as published by Human First Works and as adapted from the research of Ronja Kötzer: “From Aid to Agency: Empowerment through Social Entrepreneurship in Sub-Saharan Africa – A Case Study of the Social Innovation Academy”
“Since joining SINA, I feel like I have been empowered to know what I want to do with my life and how to do it. SINA has offered me new perspectives for envisioning my future which I didn’t have before.”
The world faces significant inequalities, with poverty and hunger prevalent. The wealthiest one percent contribute disproportionately to environmental damage, reflecting choices made by humanity. However, we can change this narrative—by choosing to eradicate poverty, fight inequality, uphold human rights, combat climate change, and work towards a more equitable global economy. As we navigate a time of interconnected global crises—marked by record heat, increased armed conflicts, and an unprecedented rise in displaced individuals—we see that wealth disparity continues to grow. The richest one percent own a substantial portion of global wealth while the poorest face heightened vulnerability, leading to a rise in poverty after decades of progress.
Current global frameworks like the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) reveal that we must catch up to our targets, with only two goals on track for success, largely due to the interlinked crises exacerbating inequalities. Traditional capitalist-driven development models from the Global North have contributed to ecological and human crises, prompting a reevaluation of what “development” means—suggesting a shift towards “sustainable survival.” Given these challenges, fostering hope and empowering those affected by these crises is crucial. This requires moving away from top-down approaches to more adaptable, locally-driven solutions. The Social Innovation Academy (SINA) in East Africa exemplifies this shift by empowering marginalized youth to become proactive agents of change, developing sustainable solutions that align with the SDGs.
This thesis explores the potential of social entrepreneurship as a solution to the complex challenges faced by marginalized communities in Sub-Saharan Africa, using the Social Innovation Academy (SINA) as a case study. By examining theoretical frameworks like post-development, dependency theory, Ubuntu, and Afrocentrism, the research aims to highlight alternative development models that empower marginalized communities. SINA operates in sixteen communities across six countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, addressing poverty, youth unemployment, and failing education systems. It employs a community-based, self-governed approach, enabling disadvantaged youth to transform their challenges into opportunities by creating social enterprises.
Despite existing research on social entrepreneurship, there’s a lack of practical frameworks tailored to Sub-Saharan Africa. The study by Ronja Kötzer, titled “From Aid to Agency: Empowerment through Social Entrepreneurship in Sub-Saharan Africa – A Case Study of the Social Innovation Academy”, aims to fill this gap by examining how social entrepreneurship can act as a decolonial, bottom-up alternative to traditional development approaches, contributing to a more comprehensive understanding of its role in Africa’s socio-economic landscape. The central research question of this thesis is: “How does the Social Innovation Academy (SINA), as a community-based social entrepreneurship initiative, empower local communities in Sub-Saharan Africa and contribute to more sustainable and decolonial development, particularly concerning the role of agency?”
To answer this, the research explores two dimensions:
Theoretical Level: This level examines development models, focusing on decolonial and alternative approaches, to understand how these can promote equitable and participatory community-led development. The question is: What are the theoretical implications of embracing decolonial alternatives to traditional development models?
Practical Implementation Level: This examines how SINA, as a social entrepreneurship initiative, empowers marginalized communities, addresses challenges, and fosters sustainable, decolonial development. The thesis aims to critically analyze traditional development paradigms, explore alternative approaches like Ubuntu and delinking, and assess SINA’s role in promoting community empowerment. This interdisciplinary study links theoretical perspectives with practical insights, using activist research methodology to understand how social entrepreneurship can serve as a tool for sustainable change in Sub-Saharan Africa.
“SINA’s problem-solving-oriented model emphasizes social entrepreneurship as a sustainable and empowering approach for individuals, as the solutions developed are owned by the people and can be financially self-sustaining.
Let’s explore the concepts of ‘development’ and ‘social entrepreneurship,’
Development: Development is portrayed as a multifaceted concept encompassing economic, social, cultural, and political dimensions. It involves interconnected aspects such as socio-economic, environmental, and gender matters, with the “hexagon of development” framework emphasizing six key dimensions: political stability, economic capacity, social justice, ecological sustainability, cultural identity, and social participation (Menzel, 2010). Although often seen as positive, ‘development’ risks becoming an arbitrary term due to its widespread, varied usage. Therefore, inclusive and participatory solutions are recommended for addressing socio-economic and environmental inequalities.
