Ethiopia sees rise in businesses doing good as economy opens up

Reuters By Belinda Goldsmith

Kibret Abebe, one of Ethiopia’s best-known social entrepreneurs, said the sector would be boosted as Ethiopia hosts the 12th annual Social Enterprise World Forum (SEWF) this week, the first developing country to do so.

“Scaling up has been a nightmare in Ethiopia and it’s been hard to collaborate with the government but I’m optimistic this will change as we have a lot of social problems to fix.”

Abebe, an anesthetist, was a trailblazer for social enterprise in Ethiopia when he sold his house to set up TEBITA Ambulance more than a decade ago after seeing how many road accident victims struggled to get transport to medical help.

TEBITA now runs a fleet of 20 ambulances and a college training paramedics, funding its work by charging patients for journeys, offering training, as well as providing emergency services for the national football team.

HEALTH TO HOUSING

Abebe said TEBITA was one of thousands of social enterprises in Ethiopia aiming to help the most needy, with newcomers focused on agriculture, education, health, housing and IT.

For example Maisha Technologies PLC is a tech-based social enterprise trialing advanced drones to deliver blood to health centers in rural areas where half of maternal deaths occur.

HelloSolar aims to provide rural communities without electricity with off-grid energy and affordable payment plans.

Abebe said young people – with 43% of the population aged 15 or under – were playing a key role in advancing new social enterprises, many with tech solutions and hoping to create jobs for the future.

A 2016 survey by the British Council – which co-hosts SEWF with local partners – estimated the number of social enterprises in Ethiopia and found about half were led by people aged under 35 while women led more than a quarter of social enterprises.

But these firms reported numerous challenges, including the lack of a policy framework with no distinct formal legal form or recognized means to register as social enterprises in Ethiopia.

The biggest barrier, however, was found to be financial – accessing capital or obtaining grants – so it was critical to find a revenue stream and one strong enough to support growth.

Ellilta Products, for example, was set up 2012 to support sister organization, Ellilta Women at Risk (EWAR), founded in 1995 to help break the generational cycle of prostitution.

Headquartered on the outskirts of Addis Ababa, Ellilta Products’ workforce of about 55 includes former prostitutes making jewelry from bullet casing and scarves and soaps that are sold locally and overseas to fund the work of EWAR.

EWAR workers visit red light areas in Addis Ababa to encourage women to join a year-long rehabilitation program of counseling and training while their children go to school.

Ellilta Products’ General Manager Emnet Mersha Seyoum said so far EWAR has rescued around 1,000 women, with a success rate of 90% not returning to prostitution.

Anchilu Alemu, aged about 50, said she was rescued nine years ago after 18 years as a prostitute and this has given her and her daughter a new life. She makes scarves at Ellilta and her daughter went to college and is now married with a child.

“Before prostitution was the only way I could make money. This saved me,” she said as she pulled at a spool of yarn.

Seyoum said it had been hard to get funding in Ethiopia as the government did not recognize or understand social enterprises but she hoped this would change under Ahmed and with the SEWF in Addis, attended by 1,200 people from 58 nations.

“Ideally in the future we want to scale up to grow tenfold so that we can provide jobs to all of the women that we rescue,” she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. (Reporting by Belinda Goldsmith //news.trust.org)