Although I’ve often heard of the buzz words “Social Entrepreneurship” and “Social Innovation” I never really took the time to understand what it was all about until I took this class. It has definitely broadened my perspective on how to think about problem solving and formulating a solution in the form of a social enterprise. Naturally, I wanted to explore the landscape of “social innovation” in my home country Ethiopia. What I found was intriguing. The first organization that popped up was Reach for Change; a non-profit organization founded in Sweden and launched in 18 countries, and mainly works to improve children’s lives.The organization finds and develops local social entrepreneurs with innovations that solve pressing issues facing children. It was launched in Ethiopia in 2015 and they’ve identified five local social entrepreneurs that work on solutions ranging from inexpensive and hardy wheelchairs made of bamboo to supporting largely ignored groups of teenage mothers living in the streets who have no access to employment or health services, by providing counseling, vocational training and employment. These entrepreneurs are helped to scale their innovations through seed funding, access to business expertise and networking opportunities. It was inspiring reading about some of these social entrepreneurs that won and how they are supported in the incubator formed by Reach for Change. You can learn more about the five entrepreneurs Here.
The other social enterprise I found was called “Eminence Social Entrepreneurs” . It was an interesting organization, but it looked more like a hybrid boutique firm providing commercial services for event planning, advertising as well as providing leadership training and capacity building for teachers in school. Some of the links in the website didn’t work and so I emailed them informing them about the problem. I was also very curious about their value preposition and their demonstrated impact and I asked them about it.
In conclusion my brief google search about the social innovation environment in Ethiopia was enlightening, but it also highlighted the fact that there is a huge opportunity there in all sectors ranging from agriculture, to education, to health. I am looking forward to exploring and learning about this ecosystem in Ethiopia and finding ways in which I could be involved.
Social Entrepreneurship @ Harvard Chan 
Hayat, I’d love to stay tuned on what you find. If you are able to spend time there, or talk to people who are physically there, you will probably come across a lot of social innovators who might not pop up on a google search. Sometimes it’s the least likely of suspects that are doing the greatest work! And you won’t hear about them unless you’re out there where the problems are — because oftentimes they’re too busy keeping their head down and getting the work done to really talk about it or promote themselves online. This is what I noticed from my work in Lebanon. Especially in the most remote areas, the impact is often not where the websites/tweets/media are.
Last night I met a Boston-based Ethiopian who started a foundation year ago and would like to expand, let me know if you’re interested in being put in touch with him!
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