As a pan-African organisation dedicated to building a Shared Value business network to accelerate sustainable change on our continent, SVAI launched Working Groups in South Africa and Kenya at the start of 2020. Made up of representatives from private sector organisations, civil society and academia, these groups were convened with the purpose of identifying key challenges affecting society and business in the region and work together to create solutions to these challenges, ideally using the tenets of Shared Value.

This need is particularly great as the pandemic’s impact is felt across the continent, and organisations rethink important aspects of their operations.

The South Africa Working Group is made up of representatives from Discovery, Bigen Africa, END Fund, Coca-Cola, Siyakha, ABSA, Sappi, JCDecaux Africa, JSE, Old Mutual, Unilever, Radiometer, V&A Waterfront, UCT and Vodacom. This group’s purpose is: “Together, addressing socio-economic imbalances in South Africa.”

The Kenya Working Group is made up of representatives from GIZ, ABSA Kenya, Strathmore University Business School, Safaricom, KCB Group, Nation Media Group, Kenya Airways, EABL, Old Mutual Kenya, Facebook and GSMA. This group’s purpose is: “Improving lives through green business innovation and collaboration.”

“It is an honour to be a part of the SVAI South Africa Working Group,” said Joy Ruwodo, Director of Public Affairs (Africa Region) at the END Fund. “Building cross-sector partnerships and leveraging on the power of collective action will strengthen Africa’s response to disease, poverty, inequality and other social ills that require urgent attention. The SVAI platform is well placed to facilitate high level collaboration on these issues of national importance.”

“Shared value development perspective comes at no better time than this covid-19 period characterised by unpredictability and volatility in the world of business and indeed all aspects of human life,” said Stephen Gichohi, Senior Technical Advisor/Regional Coordinator at Skills Initiative for Africa. “Being part of the Shared Value Africa Initiative Kenya working group provides a great opportunity to leverage on our corporate strengths and resources with likeminded entities towards addressing both  the short-term and long-term developmental challenges while keeping sight of the sustainability aspects of our businesses and contribution to the wellbeing of our society. “

The Working Groups offer a collaborative platform for organisations across sectors and industries that focuses on the greater good – a focus made that much more important in the time of global crisis as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

We will keep you updated as the Groups prepare to roll out interventions in the respective countries, and we look forward to bringing more partners on board for collective impact across Africa.