Accra Shared Value Business Breakfast: A Retrospective

Array ( [0] => 4 ) School of Thought,

On 6 September 2019, the SVAI hosted a Shared Value business breakfast in Accra, in collaboration with JB Williams. The first such event in the region, the morning centred around creating awareness of the Shared Value business model and unpacking the path to purpose-led business in Africa.

As the Shared Value Africa Initiative, we also stress the importance of creating and supporting Shared Value ecosystems, including government and civil society organisations in the creation and implementation of Shared Value strategies. This enables businesses to leverage expertise, insights and access to communities which will ultimately strengthen the impact, both financially and socially, of any initiative.

We invited Awo Aidam Amenyah to share some feedback from the event. Awo leads the team at Child Online Africa (COA), a research- and advocacy-based non-governmental organization that campaigns with/for children and their families to influence policies and change practices that affect child welfare in Ghana and Africa.

I am so pleased to be have had the opportunity to attend the Shared Value Business Breakfast for the following reasons: understanding of the Shared Value concept and how to apply it to our strategy as an organization for sustainability. Even though applying the Shared Value principles does not come that easily, I am optimistic that we would be able to apply the knowledge acquired from the breakfast programme to our strategy as an organization. Having experienced resource mobilization challenges in the past, I am hopeful such a venture will relieve some pressure if my team and I are able to apply the principles correctly. I would not hesitate to share the success story with everyone because it is simply an eye opener for me.

My personal takeaway is that I need to be able to guide the team in the design of interventions which will help companies make profit with purpose, which in the long run supports the creation of valuable social change.