Social Entrepreneurship – A Catalyst for Change: Social entrepreneurship is characterized by innovative solutions addressing societal challenges that traditional methods often overlook. Unlike NGOs, social enterprises use business models prioritizing social impact over profit maximization, reinvesting profits into their ventures. They contribute to sustainable development, particularly in low-income countries, by empowering marginalized communities and fostering self-sustainability. Collaboration between NGOs and social businesses can be more effective in achieving shared goals, as accentuated by Mahfuz Ashraf et al. (2019).
The thesis explores how imperialism, capitalism, and neo-colonialism maintain dependencies in the Global South. It uses dependency theory and critiques traditional development models, promoting decoloniality to break colonial structures in development. Like SINA’s work, the framework highlights social entrepreneurship as key to fostering sustainable and inclusive growth.
Dependency theory argues that global capitalism perpetuates inequality between developed (metropolis) and less developed (periphery) nations by keeping the latter dependent. It traces this dependency to colonialism and exploiting peripheral regions for raw materials. Andre Gunder Frank believes capitalist exploitation by developed countries causes underdevelopment, while Samir Amin advocates for peripheral nations to disengage from capitalism and pursue independent, socialist development. Mignolo expands on this by calling for an epistemic delinking, challenging Eurocentric knowledge systems.
Critics of dependency theory argue that it oversimplifies complex relationships and ignores local factors, but its concepts remain relevant in understanding current inequalities. Alternatives like degrowth, which advocates for reduced consumption in the Global North to allow Southern economies to develop sustainably, align with decolonial principles, and seek to create more just and diverse paths to development.
Decoloniality and SINA’s Approach
Decolonial thinkers like Ndlovu-Gatsheni and Mignolo critique Eurocentric knowledge as the root cause of underdevelopment and emphasize that true transformation comes from knowledge rooted in local cultures and experiences. Decoloniality is about rejecting imposed power structures and promoting liberation from oppressive systems. In line with these ideas, SINA focuses on empowering marginalized communities through bottom-up approaches, allowing individuals to shape their paths free from external forces.
Challenging ‘Development’
The post-development critique emphasizes how traditional ‘development’ is an imposition from the Global North, reinforcing inequalities. SINA aligns with the notion that communities should reject the “developed vs. underdeveloped” narrative and instead focus on self-determined projects that foster agency and empowerment. By prioritizing local values and grassroots movements, SINA creates an alternative model that resonates with Esteva and Escobar’s argument for “alternatives to development.”
African Alternatives to Development
SINA, situated within an African context, responds to post-colonial challenges by fostering independence from Western ideas. Drawing on concepts like Ubuntu, SINA encourages development rooted in African values, emphasizing agency, empowerment, and sustainable solutions. The organization’s approach reflects calls by scholars like Claude Ake for delinking from the global capitalist system, advocating for genuine empowerment driven by African people. In essence, SINA’s work serves as a practical application of decolonial theory, emphasizing self-reliance, indigenous knowledge, and community-led development as pathways to true empowerment and transformation in Sub-Saharan Africa.
The focus on SINA in “Rethinking ‘Development’ in Africa” highlights the need to challenge the traditional Western-centric models of development and advocate for a more Afrocentric approach. It emphasizes the failures of externally imposed frameworks and the importance of prioritizing African agency, self-determination, and grassroots participation. Thought leaders like Gumede, Ake, and Nyerere underscore the value of bottom-up approaches, community involvement, and reclaiming Africa’s cultural, social, and historical narratives in development strategies. By promoting concepts like Afrocentrism and Ubuntu, the text calls for development paths that align with African values, experiences, and realities.
The concept of Ubuntu offers an African-centered approach to development that challenges the failures of conventional Western models. Ubuntu is rooted in values such as love, care, compassion, reciprocity, and collective well-being, aligning development practices with indigenous knowledge and cultural relevance. This African philosophy advocates for community-based, process-oriented development, where the well-being of individuals is inherently tied to the collective.
