2011 saw an astonishing increase in coverage on social enterprise in Africa. We’ve decided to round up some of our favourite social enterprises from 2011 who we think are ones to watch in 2012. The organisations we highlight below all target development outcomes using a range of perspectives: from creating job opportunities to addressing gender inequality. We hope you like our selection.

Solar Sister, Uganda, Rwanda & South Sudan

In 2011, founder Katherine Lucey won a Social Venture Network (SVN) Innovation Award for Solar Sister’s work. Solar Sister aims to eradicate energy poverty by empowering women with economic opportunity. The organisation assists women in becoming “solar entrepreneurs” and provides them with the tools to sell an array of clean energy household products including solar lamps, cell phone chargers and clean cookstoves. Since it was established in 2010, Solar Sister has expanded and now includes 150 entrepreneurs bringing light and opportunity to over 8,000 people.

Zambikes, Zambia

Zambikes is based in Lusaka and has a warehouse not far from Alive & Kicking’s workshop there. It is a project that combines job creation with the need to improve transport in the country. Zambikes’ focus on using local Zambian labour mirrors our own ethos, which is why everyone at A&K wants a Zambike! In addition to bicycles, Zambikes also makes Zambulances and bicycle ambulance trailers.

Rwanda Ventures, Rwanda

Founded in 2010, Rwanda Ventures seeks to address the nutrition challenges confronting Rwanda. Since 1994, per capita consumption of milk in the country plunged to the lowest level in all of Africa. In 2010 Rwanda Ventures partnered with a dairy cooperative to launch Kivu Dairy, in western Rwanda, to reap the health benefits stemming from dairy products. In 2011, Rwanda Ventures has continued exploring opportunities with other cooperatives to build additional collection centers to improve milk production.

HeroRATs (APOPO), Tanzania & Mozambique

APOPO is a social enterprise that researches, develops and disseminates detection rat technology for humanitarian purposes, primarily to locate landmines and detect TB in humans. To date, HeroRATs have helped to diagnose more than 2,290 new TB cases, which were previously undetected by microscopy.

Kourage Athletics, Kenya

Founded in July, Kourage Athletics officially launched Kenya’s first line of running kit.  The organisation aims not only to sell Kenyan manufactured clothes, but also to make a wider impact on the Kenyan economy. Like Alive & Kicking, Kourage believes the best way to contribute to development is by providing well-paying jobs under healthy working conditions, which means the organisation focuses on giving employees new skills and opportunities for wealth creation. In 2011 their founder, Chris Markl, was interviewed by the Orlando Sentinel.

If you have come across any other interesting African social enterprises, then please let us know in the comments section below.

As everyone else involved in Zambia, Alive & Kicking has been closely following the recent elections in the country. We thought we would collate the most interesting articles we come across, and here they are, followed by how the change in President might affect our operations in Zambia. Michael Sata, the Patriotic Front candidate commonly [...]

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There are two major shifts occurring in the global industry in football manufacture. The first is a shift in the geographic distribution of where balls are made and sold. The second is in the development of new technologies in ball manufacture. According to Dr Khalid Nadvi, an authority on trends in the global football industry, [...]

At Alive & Kicking we have followed the controversy surrounding World Vision’s donation of 100,000 unwanted Super Bowl t-shirts with interest, and largely agree with the criticism it has drawn. However, we must admit to being a bit puzzled as to why such a storm has arisen around this particular act, when similarly ill-thought-through donations appear to be a [...]