Africa's Future is Ecopreneurship 💪🏽
Entrepreneurship paving the way for resilient social and ecological communities
Dear ReWilder,
Africa is a continent blooming with the possibility and potential to thrive. The continent has the highest entrepreneurship rate in the world, with 22 percent of the working-age population starting up businesses. According to the African Development Bank, Africa's female entrepreneurship rate is also the highest in the world, with 27 percent of the female adult population engaged in early-stage entrepreneurial activity.
However, The African Exponent highlights that these numbers need to be taken with a pinch of salt, as “Sub-Saharan Africa also has the highest small business discontinuance rate of 8.4%... Africa will need 122 million new jobs by 2022.” How do we create holistic economic ecosystems that support young startups and African entrepreneurs?
The film above is a film we recently made for SEED | Siyabuddy. Siyabuddy works in partnership with the Municipality and operates at the Steenbok Landfill Site. The business is 100% youth and black-owned, with a woman partner having 40% of the company shares.
“My favourite Sustainable Development Goal is Goal 12, which is responsible consumption and production. It’s addressing the circular lifecycle of every product. It’s up to us, the producers and the consumers, to make sure we don’t further deteriorate the planet we live in.” - Nomuntu Ndhlovy - SiyaBuddy Director
How do we foster resilient entrepreneurial environments in African contexts? Siyabuddy is leading the way through the empowerment of local communities, youth, women, and focusing on addressing social and environmental issues in the same conversation.
“At Siyabuddy we have an aim to enhance environmental conservation by addressing social issues such as unemployment, poverty, economic exclusion.” - Siyabonga Tshabalala - Siyabuddy Operations Director
Start-ups play an essential role in developing innovative and imaginative solutions that meet the needs of developing and emerging countries. It is the entrepreneurial spirit of businesses like Siyabuddy that reveal the core of Africa’s resilience. Where there is entrepreneurship, there is hope and an overflowing reservoir of drive to find solutions that support people and planet.
What can you do? ✋🏽
💭 You can start by opening up the dialogue and sharing this film on Twitter with just one click!
🎯Learn more about SEEDs eco-inclusive vision, and how they’re promoting entrepreneurship for sustainable development.
💸 Shop local and vote for entrepreneurs with your wallet. Whether it’s a coffee, cupboard or even Kalahari Melon seed oil … it goes a long way to supporting African entrepreneurs.
If you’re looking to start a business or design a new project, consider Learning Biomimicry as a toolset to apply what Nature has already figured out.
🤝🏽Support diversity! Learn more about the owners of businesses that surround you and make an effort to support small businesses run by minority groups, women, and youth.
Create a sense of shared investment between entrepreneurs and the communities they serve. Entrepreneurs solve problems; so we need to begin looking at our cities and towns as centres for innovation and creative problem-solving.
News from ReWild 🐾
We had a successful webinar with Explorer.land and African Origin Oils, discussing Storytelling for a Wilder World
ReWild is heading up South Africa Garden Route later this week, and will be popping into Edens Festival of Action with GreenPop, will you?
ReWilds looking for 2 X interns to join our team this coming summer, if you’re passionate about editing or animation, check out our careers page (please share this message on to others who may be interested too)
If you’re interested in working in the wild, check out our latest experiences page - taking place in the Kruger this October (2021)
--
Wild Regards,
Team ReWild Africa