Investigating Inclusive Business Models in Africa

By Richard David Kyle: "IT'S AFRICA TIME"

Investigating Inclusive Business Models in Africa

Woolworths through its Good Business Journey, has a comprehensive plan to make a difference in six priority areas: sustainable farming, protecting water supplies, reducing energy use, improving the management of waste, making a significant contribution to social development and supporting transformation initiatives

As part of the company’s CSR investment, Woolworths was the first and main donor to the Cape Town based Clothing Bank, which has successfully created a seamless supply chain between the retail clothing industry and disadvantaged communities, using clothing excesses to deliver an empowering training and enterprise development programme for local women. “IT’S AFRICA’S TIME” reports on the Woolworths Farming for the Future initiative, a shared value intervention that is intrinsically linked to the retailer’s core business, and also impacts positively on the environment, communities and Woolworths clientele.

PPC Ltd is the leading supplier of cement in Southern Africa and a company committed to sustainable Local Economic Development projects across four basic pillars; job creation/enterprise development, poverty alleviation, education and healthcare in the communities in which it operates. ”IT’S AFRICA’S TIME” visits Time for Change in Gauteng, Johannesburg and The Field Band Foundation in Northern Cape, Kimberley, to look at some of the holistic impacts of this PPC Social Investment.

Time for Change is an innovative NGO based in Hillbrow which provides former commercial sex workers and youth living on the streets with opportunities to reinvent themselves and receive skills training to assist them in gaining formal employment. “ITS AFRICA’S TIME” also investigates how the Field Band Foundation trains youth from marginalised areas through the creativity and discipline of music and dance, and talks with the Kimberley Field Band Coordinator about this ‘music for life’ approach.

Mediclinic’s corporate social investment policy is built on a three-tier platform, namely public private initiatives, joint ventures and volunteerism. The platforms are integral to the group’s sustainable development strategy of economic, social and environmental performance, ie: triple bottom line.

“ITS AFRICA’S TIME” travels to the Northern Cape to learn about the Mediclinic Kimberley cataract project where a team of private specialist Ophthalmologists help to address the backlog of cataract operations in the province and enable a broader section of South African society to access quality healthcare. The documentary also reports on the Best Care… Always! campaign, an initiative supporting Southern African healthcare organisations to implement current best practice interventions which ensure patient safety and sustainable healthcare management.

Editor’s Note:

The TV series “IT’S AFRICA’S TIME” is designed to promote and encourage the adoption of the inclusive business model as a component of corporate growth strategy in Africa, the TV series demonstrates how this approach can make a contribution towards the UN’s Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

“IT’S AFRICA’S TIME” is supported by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and produced by Regency Foundation Networx, in association with Cape Town-based production company, Man Makes a Picture.

For more on “IT’s AFRICA TIME”: http://www.itsafricastime.org/

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