Sustainable economic and social development of the African continent is one of the main objectives that we at E4Impact are contributing to achieve. One of the biggest issues, when it comes to this theme, is without any doubt waste management, that needs to be improved and strengthened.
We are currently contributing to this goal by being partners of the Dakar Reve – Dakar Régéneration verte, an international cooperation project funded by the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation and promoted by the Municipality of Dakar with an extensive partnership of Italian and local organizations. The project is carried out in Senegal and aims to contribute to the sustainable urban development of Dakar region in the current climatic transition scenario, through the improvement of the services of urban utility and the civic participation linked to waste management and circular economy.
E4Impact’s role in the project is to support the business growth of 30 young entrepreneurs, whose mission is to create local employment, preserve the environment and guarantee better services and products for the their communities. That’s why From June 27th to July 2nd two members of the E4Impact team, Erica Negro (Impact measurement expert) and Flavien Tchamdjeu (Francophone Africa Manager), travelled to Senegal: to meet the partners of the project and to start the entrepreneurial training activity on the field.
The first week of training, which involved the first 13 entrepreneurs, focused on Business Model Design and was carried out with strong motivation from both the beneficiaries and the business experts, which will support them along the program with specific coaching and mentoring sessions. At the end of the week, a final Business Model presentation event was organized in order to let the entrepreneurs present the work they developed during the week in front of a broad jury composed by project partners (Ville de Dakar, IPSIA, CADAK, IAGU) and experts of the waste management sector (Ciprovis, Proplast, Set Tic).
During this session the passion, determination and concreteness that the beneficiaries are putting in their work have merged very clearly. The entrepreneurs demonstrated to have a strong social entrepreneurship orientation and E4Impact will be pleased to support them along this path in strengthening their managerial and communicational competences and network.
The mission was also a good occasion to meet with the Italian Embassy and the AICS Delegation in Senegal and discuss on future cooperation opportunities in the social economy field.
Erica Negro