SINA embodies Ubuntu by empowering marginalized communities through social innovation, fostering a culture of shared leadership, and enabling individuals to contribute to the greater good. SINA’s emphasis on self-help, inclusivity, and the decolonization of development practices showcases how African communities can address socio-economic challenges by drawing on their strengths, knowledge systems, and interconnectedness, creating sustainable solutions that resonate with their lived experiences and realities.
The Participatory Action Research (PAR) at SINA was designed to be inclusive and transparent, following Paulo Freire’s emancipatory approach. By immersing themselves in the community, the researcher captured personal narratives and experiences, highlighting stories of displacement, poverty, unemployment, and oppression. Semi-structured expert interviews were conducted with SINA’s co-founder, a replicator, and a former member turned advisor to gain insights into SINA’s impact on social entrepreneurship, youth empowerment, and scalability.
Additionally, a mixed-methods approach was used, involving surveys across five different SINA communities in Uganda and Tanzania. This provided a comprehensive understanding of SINA’s impact, capturing personal growth, empowerment, and challenges faced by scholars. Despite challenges like political instability, communication barriers, and logistical issues, the research emphasized an Afrocentric and decolonial approach, ensuring community involvement and genuine reflection of SINA’s impact on marginalized communities.
Limitations of the Research (Focus on SINA)
While the case study of SINA may not provide a universal template for other programs or social entrepreneurship initiatives, it highlights significant struggles and successes that offer valuable insights. These insights can inform broader development discourses, even with limited empirical evidence. The case study is context-specific, emphasizing the need to tailor approaches to local needs and aligning with decolonial and Afrocentric perspectives.
However, the uniqueness of each community’s experiences and challenges raises questions about the transferability of findings. The rapidly changing environment and diversity of SINA’s communities may limit the broader applicability of the research. Although the interdisciplinary approach of this thesis has enriched the findings, it may have limited the depth of analysis in certain areas.
Case Study: SINA – Empowering Marginalized Youth through Social Entrepreneurship
SINA is a community-based organization that addresses youth unemployment, poverty, and education deficiencies in Sub-Saharan Africa through its empowerment model, focusing on agency and social entrepreneurship. Established in Uganda in 2014, SINA aims to equip marginalized young people with entrepreneurial skills and tools for personal growth, enabling them to transform challenges into sustainable solutions.
SINA’s unique empowerment model encourages scholars to learn, fail, ideate, and discover their purpose, fostering self-reliance and community resilience. It emphasizes context-specific approaches and allows each community to adapt and evolve without rigid structures, facilitating the creation of social enterprises that address local challenges.
SINA’s “Community of Communities” model has expanded across several African countries, establishing 16 communities and creating over 80 social enterprises that have generated 973 jobs. It employs principles like Holacracy and ‘freesponsibility’ to break down hierarchies, empower participants, and foster agency and collective progress.
Through its work, SINA demonstrates how community-driven, Afrocentric approaches to development can create sustainable change, emphasizing that solutions must be adaptable, context-specific, and centered on the agency of marginalized individuals.
SINA’s Empowerment Model: A Deep Dive into Stages of Transformation
“SINA creates a space for individuals ‘to grow, to make mistakes and to learn from them, to hold each other accountable’ and find their solutions through experiential learning, unleashing their potential and empowering them to ‘become the change they want to see in the world.”
- Applied (Confusion) Social Innovation Stage In this initial phase, scholars enter SINA’s environment, leaving behind their familiar reality. The focus is on personal growth, ‘unlearning’ limiting beliefs, gaining self-awareness, pushing comfort zones, and discovering one’s potential. Activities include problem-solving, finding life purposes, and engaging in non-violent communication, all of which contribute to scholars creating their space in the community.
- Emerging Stage Scholars adopt more responsibilities through self-organized, experience-based learning, guided by mentors and accountability partners. This stage offers practical training, such as an apprenticeship program and intensive boot camp, that imparts skills for running a social enterprise and implementing Holacracy. Scholars identify problems in their communities, form teams, and develop solutions aligned with their experiences and the SDGs.
- Concentration Stage Here, scholars prototype, test, and refine their solutions with real customers. They gain a deep understanding of their target audience and market, generate revenue, and secure stakeholder support, moving closer to developing sustainable social enterprises.
