Building on the success of the WASH Accelerator
Building on the success of the WASH Accelerator
The WASH Accelerator programme in Nigeria is the result of a partnership between Reckitt and Yunus Social Business. Six enterprises—Let’s Build for Humanity, Onyeisi Care Foundation, Alora Reusable Pads, Toilet Pride, SOSO Care, and Kiddies and Brands—were selected for the program because of their innovative social business solutions ranging from sustainable sanitation facilities to reusable menstrual hygiene products. They all aimed at improving WASH conditions across communities in Nigeria. At the closing ceremony in Lagos, each participating social business was awarded 6,300,000 Naira in seed funding. (Discover more about the social businesses here).
The Accelerator Programme provided more than just financial support. It comprised five months of training covering nearly 300 hours of dedicated support and expertise provided by Reckitt employees. This included four intensive two-day bootcamps covering impact measurement and management, storytelling, and customer mapping.
“Looking at where we came from at the start of the program, where we were really struggling with funding and delivery of our product, to now where we have secured great partnerships and support with the likes of USAID and the Foreign Commonwealth Development Organisation (FCDO), I say to the WASH Accelerator program: Thank you, truly.” - Chukwuma Nnanna, Founder & CEO of Toilet Pride
“The Reckitt Accelerator Programme has immensely benefited both me personally and our organization, Alora Reusable Pads. The program's focus on storytelling, impact measurement, and customer mapping has allowed me to refine essential skills crucial for the success of our initiatives. I now approach storytelling with greater impact, measure our outcomes more effectively, and understand our customers' needs in a more nuanced manner.” - Sarah Kuponiyi, CEO & Founder of Alora Reusable Pads.
This proven model, which combines grant funding and capacity-building, is based on the learnings and impact of the WASH Accelerator in South Africa and Brazil. Now, with three markets and a total of 18 social businesses scaled, both Reckitt and Yunus Social Business look forward to the future of building the WASH Accelerator and growing the ecosystem further.
This electric rickshaw social business in India are cleaning up polluted streets
Naveen was born and raised in a small village outside Varanasi in Northern India. All his life, he grew up around manual rickshaw drivers carrying people to and from the city, it’s backbreaking work for very little pay. He saw that very often the rickshaw cyclists came from some of the most vulnerable communities, frequently associated with drug and alcohol abuse.
Harnessing the Power of Networks for Social Impact : Part I
Networks exist in many forms and serve a vast array of different purposes. There’s the beautiful synergies in nature that allow humans and trees to breathe each other’s waste, and there’s the way that organisations function through a distributed network of interacting social animals. In all these examples, shared purpose and communication (of one type or another) are key.
Connecting (& Celebrating) Our Social Entrepreneurs: The Annual Portfolio CEO Forum in Bangalore
Social entrepreneurs are incredibly busy people - but it’s important for them to take time out of the day-to-day to reflect and learn from each other. It’s not only fundamental to finance social entrepreneurs but to develop an eco-system where businesses focussed on impact are both supported and celebrated.
