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To all our volunteers, Thank you.

P1080401Five years ago today, to mark the UN’s International Volunteer Day, Challenges Worldwide posted this blog to pay tribute to over 600 volunteers who had volunteered internationally with Challenges Worldwide. Five years on from this publication presents the perfect opportunity to reflect on the incredible work that the new generation of Challenges Worldwide volunteers have engaged in and the tangible impact their efforts have achieved.

 

The most notable project we have been working on is in the delivery of the DFID funded International Citizen Service Programme, ICS.

Featured matt and chapa

Through the ICS programme, ChallengesWorldwide has worked with over 350 18-25 year old volunteers from the UK, Ghana, Uganda and Zambia. Their natural capability and dedication to the programme has succeeded in assisting over 150 businesses across three host countries. The collateral impact of the work of these volunteers has been vast.

 

The list below highlights a fraction of the work our volunteers have made possible:

  • 150 business diagnostics carried out across 150 small to medium sized enterprises.
  • In becoming an accredited body of CMI we have supported over 200 learners across 6 different to achieve a professional qualification in Project interventions and managing client relationships.
  • Our expert mentors continue to employ their wealth of experience to deliver practical and insightful business support to SMEs across the developing world.
  • Over 250 volunteers have completed some Action at Home and engaged as active citizens back in the UK, sharing their stories and participating in community groups, social enterprises or charity work.

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Challenges Worldwide:ICS volunteers are Changemakers. Over the next five years we will continue to build on the work of previous volunteers and learn from the challenges and experiences. We look forward to blogging in 2020, where we will have the opportunity to reflect on the work of the next generation of ICS volunteers and evaluate the long term impact they have made to the developing economies of our three host nations.

 

Five years on and volunteers are still at the heart of our work. To all Challenges Worldwide and ICS volunteers,

Thank You.

 

“Saying thank you to over 600 volunteers for International volunteer day 2010

 

Challenges Worldwide would like to mark International Volunteer Day by paying tribute to over 600 volunteers who have volunteered with Challenges over the past 10 years. International Volunteer Day is celebrated each year on the 5thDecember. The day was established by the United Nations General Assembly in 1985 and is now celebrated globally. As UN volunteers state: “International Volunteer Day (IVD) is a chance for volunteer-involving organizations and individual volunteers to promote their contributions to development at local, national and international levels.”

On the 23rd November, Challenges officially celebrated its tenth anniversary where we acknowledged the contribution of our volunteers to social enterprise and public sector in developing countries.

Over the past 10 years, we have sent over 600 experienced business professionals to work in more than 35 countries with more than 150 organisations – our volunteers have given more than 40,000 days of professional time, worth more than £20m GBP, in support of our partner organisations.

Our volunteers have helped:

  • Build stronger NGOs – such as environmental, worker’s rights and human rightsorganisations
  • Grow Social Enterprises – such as microfinance, renewable energy and fair trade organisations
  • Social Businesses in achieving investment – for example MRHP in Tanzania received $150,000 to help establish their brick making organisation, or more recently almost $1m USD into a peanut co-operative in Malawi
  • Develop more effective government departments – such as the Women’s Department in Belize, or our legal reform work in Children’s rights across CARICOM, or aiding the Justice Sector in Malawi through the Capacity Building for Justice project.

Volunteers are at the heart of Challenges Worldwide. Thank you, to all our volunteers who have contributed to our partner Organisations over the past 10 years.

 

Interested in becoming a Challenges volunteer? Visitwww.challengesworldwide.org”

 



 

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How can Business Play a Role in International Development? Fashion Industry Perspective

The fashion industry in Zambia is significantly different to that in the UK as it is characterised principally by made-to-measure as opposed to ready-to-wear clothing. This means there are many small companies selling fabric or tailoring clothing yet few well known Zambian brands. A lack of intellectual property law enforcement means that there are also many fake designer items sold in both markets and shops. This culture of imitation stunts the development of creative design talent.

