the Social Innovation Academy
SINA: Social Innovation for the Developing World
by C. Charles Bley and Nick Munday
Social innovation involves the development of new ideas, products and services that address social and environmental needs more effectively than existing solutions. It is not a new concept and in recent years it has proved itself as a viable means of tackling some of the most pressing social and environmental challenges we face.
In a multi-stage 12–18-month campus-based training programme, students work on becoming social innovation entrepreneurs. They progressively design personally-relevant projects that will solve a specific problem and simultaneously provide a safe and fair workplace for themselves and others. Projects may focus on products, or services, or both.
While the fundamental approach is not dissimilar to a commercial ‘start-up’ process, SINA’s programme is far more comprehensive, including personal growth, development and skills acquisition. By the time the student completes the programme, the concept has been strength-tested, its viability and practicality established and the offering developed to a stage where it is implementation-ready.
To date, students have successfully launched projects ranging from mosquito-repellant soaps and an active Women's Foundation that provides a range of support programmes, to building ‘bricks’ made out of recovered PET bottles filled with sand.
SINA’s primary objective is not to make their students wealthy and successful, but rather to create capable and confident social entrepreneurs with a balanced approach, clear purpose, the ability to transform challenges into opportunities and a real awareness of the parallel needs of social development and environmental protection.
In the short space of 8 years, SINA has not only proven its concept but expanded on it, initiating 67 social enterprises and creating 522 meaningful jobs, winning numerous international awards for innovation and entrepreneurship in the process.
Hope and Resilience in and out of the SINAsphere
As a model, the SINA Empowerment Framework is similar to many models in the sense that it relies on a collection of key terms and phrases. In order to solidify in scholars’ minds the value of what they are learning and why–and indeed, to aid them in contextualising the experience on a personal level–these terms and phrases are imparted throughout the training program by administrators, mentors, teachers, and advanced peers.
The repetition of program-specific phrasing always has the potential to appear insular and rigid from an outside perspective. However, at SINA, such repetition is exercised neither in a hierarchical atmosphere, nor with the expectation of blind adherence. All members, including trainers, are expected to embody the principles represented in the framework, and all scholars are encouraged to question it openly. Scholars leave SINA not with an alienating sense of dependence on the program to the exclusion of the outside world, but with genuine independence and a strong sense of responsibility to their world, community, and selves.
This dynamic, and the good it inspires, are pivotal to what makes SINA singular among comparable forms of vocational or entrepreneurship education programmes, and what sets it far apart from traditional education. So, the broader lexicon of SINA culture is pivotal to what makes the model work. Interesting, then, is the statistical and noticeable absence of two words from that lexicon: hope and resilience.
While resilience is certainly fostered as both a personal and professional attribute at SINA, that fact isn’t boasted there. As founder Etienne Salborn (and anyone who comes to work on one of his campuses) knows, the issues addressed by the program can not be assuaged by the hollow repetition of a buzzword or utterance of a platitude. A 2022 case study examining the outcomes of three recent SINA graduates independently identified resilience in connection to the program’s effect, and included a direct mention of this attribute by an alum:
“If you’re resilient and passionate, you can manage [the pressures that can come from within].”
But, despite how utterly applicable it is, resilience appears on SINA’s website only once. When it comes to hope, there’s a parallel trend to be highlighted: from the inauguration of its flagship campus in Mpigi, Uganda, the Social Innovation Academy never advertised itself as a provider or merchant of hope. When you hear the word or its variants in connection to SINA, it invariably appears in statements and testimonials from its scholars:
“I was hopeless, and I didn’t know what I was going to do, but since I joined SINA I am now developing my professional skills and my personal growth.”
An independent academic research study from 2022, conducted on the ground at that original SINA (known as Jangu International), interviewed both graduates, non-graduates, and current scholars. This study illuminates expressions of hope by interviewees, such as those who are still in the process of building their enterprise and are perceiving the importance of others’ hopes for them:
“[B]ecause a lot of people have hopes in me[, and] the SINA community have a lot of hopes in me...I will fight very hard in order to not lose my enterprise.”
...Or others, who have established enterprises but are facing adversity:
“[I] have the ability to stick on and to find room to smile about whatever is going on, because I know that there is a light at the end of the tunnel.”
Another term used with high frequency by these interviewees is success. Instilled with a growth mindset, and unparalleled senses of agency and opportunity optimism, SINA scholars–sometimes through channelling the struggles of their past–identify community needs or problems they want to address. They develop and test solutions and products they have deduced will have a probability of success based on the needs identified, then create businesses and organisations which directly improve and serve their communities according to those needs. They have received the behavioural, procedural and business training to actualize their ideas, and they leave that training knowing not only that they can succeed, but how to succeed. They know the true breadth of their freedom and how to use it responsibly.
