An Associate Professor at Ashesi University, Dr Gordon Kwesi Adomdza, has said government’s Ghana Beyond Aid agenda would ensure trade opportunities are available to social enterprises to boost their businesses.
This, he said would allow social enterprises to rather advance strategies in order to effectively operate instead of looking aid outside Ghana.
“These developments, as we understand them, stem from the designation of Ghana as a lower middle country and hence does not technically qualify for Aid anymore. We have also heard that from 2020, Aid will become Trade,” he explained.
Speaking in an interview with Ghanaweb, Dr Adomdza said social impact organizations - NGOs and social enterprises have to find new business models in a ‘Ghana Beyond Aid’ or a Ghana where Aid becomes Trade.
He said, “Perhaps, these social-impact-focused organizations may have to innovate their business models to include more private sector support or ‘trading’ with development agencies.”
To achieve this, Dr Adomdza organised a field study with a class from North-Eastern University, USA to design models for social enterprises to pursue the ‘Ghana Beyond Aid’ agenda.
According to him, the student put into practice what they are being taught in class on the field.
The class is part of the Dialogues of Civilization Field Study programs from North-Eastern University, Boston, Massachusetts, taught by Dr. Gordon Adomdza. In its second year, the class brings North-Eastern students to Ghana for a 2-week intensive consulting field study program.
Prior to coming to Ghana, the students spent 2 weeks in Boston picking up tools and frameworks for effective consultation with local Boston companies. This preparation provides a frame of reference for their work in Ghana and also allows them to quickly gain insights into what to do differently to make social impact.
They apply a design thinking frame, interviewing users and stakeholders, exploring their operational and business models to be sustainable for the entity and also to be sustained in a Ghana Beyond Aid.
The projects then become case studies through which they learn about different aspects of the economy, in other words, these case studies provide analogies to areas of the economy that need attention in a Ghana Beyond Aid.
The design thinking process is problem solving approach which relies on qualitative data and sense making to understand problem space, factors at play, potential solutions, validated by talking to a wider range of users.