- Linking Stage Scholars transition into fully functioning social enterprises by establishing legal structures, opening bank accounts, ensuring compliance, and creating their jobs. This stage is where ideas transform into tangible ventures.
- Mastery Stage Scholars continue developing their enterprises independently, expanding beyond SINA’s campuses. This ongoing process includes mentorship, business training, and access to SINA’s international network, ensuring that learning and growth remain lifelong endeavors.
Fostering Agency and Ownership
SINA’s model focuses on promoting agency, autonomy, and independence, equipping scholars to adapt to labor market demands. A significant takeaway is that scholars gain the skills, confidence, and support needed to create sustainable social enterprises. SINA’s approach empowers scholars to overcome limiting beliefs and cultivate a mindset of self-reliance and responsibility.
Survey Insights: Educational Empowerment and Personal Growth
This illustrates the survey results regarding SINA’s educational empowerment approach
and the broadening of scholars’ perspectives on issues such as sustainability, climate change
and social inclusion.
SINA’s Role in Addressing Global Agency Gaps
In line with the UNDP’s Human Development Report (2024), SINA’s empowerment model reflects the principles needed to narrow agency gaps: being people-centered, co-owned, and future-oriented. Scholars develop agency by engaging in self-governance, purpose-driven initiatives, and collaborative decision-making. This process ensures that they become active drivers of change within their communities.
Social Entrepreneurship as an Empowerment Tool
SINA’s model prioritizes problem-solving through social entrepreneurship, allowing scholars to address challenges they’ve personally faced. The creation of social enterprises enables long-term sustainability, aligning with the SDGs. Scholars transition from passive aid recipients to active agents of change, capable of leading initiatives that address social and economic challenges independently.
SINA’s empowerment model is a transformative approach that equips marginalized youth with the tools, mindset, and agency to redefine their futures. By fostering self-reliance, purpose, and entrepreneurial skills, SINA creates a path for sustainable change, emphasizing local solutions and collective empowerment. The Social Innovation Academy (SINA) serves as a pioneering example of how social entrepreneurship can be harnessed to address critical societal challenges in Uganda, aligning closely with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
SINA’s Impact on the SDGs
Over 80 independent social enterprises have been established by SINA scholars, with many focusing on SDG 3 (Good Health and Well-being), SDG 1 (No Poverty), and SDG 2 (Zero Hunger). This reflects a prioritization of community well-being and an emphasis on addressing pressing local issues. These enterprises cover diverse sectors such as agriculture, upcycling, women’s and refugee empowerment, and environmental sustainability. Examples include:
- Kimuli Collections: Employs people with disabilities and upcycles African textiles and waste into clothing, impacting over 130 people.
- Pendeza Shelters: Provides affordable, eco-friendly housing using recycled plastic bottles, offering shelter to over 300 households.
- Gejja Women Foundation: Empowers marginalized women through sustainable sanitary pad production and skills training.
- Totya Platform: Supports over 10,000 survivors of sexual abuse through trauma recovery programs.
- Smart Kitchen Solutions: Produces eco-friendly briquettes from organic waste, offering sustainable cooking alternatives.
- Uganics: Reduces malaria cases by producing mosquito-repellent soap, reaching over 200 Ugandan households.
- Tusafishe: Provides bio-sand filters for clean drinking water to over 300,000 users, significantly reducing water-borne diseases.
Ubuntu Philosophy and Community Empowerment
SINA’s approach to social entrepreneurship is deeply rooted in the Ubuntu philosophy, which emphasizes community, collaboration, and collective problem-solving. This approach contrasts with more individualistic Western entrepreneurship models, fostering reciprocity, inclusion, and a sense of belonging. The SINA model aligns with Ubuntu principles by focusing on individual growth and well-being as the foundation for building a larger community ecosystem. This sense of belonging is evident in the scholars’ strong connection to a shared mission, which enhances their awareness of political and social issues impacting their communities.
Challenges and SINA’s Role in the Social Entrepreneurship Ecosystem
SINA operates in a context where social entrepreneurship is often undervalued, but it actively challenges this by advocating for locally-driven solutions and purpose-aligned funding. While many social enterprises face challenges such as limited access to funding, bureaucratic rigidity, and external influences, SINA’s bottom-up, grassroots approach empowers communities to create tailored solutions. This approach contrasts with traditional development agencies’ centralized decision-making, which often lacks an understanding of local contexts.
