On May 14-16, Acumen held its first summit of social enterprises and global corporations to explore opportunities for collaboration aimed at expanding access to critical goods and services for poor communities in East and West Africa. The event was the formal kick-off of the Technical Assistance (TA) Initiative, a partnership between Acumen and Dow launched as a Commitment to Action at the Clinton Global Initiative.
The event in fact represented many firsts:
- The first time Acumen had launched a formal effort to provide technical assistance grants to social enterprises
- The first time Acumen had partnered with a network of corporations on technical assistance opportunities
- The first time we brought together leading corporations and pioneering social enterprises to identify common ground and complementary strengths in the development of more inclusive and sustainable markets.
Though the TA Initiative Summit ended on May 16, it has left us with great momentum and some valuable insights. The Summit was truly, in the Acumen spirit, an experiment—a chance to learn by doing. It required a leap of faith from the attendees, from the ten social enterprises that joined from across East and West Africa, and the corporate participants who joined from Michigan, Johannesburg, Dubai and London. The corporate participants came for a chance to learn and identify new opportunities for collaboration between corporations and social enterprises and left filled with ideas for working together. The enterprises were given an opportunity to network with potential corporate partners, and apply for technical assistance grants earmarked for this group.
What became evident during the summit was the desire of the 40 or so participants to make the most of the time together. It was palpable during the active break-out discussions, the buzz in the room during breaks, and the follow-up from many of the participants since. Though the most important indicator for success will be what happens after the summit, we have already heard great feedback from participants that the opportunity to explore partnership opportunities across the social enterprise and corporate worlds was a unique and valuable one. Dozens of commitments to follow up were created at the summit, and we will be going through them and following up with participants in the days and weeks to come.
Our tremendous thanks go to all who joined, who took a chance to explore a critical new frontier in the spread of solutions to global challenges. And especially to Dow Chemical, our partner in the Technical Assistance Initiative, for taking this journey with us.
This blog first appeared on the Acumen blog and is reproduced with permission.