Simultaneously, they know that SINA support is never out of reach. Scholars and alums alike mention the variety of role models in the increasingly extensive SINA network, up to and including Salborn himself. It is inbuilt into the program that APs–Accountability Partners–so called “one-on-ones", and trainers remain accessible to alums after graduation.
These mentoring relationships, of course, begin on campus. As one interviewee describes, of learning to give presentations:
“I was knowing everything which I can say, and I was having data of what I was supposed to speak, but the thing was turning [it] into English and [presenting it in front of people]...but I got my one-on-one and a coach...mainly my one-on-one is the one who helped me. He gave me hope.”
What is the legacy of the hope and successes borne of the Social Innovation Academy?
Dozens of independent enterprises, conceived of and set in motion by not only graduates of SINA but even a few who left the program prior to the final mastery phase. Hundreds of jobs created, thereby alleviating the precise issues of limited education and high unemployment Salborn first set out to address in 2006 in Uganda’s Kankobe Orphanage.
Another byproduct of this legacy is the opening and funding of, to date, eight additional campuses across Uganda, Zimbabwe, Kenya, and the DRC. The program’s appeal is broad, recognized and applauded globally, and poised for replication in Tanzania, Cape Verde, and Ghana, among others. From end to end, SINA is now far more than a mere model or set of phrases. It is a proven, efficacious, scalable form of education which actively fills a glaring void left by the educational systems of colonial origin currently dominant in many developing nations.
Imagine a future, generations from now, where SINA, or variations of its model, have taken root across the developing world. Consider the implications of hope and empowerment for potentially millions of youth and refugees, and thus, economic and social improvement in countless communities. The natural conclusion is as clear as simple maths: SINA is worth every consideration in the interest of furthering its work, including direct funding.
The Benefits Case for Social Innovation
To date, SINA’s growth has been measured. Learnings have been captured and SINA and its philosophies have been strength-tested.
The challenge now is to expand SINA’s scope, whether this is through partnerships, networks, association or organically. The SINA-effect needs to be accelerated and amplified.
Investment can take many forms, but there are several reasons why investing in SINA would be a wise decision:
1. By investing in an African NGO that reliably delivers social innovation, investors contribute to improving the social and environmental conditions in Africa. SINA’s projects generally focus on solving critical problems such as poverty, access to education, healthcare, affordable housing and clean water, which lead to significant improvements in the quality of life of individuals and communities.
2. SINA’s projects actively pursue sustainable development, promoting economic growth, environmental protection and social development.
3. Largely by definition, social innovation projects provide meaningful new work and responsible products and services that meet previously unmet needs. This generates new opportunities for economic growth and development
4. As a corollary to 3 above, while investing in nonprofits and NGOs is generally considered philanthropic, it can also yield tangible returns through cooperation, collaboration or partnership with new social enterprises.
5. Social and environmental innovation can lead to cost savings by improving efficiency, reducing waste, and identifying new revenue streams. SINA has wide and demonstrable experience of this.
6. SINA’s active collaboration with a range of stakeholders, including government, NGOs and communities helps to build stronger relationships and partnerships that can benefit all stakeholders in the long term
7. SINA itself is highly effective at utilising funds and, over the last 8 years, has shown itself to be both prudent and transparent. It has a strong leadership team with experience in social entrepreneurship, education and community development, augmented by external specialists and a wide support network. Investing in SINA means investing in a team that has a proven track record of success and is dedicated to creating positive social change in the countries in which it operates.
8. SINA has a robust scalable model for social entrepreneurship education. By investing in SINA, you support the organisation's growth and contribute to creating a progressively more sustainable and scalable model for social entrepreneurship education.
9. By supporting SINA, investors can demonstrate their commitment to making a positive impact on society, attracting socially conscious customers and investors. By creating higher visibility, investors contribute to the growing global demand for sustainable products and services.
SINA is actively looking for new partners and investors to increase its positive impact and expand its geographic reach. Partnerships with existing vocational schools, especially in rural areas, are also being explored.
The cost of investment is low. The application of funds is efficient. The model is replicable. The social and environmental benefits are priceless.
SINA fully deserves to be at the top of your engagement list.
Please contact Etienne Salborn for further information or to set up an online discussion on how you can get involved: etienne@socialinnovationacademy.org
To support SINA without delay, visit www.socialinnovationacademy.org/donate.