Thursday 1 November 2007

Formula for Sustainable telecentre Social Enterprise





C + M + P = SSE

Where C stands for Active Community Involvement, M for Sound Management and P being relevant Partnerships. The result SSE is Successful Social Enterprise

This equation is not conclusive but the idea is that we have to bring everyone who matters onto the table and the key person here remains the community. They are the King. They know what they want and can even suggest the best way forward.

Community Involvement is vital since the community is involved through needs assessment, surveys, research, PRAs etc. The community is able to state what they need, and are also able to prioritize them. They can even spell out the resources that they already have within them while at the same time identifying other resources that can be easily reached.

Management of the telecentres is also crucial. Businesses thrive on the profit motive and as such they hire the best. Hiring the very best may be way out of the league of rural telecentres, but ensuring ethical and professional management practices is something that ought not be compromised.
Partners are also important. These may range from networks (that is if they qualify to be called thus), funders, research institutes, educational institutions, professional bodied, faith based organizations, government departments etc.

This equation is not conclusive but the idea is that we have to bring everyone who matters onto the table and the key person here remains the community. They are the King!

Damas Ogwe
Ugunja Community Resource Centre

(in UgaBYTES, Online Sustainability Discussion)


Add your comments>> to improve this formula.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

These kinds of equations are stylistic devices. In that vein, you might consider replacing the + sign with a x sign in the relevant place. The plus suggests that some degree of sustainability can be achieved even when a certain input = 0. If the input is a vital one that would kill sustainability by its absence, more accurate would be to have the multiplication sign. Any value, however high, if multiplied by zero, becomes zero.

Loic Comolli said...

As mentioned on the UgaBYTES discussion group, I believe one missing component of this equation is the paying market. It is important to assess community needs, but that may not be enough is knowing whether the community is willing to pay for the service. For this market research and analysis is necessary.