The designers and owners at Xstina Creations all stated that when they went to study fashion in South Africa and the USA. Their families and friends told them they were stupid as you can’t make a living from designing clothes. The Zambian fashion industry can therefore be considered to be in its infancy with very few locals having the formal training or market knowledge to start a successful fashion brand. The success that Kamanga wear has had so far shows that there is a gap in the market for a Zambian brand, yet convincing people that success is possible is difficult.

It is however a small company with big dreams. They intend to create a fashion magazine distributed within Zambia and collaborate with other local designers on collections. There is therefore potential for one business to become instrumental in building a new and competitive industry, which will inspire future generations to aspire to becoming designers. As so many locals still have the skills in dress-making this would harness their skills in a way which is profitable and stimulates the economy and job creation.

There are also options for fashion businesses to go international much more quickly, which combined with trends towards the popularity of unique and ethical pieces in the western marketplace presents a huge opportunity. Gaining coverage through social media and blogs means brand awareness can be created in diverse target audiences.

What barriers and long-term difficulties do you think your business will face in the future that were beyond your influence?
Xstina Creation’s long-term aim is to expand production to start exporting and selling online. Being committed to creating an ethical, local fashion brand is however an extremely hard task as upscaling production in a way which avoids the Chinese produced fast-fashion culture is very expensive, particularly when the end goal is to compete in the global marketplace.

 

In terms of marketing and raising the brand awareness which will support this expansion, the future vision for Kamanga Wear is to become a lifestyle brand. This would be achieved through creation of a fashion magazine. Whilst they are experts in the fashion, they have no experience in creating a magazine and limited connections to other companies which would feature within the publication. It will therefore be a big challenge to set up, gain readership and reach the level where other brands pay to be featured. However, if this goal is realised the magazine would not only be a marketing tool for Kamanga Wear but also a profitable business venture. In order to overcome these barriers they need to gain a much larger social media following and start the magazine as an online blog before going into print.

The biggest issue the business will face continued difficulties in accessing the finance they need to expand. There is a large amount of capital required to upscale production and create brand recognition. They are also looking to take on a lot of work as they have no experience to date in producing a magazine or selling online. Achieving their goals is therefore something which they should take a slow approach to building up a customer base and following gradually. Whilst we set up new financial management systems and a marketing plan, these goals are very long-term and many of the difficulties they will encounter and beyond the influence of what we could achieve during our 9 week placement.

By Amanda Richards, Challenges Worldwide ICS volunteer in Zambia

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On the Home Straight in Uganda

by Mad33

Mad, Clare and Joel Uganda
Me, Clare and Joel

So the time has come for us Brits to say goodbye to the Pearl of Africa, and for the Ugandans to head home and back to normality. Our last two weeks have been very busy, finishing up some of the plans and documents we’ve all been making for our businesses, and going through the debrief processes.

Penultimate week

Naira and I spent the penultimate week working independently, as our business owner was otherwise engaged with his family life and many other projects. Entrepreneurs here definitely keep themselves busy! So, we finally edited the content of the website. It’s not amazing, but at least it now has up to date information, so will be useful for any customers searching Waste Masters online. We printed the new promotional materials, and put together a final dossier of work to hand over to the client. We also spent a day at Afribanana, conducting Business Diagnostics on potential SMEs. So the next cohort might be working with ladies who make banana paper bags and jewellery, or others who make cooking briquettes from banana stems and recycled dry waste. Zac had also organised for us all to visit the Coca-Cola bottling factory one morning, where it was interesting to see efficiency in action here in Kampala!

On Friday night a few of us treated ourselves to an expat night out at Sky Lounge, to celebrate our Team Leader being offered a Project Co-ordinator role here for another five months! Of course, we were all well behaved and safely tucked up in our host home beds by 11pm.

Penultimate weekend

Our final team meeting and CMI training session on Saturday was short and sweet, and afterwards I enjoyed a dip in the pool at Nob View Hotel, and a nice relax.

