Did you know the decade of action is upon us? Think of it this way – We have just 10 years to transform our world. The Decade of Action aims to create an unstoppable force to reach the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. Around the world, hundreds of development organizations are actively exploring options within the purview of their goals to ensure the actualization of the global goals. Interestingly, some private and public sector players have also been seen to show active participation in actualizing these global goals through various Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives in Health, Agriculture, Education, Technology, Law & Justice, Nutrition, and so on.
One of LEAP Africa’s 5-year strategy pillar is ‘Raising Talents for the actualization of the SDGs’ and the Social Innovators Programme (SIP) is one of many expressions of its commitment towards achieving the goals. Over the years, LEAP has been in the vanguard of empowering and equipping bright young Nigeria social entrepreneurs through the SIP. The programme provides skills and knowledge for organizational sustainability. With the support of Union Bank of Nigeria, LEAP has equipped 120 young social innovators – changing the narratives of African youth and making lives better.
With 2020 being the first year of the implementation of its 5-year strategy, A new set of 20 social innovators were inducted into the fellowship programme at the 2019 edition of the Social Innovators Programme and Awards (SIPA). The first level of engagement in the programme is the Enterprise Sustainability Workshop – aimed at bridging the knowledge gap identified among young social innovators in Nigeria.
Between Monday 10th – Friday 14th February, 2020, LEAP brought industry experts from various fields like finance, people management, fundraising, storytelling, leadership, networking, and so on to engage with the Fellows in the one-week residential workshop. It is a fact that real impact are made on the field but very few nonprofit have the skills and resources to tell these stories of impact in a rather compelling manner. Storytelling for impact was therefore one of the main milestones at the workshop. With a partnership Canva – a multimedia design platform that allows users to create social media graphics, presentations, posters and other visual content for impact, LEAP Africa equipped these young social innovators with resources and empowered them skills that will continue to enable them articulate and demonstrate their stories across platforms.
For the Fellows, the workshop was an eye opener. Many of them left the workshop with a renewed and sustainable approach to running a social initiative and a commitment to strive for excellence and collaborate with other social innovators in order to hasten the actualization of the global goals.
Across Africa, young people are drivers of some of the most brilliant innovative ideas which are changing lives and making our planet worth living in, but not all of them have the capacity to sustain their ideas and grow. The Enterprise Sustainability Workshop exists to fill this gap and ensure the sustainability and scale of fellows’ enterprises in the long term. Going forward, LEAP will continue to provide technical support to the fellows as they embark on the journey of transforming Africa.
It’s time to deliver the Sustainable Development Goals for people and for the planet!
