Has social entrepreneurship taken off in Africa? Is it making the impact it is supposed to make? Has institutional support been of the kind that is required?

Back in 2009 I had the opportunity to be part of the two man project that developed the International Labour Organisation’s (ILO) Social Entrepreneurs Generate Your Business Idea Manual for South Africa. May I also point out that it as a highly valued project! It is however disappointing that the ILO materials are not more widely used in a country with 35 percent unemployment (all definitions considered).

The reality is that the World Economic Forum rewards some of the world’s leading change-makers, many of them social changers – for the impact they achieve.

We tap into the insights of Margaret Nienaber, Chief Executive Officer of Standard Bank, Private Clients as she examines and shares how Generation Y grew up with access to knowledge at their fingertips. Compounding this, youth today also have been able to offset outmoded parental archetypes that no longer apt the new world we live exemplifying their heightened social awareness, agile mind-set, often opinionated, educated and informed ways.

The workplace has evolved rapidly over the last 20 years. If futurists have trouble predicting trends in social and economic development, we have plenty to ponder about.

It is fairly common that today’s old guard of industry and commerce are feeling a tad nervous but they may, or may not know that they have a powerful tool to help them navigate the uncharted territory ahead – their children. For a short while now Generation Y have been adapting and taking these changes in their stride. Born into a changing environment, they have been immersed in the cauldron of change and remain unfazed by the challenges.

Margaret Nienaber, Chief Executive Officer of Standard Bank, Private Clients says “Generation Y, those born between the early 80’s and 90’s are very different animals from their boomer parents. At a much younger age they are more socially aware, agile, opinionated, educated and informed. They grew up with knowledge at their fingertips and even more importantly, they have been able to offset outmoded parental paradigms that may no longer fit the new world we live in.”

This new guard will change society even further because they understand that if they don’t, their world may not be as rosy as they would like.  Recently Standard Bank launched the third module of the Future Leaders Academy, a programme designed to assist the children of South African business titans to gather insights and tools to carry on and enhance the legacy of their parents.

However this does not mean that they will be riding on the coat tails of their parent’s success. The youth across the board generally are strong advocates of entrepreneurship and are driven to succeed on their own merits. This is highly evident with the current success stories across Africa.

Says Chief Executive of SA’s recently voted Top Private Bank, Ms Nienaber, “The leadership programme covers subjects like stock market investing principles, financial planning, philanthropy and social entrepreneurship.”

The programme thus far included presenters such as businessman and social entrepreneur, Richard Mulholland, who started off his career as a rock n roll roadie. Mulholland says “Motives for business are changing; the definition of success has moved from wanting a big office to making a big difference”. That said, I believe the old business models will prevail at least in the medium term but they will be adding a social element to their objectives.”

Mulholland says “While social entrepreneurship is growing at a good pace the real shift will come when generation Y start building companies with these new paradigms from the ground up and they evolve into fortune 500 companies.” This social entrepreneurship project proves that a good idea married with a good cause presents a profitable and socially uplifting impact.

Social entrepreneurs are able to identify and plug gaps in social service delivery, capitalise on opportunities to promote social value, and bring about positive social and environmental change.

Ms Nienaber says “It is in order to bridge this gap that we have included these programmes as part of the Future Leaders Academy. Their goal is to move away from a “hand out” mentality and create educated and informed communities and initiatives that are sustainable and inspiring”.

“These Future Leaders of the Academy will be the ones driving the change and ensuring the sustainability of these initiatives and Standard Bank is excited to be partnering with them on this Journey” say Nienaber.

Further growth is expected in industries like green-tech can be cascaded to household products in ways that reduce the cost and make it affordable through social enterprises to the poorer segment of African society.

We ought to also remember that Africa’s youth constitutes 65 percent of the continent. Africa thus has a vast growing portfolio of Generation Y’s to develop and work with. The not so good part of this equation is that 72 percent of Africa’s youth still live on less than $2 daily. There is magnitude in the scale of challenges that social entrepreneurship can focus on to remedy – yet better that we have Generation Y as the frontrunners.