On Sunday, Amy and I went to the morning ceremony at the Baha’i Centre for Worship. Inside the temple, high on the hill, as the rain absolutely tipped it down outside, we listened to readings and chants in Luganda and English. The readings were not only taken from the Baha’i Holy Scriptures, but also the Qu’ran, Torah and Buddhist writings. Afterwards, we enjoyed a Q & A session with the most mini cup of coffee. The local Baha’i group is typically international, with North Americans, Iranians, an Indian lady, and some Eritreans in the mix. It was interesting to learn more about the Baha’i outlook on life, and their quest for unity throughout the world. This would include having a universal language to facilitate global understanding, which has not yet been ‘officially declared’. Odds are on English to win it, though I’m sure there are many people who would begrudge that being so.

Uganda Queueing up for lunch
Queueing up for lunch

In the afternoon we were further treated to a last big lunch, at Heini’s host family’s home in Kyaliwajjala (try reading that one out loud – the “ky” is “ch”). Rebecca was the lovely lady who took us to the Introduction Ceremony some weeks back. She put on an amazing spread – probably the best meal I’ve had here through the sheer variety (all the vegetables!!) – and we enjoyed sharing it with her sons and other church associates. The church’s motive was to encourage some of us to come back in the future and volunteer as teachers at their school, in exchange for board and lodging at the pastor’s house. Anyone interested, just get in touch!

 

 

Final week

Naira Hard at work, Uganda
Naira Hard at work, Ugand

The final week was all about dotting the ‘i’s and crossing the ‘t’s. Naira and I spent Tuesday calling and messages customers to thank them for their support on the Fifth anniversary of the company. It was a pleasure to hear positive feedback from them all. We also had a great meeting with Chrispin, wherein we handed over all of our work and set him up on Challenges Marketplace.

The Marketplace is an online platform, set up by Challenges Worldwide, that connects SMEs in developing countries with mentors, donors and investors. Over the last 15 years, CWW kept seeing that the most common problems stopping the correct external support and investment reaching these smaller enterprises was high engagement costs, lack of reliable information and unaffordable support services. They are now looking to address this with this simple, low cost and transparent technology platform, which allows SMEs to profile their company and chart progress over time by submitting monthly reports of their financials, KPIs and operations. From this, businesses should then be able to access the vital support and investment needed to grow.

On Wednesday, we had a debrief day at CURAD, during which we reflected on the impact we have had on the businesses, and the resulting positive impact this will have on the local community. For example, many of the business our team consulted for were agribusinesses, which support farmers with training and resources, and promote the value chain within Uganda. Others supported disabled women, or funded adjoining charities. Our contribution to Waste Masters’ marketing will allow them to expand their customer base, and when they grow they will be able to achieve their long-term goal of running the recycling plant outside Kampala, which will contribute to making the city cleaner and greener. It’s the small things too: just by being here, Naira and I have made Chrispin concentrate more on his business, and helped him organise his future plans, so that they might run that little bit smoother.

Unfortunately for me, I spent the debrief day vomiting, and then a joyous evening at Abii Clinic being tested on. Although at the time I wasn’t laughing, on reflection my clinic experience was hilarious. Learning to breathe, laugh and move on is essential for anyone wanting to live here. So despite my pain and tears, Doctor Nicholas seemed to think the appointment was a good opportunity to network (apparently I’m coming back in five years to do business with him) and preach (both him and the phlebotomist tried to convert me to become Born Again). Anyway, fortunately for me it’s nothing some antibiotics and a lot of sleep won’t sort, so I’ve been quite chilled for the last couple of day.

Tonight Challenges Worldwide is throwing a final goodbye party for the host families and business owners. As I write, I’m sitting in the beautiful gardens of Capitol Palace Hotel, basking in the Ugandan sunshine for one last afternoon. Although I’m so ready to go home, and already excited about getting stuck in to new projects in the UK, I am going to miss this crazy country! I’ve laughed and I’ve cried, sometimes at the same time. Although I never got to see a pig on a boda boda, I have experienced something new every day, overcome numerous barriers and met some amazing people!

