Enterprise Development
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" alt="Community food growers can feed schoolchildren" />
Community food growers can feed schoolchildren
21 August 2012
Graeme Wilkinson, a CSI Programme Manager at Tshikululu Social Investments, considers a scenario in which community food growers supply schools in poor communities – integrated development at its best. This article was first published in the 2012 edition of “CSI: The Human Face of Business”, distributed by “Financial Mail”.The South African government has committed to providing every school-going child from a poor community a cooked and nutritious meal every school day of the year. The objective is clear: no child should learn on an empty stomach.
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" alt="Seek social returns on enterprise development investments" />
Seek social returns on enterprise development investments
29 August 2011
The focus on enterprise development (ED) is given impetus by the fact that companies can earn points on their BBBEE scorecard by supporting such initiatives. But, says Jane Woodhouse, Business Development Manager at Tshikululu Social Investments, becoming involved in ED for the right reasons is more important than the pure financial contribution. -
" alt="Creating jobs in South Africa by learning from America" />
Creating jobs in South Africa by learning from America
3 August 2011
If we are to overcome the unemployment crisis, we will have to move intelligently and together; business and government working proactively and creatively.
Written by Yvonne Pennington, CSI practitioner at Tshikululu Social Investments.
In an article which appeared in Time magazine on 30 May 2011, the journalist Fareed Zakaria welcomed an end to the financial crisis, but introduced an important caveat: in the United States, the rebound has come at the expense of jobs. Though the U.S. gross domestic product has returned to where it was in 2007, it has reached this point with seven million fewer workers.
South Africa is facing an employment crisis too. A quarter of South Africans were reported as unemployed in the first quarter of 2011; a figure which does not include those who are not working but who are actively seeking work. This places us 174th out of 200 countries ranked in the CIA World Factbook. President Jacob Zuma, in his State of the Nation address in February this year, recognised the crisis, declaring 2011 a year of job creation.
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" alt="Avoiding a “Tunisia Day” in CSI" />
Avoiding a “Tunisia Day” in CSI
9 March 2011
Donors and their partners in development should build mutually-beneficial entrepreneurship models wherever possible and relevant.
Written by Vumisa Mayisela, client relationship manager at Tshikululu Social Investments.
Businessman and sometime political analyst Moeletsi Mbeki has caused waves by warning that South Africa could see a “œTunisia Day” in 2015 or 2020.
He argues that current social models and BEE perpetuate a culture of non-entrepreneurship and entitlement – black people who want to go into business believe that rather than building enterprises from the ground up, they should acquire assets for free, and that somebody is there to make them rich.
There are parallels in how corporate social investment (CSI) is often implemented.
