Creating local business ecosystems … It’s as easy as ABC(D) …
The year has flown by and it is unbelievable that yet another Christmas is upon us. As you plan for the festive season, a season of giving, have you given thought to your company’s social contribution? As an organisation, there is much that can be done to empower and develop independent successful entrepreneurs and local economies. You can play a major role through encouraging the creation of local business ecosystems that will be beneficial to your organisation as well as its surrounding community – and you can be achieve this through social mobilisation. It is that first step towards making a difference, having a positive impact on your immediate environment.
Social mobilisation is an essential pillar of community growth and development. It is a powerful tool to address inequities through community engagement and grassroots led actions. It ensures that priority economic and social concerns are those that are expressed by the community rather than being determined through a company led top-down approach. It is a process of bringing together as many stakeholders as possible to raise awareness of and demand for a particular development programme, to assist in the delivery of resources and services, whilst strengthening community participation for sustainability and self-reliance. It promotes accountability within the community and acts as an internal locus of control. A case study to illustrate the success of such an initiative is without a doubt the Co designing the iKaya Housing policy that was conducted by Christine Breet and her team whilst still working at Zutari. This project won a Gold Award for successfully designing and implementing a new housing policy through different methodologies and change management involving all stakeholders in the process and finding that right fit solution for the challenges of the project. To read more about the project: https://www.iaf-world.org/site/award-winner/co-designing-ikhaya-housing-policy.
Trainbow, a B-BBEE Level 2 contributor and professional provider of skills development, training, hr and recruitment services to medium and large sized corporations, can assist in conceptualising, developing and driving your company’s social mobilisation initiative. We do this through our award-winning and globally recognised social development methodology called Asset Based Community Development (ABCD). We customise and apply ABCD to meet our client’s key performance indicators (KPI), whilst empowering local economies to become self-sustaining; and we can do this for your company as well.
Advocating for and developing entrepreneurs is a sure way to create sustainable small businesses that will become the backbone of the South African economy; and by applying the ABCD methodology companies can provide support and training to individuals and youth in areas of finance, presentation skills, business acumen, life skills, money management and other pertinent topics that are essential for a start-up development and growth.
The focus of ABCD is applied at grass roots level to facilitate an empowerment-driven self-knowledge model that leads to solutions that leverage local expertise in the best ways possible. Through ABCD, individuals will be enabled to start businesses, seek further training, or implement other related projects that add value to the local surroundings. ABCD coupled with other supporting methodologies like the Micro-MBA and Ready-Steady-Go programmes have the potential to grow into enterprise and supplier development initiatives that can be implemented on behalf of clients. Additional opportunities and interventions can also be showcased to ABCD-empowered communities, to really catalyse the growth process.
If you would like to implement enterprise supplier development for your organisation or looking for strategies to augment your already existing social development initiatives, contact