To see some Changemaker stories from the last two years please visit our Blog

 

 

 

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Tissue Issues

by Matt

Zambia volunteers Matt and Chapa Challenegs
Matt and Chapa

LST Industries, leading tissue manufacturer in all of Southern Africa! Hmm not quite. Maybe someday. At the moment however, LST Industries is just a small enterprise running out of the same lot as the owner’s  (Mrs Sibanda)  other business, Norwich Insurance Brokers, and supplies tissues to just the small nearby area of Lusaka. Obviously it’s a long way to go from there to become even Lusaka’s main tissue manufacturer, but if the Zambian’s I have worked and lived alongside have taught me anything, it’s the ability to dream big.

Our first day was a lot to take in, and maybe somewhat overwhelming. Chapa, my Zambian counterpart, and I introduced ourselves to Mrs Sibanda, and talked to her about what we hoped to achieve, and what she wanted out of us. Although I didn’t really think about it as such at the time, this was our first taste of being consultants, and the first stage of our “Client Relationship”, which we would go on to learn about in our weekly CMI courses.

There were some difficulties or complications, it must be said – although she knew what we were there for, she also thought we would help on the factory floor, actually producing the tissues. Ah, this will be the managing expectations part of consultancy that had been mentioned. We politely conveyed that while we would of course be happy to help out in all areas of the business, she should understand that our role shouldn’t be as extra workers for a few months. After all, the long term benefit of that would be minimal, and when we departed, the business would go back to being the same as before. She seemed to understand, and agree, although she did proceed to provide us with steel toe-capped boots and coats for when we were working on the floor… one step at a time, I suppose. In fact that’s another thing I have learnt – progress is going to take a lot longer than you think, so celebrate the little victories.

In our first couple of weeks, we spent our time talking to the staff and trying to get started on the work, looking for ways we could help improve the company. We had lots of ideas; we saw how their record keeping could be made better and also their sales procedure. I spent the first week looking at a lot of financial data, which, I cannot lie, took me a long time to interpret. After some time though, although it felt like we had gathered loads of information, we still needed to do something with it, and make it presentable. It was here a part of the CMI course sprung to mind, about actually doing stuff with your data – it’s no use having a lot of data if it doesn’t mean anything, and I think this was a mistake we made in our first few weeks. Slightly unsure of how to have the best positive impact, we used somewhat of a scattergun approach, hoping to find something that would stick. We thought about it some more, and I used our observations of production to work produce a report on how effective the machines were and, happily, found that we could show were certain inefficiencies in the production process. From now on we would try to be more focused on our goals, and not get overwhelmed in trying to do too much.

Another thing we failed to do early on was organise meetings with our boss. We were in a new company; I personally was in an entirely new continent, so perhaps we were a little too timid. However, we have learnt, through our own experience and also as part of the course, how important it is to have a strong relationship with your boss/client, in order to ensure we are actually helping her in a way that she agrees with. Initially for example, I came up with a way that we could improve production, by possibly changing the specifications of the final product. It seemed perfect to me, the product itself would be barely altered, and they could increase production by about 5-10% with barely any effort. I got a little carried away with this, and ran through quite a lot of calculations about how much this could save. However, it was not until later that I presented this idea to Mrs Sibanda. Although she was impressed, she said it was basically not possible due to restrictions on the machine and customer requirements. This was obviously disappointing, but if I had mentioned this to her earlier I could have spent my time on something more useful.

From then on we strived to meet more frequently with Mrs Sibanda, in order to ensure a productive time here. As it was, she was much more concerned about worker idleness and safety than the ins and outs of production. With this knowledge, we were able to produce a schedule and set of rules to ensure the workers were always busy, and we got some basic safety signs made to ensure the customers and the workers were safer. This took little time, but Mrs Sibanda was very pleased with the results; we had been focussed on ways we could have hopefully a bigger impact, and these signs and schedules felt small, but like I said, one step at a time.