SINA’s Approach to Sustainable Development
SINA emphasizes that social enterprises should strive to become obsolete by solving the problems they were created to address, aligning with a philosophy of “green growth” and transitioning toward “degrowth.” This reflects a commitment to sustainable solutions that are long-term and community-driven, focusing on independence and self-reliance. In summary, SINA exemplifies how African-centered approaches, rooted in the philosophy of Ubuntu, can drive sustainable development through social entrepreneurship, fostering local agency, empowerment, and community transformation.
Conclusion and Critical Evaluation of SINA
The Social Innovation Academy (SINA) has shown a remarkable commitment to empowering marginalized communities through social entrepreneurship, enhancing agency, self-confidence, and a sense of belonging among participants. However, there are areas where SINA can further improve to maximize its impact:
- Fostering Afrocentric Identity: While SINA focuses on “unlearning limiting beliefs,” there’s an opportunity to deepen its critique of colonial histories and neo-colonial dependencies to foster a more Afrocentric value system. This would strengthen identity and self-reliance among scholars.
- Sustainability of Enterprises: SINA enterprises face challenges in maintaining sustainability. Implementing a ‘fast-track’ reassessment boot camp could help these ventures redefine strategies, although financial and resource constraints remain a concern.
- Gender Balance: Efforts should be made to achieve better gender representation among scholars, addressing barriers and integrating gender equality into the SINA framework.
SINA is actively refining its processes, but funding and recognition remain significant challenges. Building collaborative networks with local communities, governments, and international organizations could help overcome these barriers, providing crucial support in funding and mentorship.
Discussion of the Research Outcomes
The research validates that SINA embodies an alternative development model, emphasizing bottom-up, community-driven approaches that empower individuals to become changemakers:
- Horizontal Organizational Model: SINA’s use of Holacracy fosters equal relationships, giving scholars freedom and responsibility to define their life purpose, aligning with Sen’s (1999) idea of freedom.
- Decolonial Epistemologies: SINA’s empowerment model allows scholars to unlearn limiting beliefs, fostering autonomy and leadership in their development. This decolonial approach is foundational to SINA’s success.
- Delinking and Community Solutions: Inspired by Samir Amin’s concept of delinking, SINA promotes innovative, local solutions like malaria prevention soap and sustainable charcoal alternatives, emphasizing community well-being over profit.
SINA’s model showcases how community-based social entrepreneurship can offer self-determined, culturally relevant solutions, countering criticisms of post-development theories that often romanticize grassroots efforts.
The Way Forward: Building Bridges
- Structural Change and Decentralized Empowerment Sustainable development in Sub-Saharan Africa requires embracing decentralized structures and empowering local communities to create innovative solutions tailored to their unique contexts.
- Dialogue, Partnerships, and Strategic Alliances Collaboration among diverse stakeholders—grassroots projects, CBOs, NGOs, social enterprises, and international organizations—can create powerful synergies. Building partnerships based on mutual respect will drive decolonial empowerment and systemic change.
- Purpose-Aligned Funding and Direct Support for CBOs Funding structures must shift to support grassroots initiatives directly, allowing communities greater control over resources. A comprehensive platform to share knowledge, funding opportunities, and resources would be a valuable addition, facilitating partnerships among social enterprises.
Limitations and Further Research
Further interdisciplinary participatory action research is needed, especially across various contexts, to deepen our understanding of empowerment models like SINA. Comparing SINA with other development projects can provide insights into alternative approaches and best practices.
Outlook
SINA exemplifies how social entrepreneurship can address socio-economic challenges in Africa, integrating post-development and decolonial theories with practical application. While not a one-size-fits-all solution, SINA demonstrates the transformative potential of small-scale initiatives in catalyzing systemic change. A more collaborative approach involving governments, businesses, and communities will be crucial to realizing the full potential of such initiatives. In reimagining development through the lens of local agency and empowerment, SINA offers a promising model for achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) inclusively, placing local changemakers at the forefront of international development.