To Rip Off the Band-Aid, Bet on Social Innovation
Read the first part here.
Since 2015, the Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF) has trained 2.5 million young Africans and provided over 21,000 of them with more than $100 million in funding. This is laudable, yet these grants only account for 0.84% of trained entrepreneurs. This is a reminder that African entrepreneurs, despite being trained and mentored, remain underfunded. Bold investments from big philanthropy could unlock the deep-seated impact that Africa needs and is ready for.
However, big bets are not without their challenges. Sometimes, donor foci change, ventures fail, and bureaucracy hinders impact. Other times, even the most passionate founders underestimate the needs of their community while overestimating their capacity in the face of volatility, weak infrastructure, and hostile systems.
A Necessary Reframing
Simple solutions are often dismissed as band aids in development because they don’t visibly address root causes, or solve problems in a complex way. However, I think we ought to reconsider what Band-Aids are.
Nearly every minute, an African child dies a preventable death caused by malaria before her fifth birthday. How then can we call mosquito nets, a simple but effective innovation that saves millions of lives, a band-aid? Similarly, evidence from Give Directly shows that a one-time cash transfer of $1000 to a low-income family immediately increased income, sustained income and assets five years after, and sustained employment up to twelve years later.
Given the paucity of local, founder and grass-roots-led voices in philanthropic discourse, it is not surprising that much-needed nuance is lost. More than any other time in history, there is knowledgeable, driven, and passionate talent willing to drive change through social innovation. What’s left are big swings.
So I ask, how can the impact sector bet on African talent, enabling co-creation and funding varied solutions to challenges that disproportionately affect them?
Transparency
Grant requirements should be incredibly candid about what funders are looking for. Grey areas, where they exist, should equally be clear. This helps funders find aligned ventures quickly, while saving the time and expertise of all parties involved.
Local Knowledge
More funders are electing to work with local partners while making grant decisions. This is ideal. Funders should seek experts who bring nuance and context alongside knowledge and experience. Local partners should not be an afterthought, but should be integral parts of the grantmaking process, as consultants, grants staff, judges and advisors.
There must also be an intentional unlearning of the hero complex. Grantees should be recognized and acknowledged as creators, experts and leaders driving change.
Standards
Big bets are risky; this is a fact. But funders can mitigate risks and prevent resulting harm through relevant criteria. For example, the Mulago Foundation only funds high-impact organizations that will scale. It does not support one-time projects. To reach non-Anglophone countries in LMIC, some funders deprioritise classic criteria such as excellent English skills in their evaluations.
Instead of becoming exclusionary, standards can be harnessed to connect African talent to much-needed opportunities.
Flexibility
Standards are required, but funders must remain flexible. The peculiarity of social innovation at the grassroots is its proximity to volatility. Rigidity can lead to wasted resources and sometimes harm.
Funders should encourage open and proactive communication with grantees to foster mutual trust. Amidst constraints, there should be trust that the grantee has the expertise to pivot if needed. The grantee must also trust that funders will support clear, communicated and reasonable decisions.
Support
Many founders find further success through previous partners. This includes training programs, introductions, nominations, and sometimes, additional funding. In a sector that is quickly losing its risk appetite despite vast potential, these means can make a difference between the venture that fails and the one that scales.
For example, Charlot Magayi of Mukuru Clean Stoves became an Echoing Green fellow in 2020. Mukuru Clean Stoves was later nominated by Echoing Green for the Earthshot Prize in 2022. Some grants include fundraising bootcamps run by experts and consultants, while other funders provide follow-on funding of up to five years if the venture continues to scale and make a measurable impact.
Sometimes, direct additional support isn’t immediately available or possible. In these cases, grantees should continue communicating their impact, while proactively identifying third-party resources or networks that could help funders close the loop.
Technology
Some funders value technology more than other interventions. Other funders believe that technology can further exclude people in communities where even the most basic needs haven’t been met.
However, while internet infrastructure remains limited and expensive, mobile technology adoption continues to rise across LMIC. Libya was the most digitally developed African country in 2024, according to the Information and Communication Technology Development Index. Yet, it ranks 115th on the Human Development Index, contending with the aftermath of years-long conflict, natural disasters and a poverty rate of up to 40%.
This tension between technological access and socioeconomic reality is evident in many African countries, including Nigeria. As a result, a segment of the population risks being excluded on both sides. They lack many resources, but the ones they do have aren’t being leveraged to address the problems they face.
Undoubtedly, the digital divide in Africa still exists. But technology will be integral to the future of big bets. The big question, however, is what kind of technology?
One of such innovations is ConnectEd, a phone-based tutoring program that delivers foundational numeracy and literacy lessons to children in low-income settings. The program uses a basic mobile phone, with no internet and no apps required. With Africa’s appetite for innovation at a high, ignoring the potential at the intersection of impact, technology, and nuance could be folly.
At the end of the year, Do They Know It’s Christmas will hit the airwaves again, bringing joy and laughter to many, never mind what it represents for others. But Africans know it’s Christmas; that is hard to miss. What matters most, however, is that the impact sector not only walks the talk but also funds it. Big problems require big solutions, ones that Africans are ready to solve. Will big aid bet on them?
If you work in funding, social entrepreneurship, or social impact, I share reflections every two weeks.
In the meantime, if you’re looking for daily reads from me, I post practical insights and reflections from my work as a grantmaker and social entrepreneur on LinkedIn.