As it is, a 10 week consultancy is obviously a very short amount of time to significantly improve a business such as ours, and to be frank, I’m not sure if LST will be the Hungry Lion* of tissue manufacturing by the time we leave. However learning about consultancy through both direct experience and as part of the CMI, I see now how we can help the company, even by doing seemingly small things, it is all part of giving the company foundations on which to grow in the future.

*The McDonalds of Zambia fast food, they are everywhere. I’m actually sat in one now, as I type this.”

To see some Changemaker stories from the last two years please visit our Blog

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Sustainable business and the ripple effect : Thoughts from Zambia

 by M Luciana

Before embarking on my International Citizen Service Entrepreneurship placement in Lusaka, Zambia, I had little knowledge of sustainable business, and even less knowledge of its potential to complexly contribute to development. I certainly did not expect that the enhancement of said knowledge would come from consulting a business in the hospitality industry. However, the ripple effect of changes in business operations is eye-opening in developing industry sectors such as tourism and hospitality in Zambia, and it is in this sector that business efficiency, effectiveness and sustainability will help not only the company in question, but also its surrounding community and associated supply chain.

My placement, Lui Guest House, is a small, family-owned lodge in the heart of Lusaka, drawing in local and international clients alike to provide quality and affordable accommodation. Alongside accommodation, it supplies restaurant services and outside hire of certain parts of the guest house. At the other end of the spectrum, it is a consumer of products and services to support its operations – some established supply chains, such as electrical power, and some variable, such as food ingredients and cleaning products, subject to budgets and availability. It was the role of the business as a consumer which brought about some of the most long-term changes implemented during our placement; we used the consumer position of Lui Guest House to create a unique selling point for the business and the services it provides: environmental responsibility (or, as some might call it, eco-friendliness).

Picture this: a buzzing urban tourism industry in the capital, dominated by expensive hotel chains and backpacker hostels. State-of-the-art facilities and services provide for the corporate traveller, while affordable prices and friendly hostel environments provide for the exploring volon-tourist. At the middle of this range, you have guest houses – reliable, affordable, sensibly located accommodations, with quietly sufficient services such as WiFi, simple and hearty restaurant menus, hand-washed laundry and breezy back gardens. They cannot afford to invest in oak-panelled conference facilities, nor gourmet restaurant meals. How can they appear as unique in the face of their competition? Our starter-for-10 solution for Lui Guest House combined a unique selling point with a real challenge faced by all Zambians these days: lack of electricity.

Zesco, the state-owned electrical generation company which holds a quasi-monopoly of power provision services, has been battling with low rainfall levels over recent years, leading to a lack of hydro-electric power generation and hence scheduled power cuts amounting up to 12 hours per day. Obviously, this is a huge challenge for a business whose customer relations rely on phones and internet, and whose customer satisfaction relies on the provision of lighting, TV facilities and running water via a powered borehole. By addressing this challenge, not only does the guest house gain a competitive advantage in its market segment, but also a unique selling point, in line with recommendations of the Zambia Tourism policy to promote environmentally sound operations in the tourism industry, as well as the development of eco-tourism.

Conversations with the business owners of the guest house led to a trial being implemented in what will hopefully be a long-term conversion to off-grid solar power. A solar panel has been installed, providing lighting and power for the communal TV in the main building of the accommodation, with plans being made for additional panels to be installed in the main administrative area and the borehole, to ensure consistent provision of electricity and maintain the environmental responsibility of the business. By carrying out these changes, the business becomes part of a new, more responsible supply chain – that of alternative energy, an industry which is rising rapidly in Zambia and has enormous development potential, not least for rural areas such as the Southern Province’s Chikanta Chiefdom, where the provision of solar power has greatly enhanced the performance of educational and healthcare facilities. In this sense, the alignment of Lui Guest House with this new supply chain creates exactly the ripple effect described above – the injection of trade dynamics and income into a responsible and necessary industry; the consumer choice leading to sustainable development.

