Seas of Change Workshop: Inclusive business for SMEs
This workshop on inclusive business for SMEs will be run and funded jointly with the African Agribusiness Academy (AAA) and with the Africa Enterprise Challenge Fund (AECF) who have marketed it to their members. The workshop (no places available anymore) will be held in 2 blocks. The first block of 2,5 days will take place March 3-5 in Kampala, Uganda. The second block will be decided on with participants, to be run 6-8 weeks after the first in East Africa. Between blocks participants will be given assignments to complete.
The workshop will dive into the specific dimensions of building inclusive business at SME level. Objectives of the workshop are as follows:
- Effective learning and sharing on integrating business and social impact
- Structured transfer of knowledge for business improvement and innovation
- Doing business between the members
Approximately 40 East African SME owners/directors will participate in the workshop. Here, there is an explicit focus on SMEs within the agri-food sector. The workshop is set up in an interactive way so that the participants have ample opportunities to provide their insights with regard to applying and scaling inclusive business (models) within their business practices.
SoC aims to make this workshop part of a longer term focus, to develop a concrete knowledge agenda on inclusive business for SMEs, and to involve new members in our community of practice. The knowledge (questions) obtained through the execution of a new SoC publication feeds back into this workshop, and vice versa. During the two workshops a possible knowledge agenda will be formulated, with which future research, communication and exchange plans will be made.
