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A Global Social Franchising Index recently developed at the Rosenberg International Franchise Center (RIFC) of the University of New Hampshire ranks 130 countries according to the impacts social entrepreneurship and social franchising can have on a country’s citizens’ well-being (full disclosure: the author is the director of RIFC – https://www.unh.edu/rosenbergcenter/). This index incorporates metrics that include a country’s citizens’ health condition, education level, income, population size, as well as the riskiness of operating in this country.
The rationale behind this index is that the lower the well-being of the citizens and the larger the size of the population, the more impactful social entrepreneurship and social franchising can be. The lower the risks of operating in a given country, the more likely these business models can be successful. Risks taken into account in this index include political, economic, legal and regulatory risks, as well as geographic distance and cultural distance.
The Top 10 countries ranked in the 2019 Global Social Franchising Index are all in Africa: Gambia, Liberia, Chad, Lesotho, Mauritania, Swaziland, Togo, Niger, Burkina Faso, and Benin. These are the countries that may benefit most from social entrepreneurship and social franchising. To get an idea of the gap between wealthy countries such as the United States (the lowest-ranked country in the Index) and poor African countries like Gambia, a comparison of some key metrics is instructive (2018 data).
Gambia United States
Life Expectancy at birth (years) 61.4 79.5
Mean years of schooling 2.6 13.4
Income per capita $1,516 $54,941
Population (millions) 2.2 328.4
The average Gambian lives 18.1 years less than the average American, has 10.8 years less schooling, and earns 36.2 times less. In other words, it takes a Gambian a full year to earn what the average America earns in less than a week and half!
Social entrepreneurship and social franchising can be powerful ways to efficiently alleviate poverty, improve health, provide educational opportunities, and improve other social problems for people at the bottom of the pyramid in the most disadvantaged countries identified in the Global Social Franchising Index.
Social entrepreneurship can be defined as the application of market-based principles to tackle social problems such as poverty, joblessness, drug use, poor health, sanitation, lack of education, etc. A number of successful social enterprises are now operating all over the world, including in healthcare (Naya Jeevan in Pakistan; Aravind in India; etc.); in education (PlanetRead in India; Lumni in Peru; etc.); in employment (Friends International in Cambodia; Education for Employment in the Middle East; etc.); in urban development (Cinepop/Hormiga in Mexico; Waste Concern in Bangladesh; etc.); and in rural development (SELCO in India; Proximity Designs in Myanmar; HSSI in the Philippines, etc.). Social franchising brings scale to social entrepreneurship. A successful social entrepreneur can grow his/her enterprise quickly and multiply his/her impact by giving the right to independent entrepreneurs to use his/her brand name, business methods, etc. A social entrepreneur or social franchise has two bottom lines: a social bottom line (social benefits for the communities it serves), and a financial bottom line that allows it to sustain itself for the long run.
One of the most successful social franchisors operating in Africa is Child and Family Wellness Shops Network (CFW), a branded franchise system of micro-pharmacies and clinics with plans to reach over one million patients a year in Kenya and Rwanda. As described in its website, the mission of its parent (The HealthStore Foundation) is to “improve access to essential drugs, basic healthcare, and prevention services for children and families in the developing world using business models that maintain standards, are geometrically scalable, and achieve economies of scale” (http://www.cfwshops.org/model.html.) The CFW local franchisees treat diseases that cause 70-90% of illness and death in their communities. CFW and its parent foundation have already served over 2.3 million people.
Jibu is another successful social franchisor that is already operating in five African countries where it has launched 75 franchises so far: Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zimbabwe. As stated in their website, “Jibu capitalizes and equips emerging market entrepreneurs to create affordable access to drinking water and other necessities” (https://jibuco.com/). Jibu has so far distributed over 100 million liters of drinkable water through over 1,080 distribution points in Africa.
Social entrepreneurship and social franchising – by unleashing the efficiencies of entrepreneurial initiatives and proven business methods, and the multiplicative effects of franchising – can make a meaningful difference and provide better living conditions, hope and opportunity for millions of people in Africa’s most deprived countries.
Source link : https://www.forbes.com/sites/hachemialiouche/2019/06/20/africa-in-need-of-new-solutions-social-entrepreneurship-and-franchising-to-the-rescue/
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Publish date : 2019-06-20 07:00:00
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