Group items tagged

"Social Venture Planning and Legal Guidance for a Better World"

"The current African social entrepreneurship market is growing rapidly but it is still fragmented and opaque. Complication: Players active in the African social entrepreneurship space cannot find, learn and collaborate with each other. There are information asymmetries in the market. Solution: An online "living" platform created for members - by members. ASEN aims to provide Social Entrepreneurs with an opportunity to collaborate and access resources. "

Open Mind piloted the Applab-Question Box hotline in collaboration with Grameen Foundation's AppLab in Uganda. This collaboration brought Question Box to a new platform - making Question Box available directly via mobile phone. 40 Grameen Community Knowledge Workers (CKWs) in the field spread the word to villagers in Mbale and Bushenyi regions. Users made calls from the CKWs' mobile phones into our call center in Kampala. Callers asked questions in seven local languages and we answered over 3,000 queries, mostly about agriculture. We retained an agricultural expert who responded when the information was not available elsewhere. Because the Internet is not dependable in Uganda, Open Mind in partnership with Appfrica developed a local Knowledge Base filled with information on frequently-asked topics. This allows for efficient searches no matter the conditions. This program was made possible by a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to Grameen Foundation.