Collaboration In Action:
The power of partnership in strengthening entrepreneurial ecosystems
Impact Hub has had a front seat in the evolution of entrepreneurial ecosystems in different parts of the world. We have seen entrepreneurs weather difficult conditions, including unstable political and social contexts and economic shocks, in the diverse regions where the Impact Hub network is present.
In the 10 years since the first Impact Hub was launched in London, the network has grown into a global network of over 73+ Impact Hubs spread in cities across the world — from Japan to Dubai to Amsterdam to Ghana to Rwanda to Venezuela and Brazil — inspiring, connecting and enabling entrepreneurs and innovation in entrepreneurial ecosystems around the world.
It has always been our core belief that impact cannot happen in isolation — it requires collective collaboration. In this post on Entrepreneurial Resilience: From Ego Systems to Eco Systems, Boris Alberda, Business Development manager, Cordaid reiterates:
“Partnering demands respect and investing time in each other and perseverance to work with people who do things differently.”
In practical terms, these two organizations have collaborated since 2014 on Resilience Africa. The initiative aims to develop strong and resilient local entrepreneurial ecosystems and subsequently local economies and societies in up to five countries across Africa. The initiative includes a Seed Programme, Impact Hub Fellowship programme and a series of thought leadership events.
Cordaid brings on board a 100 year legacy contributing to the structural social change and transformation that is needed to build flourishing communities in fragile and conflict-affected areas. Impact Hub completes this loop by bringing in its experience building spaces and programmes to support entrepreneurs. Together, they collaborate to facilitate the momentum around creating resilient ecosystems for entrepreneurs.
And from the very beginning, Impact Hub and Cordaid have invited other ecosystem actors, a process who’s crescendo was the conference on Re-Imagining Resilience.
“Collaboration is a process…[and] our intent here as Impact Hub is to host the learning process for collaboration,” says Gabriela Gandel, Managing Director, Impact Hub Global. “And that is why we brought all of these diverse players; they’re all actually sharing the belief that there is a possibility and a need for collaboration; but we need to practice it, to actually collaborate rather than just talk about it and make it a nice concept between us.”
For two days, entrepreneurs, investors, representatives from government, researchers, social entrepreneurs, business leaders, donors, innovators and global citizens from various parts of the world gathered in Addis Ababa. Their task: to find out what makes entrepreneurial ecosystems more resilient — so that that more and more entrepreneurs in difficult political, social and economic contexts can thrive. Here are some of the insights harvested from this gathering.
Imagination, Resilience and Entrepreneurship:
Resilience
One of the major takeaways during the conference was that resilience is already happening. As Rahel Boon-Dejene, an entrepreneur in Ethiopia (Founder R&D Group) and Cordaid Partner says, in this interview:
“In terms of Africa, entrepreneurs are resilient and I don’t think there is something more we can teach them about resilience. I mean they fight life everyday… I don’t think we can make them more resilient, or that you can make me more resilient. But resilient entrepreneurs can help other resilient entrepreneurs by learning best practices from each other.”
And this is also true for organizations, foundations, civil society, investors, donors, government agencies and other stakeholders who want to create environments where entrepreneurship can thrive.
“We grow ecosystems for entrepreneurs, we can’t build them. We’re gardeners much more than construction workers,” says Nicholas Coloff, Argidius Foundation.
Imagination
For us to realize the benefits of what is possible when we each play our part in contributing to stronger whole; one that makes a strong ecosystem for entrepreneurs, we need to be bold and ambitious enough to create a space where we can imagine how this could happen.
“Imagination is more important than knowledge,” quipped Albert Einstein. And no more a place is it more relevant than when working in complex environments.
“Having the ability to not just see the trauma and the disaster and difficulty, but go beyond it and be part of a bigger story and create another world, despite what you see in front of you and working through what you see to get there. So I think one of the core values of this resilient ecosystem has to be that we inspire imagination and give alternatives to what is currently on the ground and how things are happening,” adds Ms. Gandel.
Entrepreneurship
“Our job is not to find the answers; our goal is to find the entrepreneurs in these [resilient ecosystems] communities that are coming up with creative and innovative solutions that are most important to their communities. And then — foster collaboration among various people in the ecosystem to ensure that they are able to do this,” says Agostine Ndung’u, Impact Hub Regional Incubation Manager, Africa, and one of the organizers of the conference.
“Wherever Cordaid works, we identify opportunities, rally parties around them and find funding. The hubs are a good example — hubs are places for entrepreneurs to convene and work together, start-up and incubate. They form the soil of a city ecosystem,” says Alberda.
Impact Hub also partnered with Argidius, BMW and Siemens to create the Africa Seed programme in 5 African countries. Already, there are two Impact Hubs open in Ghana (Impact Hub Accra) and Rwanda (Impact Hub Kigali). Three more Impact Hub’s are in the process of opening in 2016 in Sudan, Zimbabwe and Mali in 2016. Through the Resilience Programme, a further 4 teams are in the process of applying to become Impact Hubs in Sierra Leone, Ethiopia, Burundi and DRC.
In Ethiopia, where this conference was held, Tesfanesh Mitiku, is an entrepreneur. She hails from the Southern part of Ethiopia, and traveled 12 hours to make it to the Re-Imagining Resilience conference in Addis Ababa. Her company, Nadobich Ethio Cloth, makes traditional Ethiopian clothes with a modern edge, which she sells to young women and brides in her hometown. Tesfanesh is part of a UNDP — supported entrepreneurship programme that aims to create 100,000 businesses and expand another 100,000 in Ethiopia.
This Entrepreneurship Development Programme (EDP) is an example of collaboration between the UNDP and the Ethiopian government, to encourage entrepreneurship in the country.
In all this, there is also the need to go beyond the buzz of entrepreneurship as a concept,
“For us its a true commitment to make sure that we are not making entrepreneurship the sole solution for all… we want to ensure that we are building a sustainable entrepreneurial ecosystem, that has all the parts, and entrepreneurs know about the parts and can use the parts and its not just for the few, but its for the many who could be entrepreneurs.” Gabriela Gandel, Managing Director, Impact Hub.
Keep up to date with what is happening with Impact Hub in Africa.
