas, this article discusses how an app on Facebook helps identify those who are deprived of water and those who want to share theirs. Social connections are reinforced through technology in a context of crisis.
• Políticas Públicas para El Buen Vivir y el Bienestar, the theme for Wikiprogress América Latina’s first online discussion. It started this Thursday September 26^th and will end on October 7^th. The discussion will be a unique opportunity to reflect and exchange best practices, research and experiences on well-being and “buen vivir” in Latin America.Here is the link:   http://bit.ly/19vQBTK and the hashtag for Twitter: #Bienestar and #PoliticasPublicas
• Global poverty has fallen at an unprecedented rate yetgrowth alone will not be enough to eradicate it altogether. To reach the goal of ending extreme poverty by 2030 as quickly as possible, Judith Randel of Development Initiatives  tells us which domains to target, to have the greatest impact on reducing poverty in this video  below.

We hope you enjoyed this review. Stay tuned the same time next week for another roundup of the week that was.

Yours in progress,

Ousmane Aly DIALLO