Several Non Profit Organizations (NPO's) are rising up in Kenya day in day out. They are in the form of organizations that would like to offer a solution to a particular problem facing the society. A common problem is that most organizations find themselves in difficulties after sometimes because of various factors and finacial resources being part of them.
When organizations start they do so with the hope that they will find secret resources stashed in some place. However after starting the reality becomes totally different; they find that they have to look for innovative ways to provide resources that will ensure that they are able to sustain their missions. In most cases when after a year you happen to ask these organisations how they are surviving, the common answer your are bound to receive especially in the Kenyan context is "by the Grace of God." Now, for our case it is important to know how these organizations survive... It will help us to understand in very practical ways what social entrepreneurship is in our own societies today. In 2006 during the World Social Forum a booklet of Street Children Activities and Projects was launched and in it there was a profile of 124 Street Children initiatives in Nairobi. One important observation was that most organization about 50% and over were operating with a budget of Kshs. 500,000 to 1,000,000. When asked about their sources of funds, it was found that over 60% of the 124 homes were self financing. How were they able to do this? This is not only peculiar to street children projects but many projects in Kenya today.
Secondly there were many projects that could not survive. Borrowing a leaf from the projects that were able to survive we ask ourselves were there other factors other than the ability to generate finances that made some of these projects not to be able to survive? And our answer was yes. Some projects failed as a result of disagreements, others as a result of weak leadership,
others as a result of unclear vision and others as a result of lack of transparency and lack of honesty. The list is endless. Do all these have any relevance for the success of a social entreprise! Of course they do! A social entreprise requires as much discipline as the corporates do!
We welcome ideas on failures and successes of projects and any other ideas which do support or challenges our proposal above which suggests that "Social Entrepreneurship could be a Survival Strategy for NPO's in Kenya or elsewhere!
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While passing through the ideas put forward in this blog. I started wondering about various issues involving the post warring countries of Africa. Can social entrepreneurship help us in peace building endervors for example, what about the delapidated economies, and what about the environment?
ReplyDeleteThere is so much that is going on through me now and I wonder what would a better option for a post war Africa, would it be social entrepreneurship or the market economy?
Die Donne Ishaka, DRC