 

An increase in business efficiency, effectiveness and sustainability, through a move towards alternative energy use, is coupled with a positive community impact, through the raising of awareness of solar power, as well as a robust contribution to a responsible supply chain. The added benefits of eliminating the challenge of Zesco’s unreliable power supply and improving customer relations are proof that business sustainability generates profit through increased effectiveness, and contributes to the responsible development of the tourism industry, one of Zambia’s most promising economic sectors, but also the most vulnerable to unsustainable development.

To see some Changemaker stories from the last two years please visit our Blog

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From Tea in Leeds to Pineapples in Accra

by Joe Wright

Back in Yorkshire, me daily commute t’ Leeds was a slow crawl down the M62 in my run down Renault Clio. When I finally arrived at the office, I’d pop the kettle on and brew me-self an industrial sized cup of coffee to keep me going until lunch, which was usually a large ham salad sandwich (with a large helping of salad cream of course!). But going t’work is a just tad different now that I’ve swapped in the office in Leeds for a small scale pineapple factory in Accra, Ghana.

Challenges Worldwide Pineapple Delivery
Pineapple Delivery

Yorkshiremen enjoy nothing more than a bit of inverted snobbery so I’ll tell ya’ this for nowt – if you thought traffic was bad going over the Pennines then you’ve clearly never made the journey from Broadcasting Junction to Kasoa. Oooh you drive the car to work do ya? Luxury! I get packed onto the Tro Tro, a timetable-less, air con-less, mini bus service running in lieu of public transport.

In all fairness though I’d rather take the one hour forty minute Tro Tro trip than sit on the M621 for half an hour. What it lacks in elegance and comfort, my new commute more than makes up for with its genuine character. Amongst other perks, you can buy almost anything from the hawkers who sell from the middle of the road. This morning someone offered to sell me a leather belt, which I politely declined with the classic “by ‘eck how bloody much?!”. Well, you can take the lad out of Yorkshire…

Oh and by gum, there’s no chance of that brew when I eventually arrive at work. Ghana produces a lot of coffee but my understanding is that it mostly gets exported elsewhere. Thankfully for my health, I’ve swapped that mug of caffeine for a freshly cut coconut, which is absolutely delicious. In stark contrast with Leeds, I can’t complain that I’ve been cooked up in an office all day as my working space in Ghana is a plastic chair under a mango tree (I’m not even making that up!) My current place of work is, perhaps stereotypically, a Pineapple juice company on the outskirts of Accra.

In my first week here, we visited a UK Aid sponsored conference which highlighted the chronic issues faced by Ghanaian businesses. The guest speaker, a professor of economics, explained that banks here will typically expect a loan to be repaid within 3 years and with an incredibly high interest rate. Furthermore, the collateral required to access these extortionate loans is typically 178% the loan amount. As you can imagine, a typically tight Yorkshireman like myself balked in horror at such statistics. But this is one of many reasons why businesses in Ghana struggle to transition from small to medium size, without access to funding their potential for growth is limited.

Despite the funding problem, I and my Ghanaian counterpart Esther are doing all we can to help the factory achieve sustainable organic growth. We are acting in a consultancy role, finding solutions to problems and helping the business to grow. Of course, neither of us are experts in pineapples, but we can provide time and dedication as well as that all important outsider’s perspective.

Challenges Worldwide volunteers Joe and Esther in Ghana
Esther and I with our Team Leaders and Business Owners

With all the challenges facing Ghanaian business, we both know that we’ll have to employ plenty of hard graft if we want to make an impact upon our business. But this is the sort of challenge which provides its own motivation, I mean how often do you meet someone in Hull who’s worked in a pineapple juice factory in Africa? This is a unique challenge, an exciting prospect and an opportunity to make a real difference. Though I enjoyed my old job in Leeds, the commute too often felt like a chore. In Ghana, I travel twice as far and still enjoy every minute of the journey.

To see some Changemaker stories from the last two years please visit our Blog

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