Feature: Collaborative partnerships enhance community impact

Particularly over the last two years, we have experienced the value of enhancement that leverages impact when private sector partners collaborate with the development sector. In our case, we specifically focus on entrepreneurship development at a community and township level and have benefited from partnering with local and national stakeholders to enhance our reach and impact.

The Hope Factory engaged with the following partners towards collaborative impact:

Financial education in King William’s Town
The Hope Factory implemented a financial literacy and micro-enterprise (FLAME) programme in King William’s Town on behalf of the ASISA Foundation. Phase 1 of the programme trained 47 participants in 2019/20 while Phase 2 and 3 empowered 15 of those participants through training and coaching in 2020/21. The FLAME programme empowers entrepreneurs from disadvantaged communities with basic entrepreneurship and financial literacy skills to foster financial capability and enable greater economic participation. During our recruitment efforts we received many applications made possible by collaborating with the Buffalo City Municipality’s business unit and a local community ward councillor.

Socioeconomic development despite COVID-19
During the COVID-19 pandemic last year, The Hope Factory pivoted its training and mentoring programmes to online platforms, which opened a new opportunity for collaboration with KPMG. Through their volunteer programme, which supported 15 individuals, staff members have been providing both training and mentorship on our programmes while operating from their workplace supporting beneficiaries in the Eastern Cape. This partnership has continued into 2021 on our socioeconomic development flagship programme and enabled us to offer the programme nationally for the first time.

Entrepreneurial development programme 2021
For our 2021 SED flagship programme that officially kicked off in August, The Hope Factory identified specific communities with limited access to services within the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality to offer a focused and structured six-month programme for 30 entrepreneurs. This sparked the interest of the Mandela Bay Development Agency (MBDA), who had a particular interest in offering an entrepreneurial development programme to youth within specific areas such as New Brighton. The Hope Factory and MBDA recognised an alignment in scope and focus and have collaborated to ensure a more effective approach to entrepreneurship development at community level.

This year, for the first time, our entrepreneurial development programme is also available to entrepreneurs and SMMEs in East London through a partnership with Tsoga Sun, offering facilities support in hosting our training and mentoring sessions on site, making them more accessible while being trained virtually.

Empowering SMMEs in the chemical industry
Our most recent collaboration is a partnership with the Chemical Industries Education and Training Authority (CHIETA) as the sponsor for a programme offered to 30 SMMEs in the chemical industry, from Mdantsane and East London. They require the added value of local stakeholder engagement for recruitment, as well as the need for industry expertise within the chemical industry.

Each of these partners bring their own value that leverages the impact of our entrepreneurial development programmes. From offering financial support to offering professional expertise, to providing infrastructure support, including the benefit of local stakeholder engagement within specific communities. Regardless of the kind of support, the one common denominator as stated in Goal 17 of the Sustainable Development Goals is to ‘strengthen the means of implementation and revitalise the global partnership for sustainable development’. These partnerships are assisting us to focus on a particular community while implementing a hybrid model to facilitate much-needed virtual entrepreneurial development.

In addition to ensuring successful and effective collaborative partnerships, there are some key steps to be followed. These include joint planning, outlining roles and responsibilities, discussing expectations, and formulating monitoring and evaluation methods to track impact. Two key additional components for successful collaboration are building trustworthy relationships and ensuring effective communication among all stakeholders.

Trialogue highlights that true collaboration goes beyond a mere partnership agreement, as ‘it implies joint participation and the contribution of skills and resources to a collective process’ and that ‘companies can potentially achieve better social outcomes by collaborating with other companies and developmental stakeholders, including government and civil society’.

The Hope Factory hereby encourages you and your company to engage in a collaborative partnership approach towards enhancing socioeconomic impact.

If you found this content informative and thought-provoking, drop us a quick review! As the year comes to a close, we look forward to hearing some thoughts from SAICA ED and The Hope Factory CEO Annie McWalter next month.

Author
Jolandi Synders, Senior Business Development Manager, The Hope Factory