African social entrepreneurs honoured
John Elkington
June 10, 2009
The Schwab Foundation has recognized three new social entrepreneurs with significant impact in the region as winners of the Africa Regional Social Entrepreneurs Award for 2009. David Kuria, Chief Executive Officer, Ecotact, Kenya; Patrick Schofield, Chief Executive Officer, Streetwires Artists Collective, South Africa; Mitchell J. Besser and Gene Falk, Co-Founders of mothers2mothers, active in Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Rwanda, South Africa, Swaziland and Zambia, will join other leading social entrepreneurs at the World Economic Forum on Africa, on 10-12 June 2009. mothers2mothers, incidentally, was one of the Phoenix 50 list Volans covered in The Phoenix Economy.
“This group of social entrepreneurs from across the African continent as well as others from Europe and Latin America will be active participants in the discussions at the forthcoming meeting,” the Foundation notes. “Their primary focus is not maximizing profit, but maximizing benefits for society and the environment. They develop innovative business models in energy efficiencies, education, waste management, health, education, youth and rural development, with a vision of large-scale impact.”
“This crisis teaches us that we need to refocus the economy on serving society. It is these social entrepreneurs who show us the way to a sustainable future,” said Professor Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman, World Economic Forum, and Founder, Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship. Social entrepreneurs emphasize long-term sustainability instead of short-term gains. Their primary focus is to maximize benefits for society and the environment by implementing innovative approaches to the key challenges the world is facing. They operate social businesses or organizations that are a mixture of non-profits and for-profits.
The winners of the Social Entrepreneur Award for Africa 2009 will be presented with their awards by the Chairperson and Co-Founder of the Schwab Foundation, Mrs Hilde Schwab, at the Opening Plenary of the Africa meeting on 10 June 2009, in the presence of Jacob Zuma, President of South Africa; Kofi Annan, Secretary-General, United Nations (1997-2006); and Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Managing Director, World Bank, Washington DC.