Reawaken, Redesign and Re-emerge: Africa Beyond Potential
- Lagos, Nigeria
- 08/09/2022
- 4 Speakers
- Lagos, Nigeria
- 08/09/2022
- 4 Speakers
LEAP Africa’s Social Innovators Programme (SIP) is an accelerator fellowship that empowers young changemakers through a holistic approach of building their capacity, connections and credibility. It was borne out of the understanding of the challenges faced by most young social enterprises are faced with challenges such as early-stage funding, resource and connection deficit that hamper their growth and sustainability.
The Social Innovators Programme (SIP) fellowship exists to support the growth of these innovative youth-led social enterprises by
Building their capacity through trainings, mentoring, advisory coaching support
Connecting them to global networks and partnerships
Showcasing their innovations through the Conference/Awards and media promotions
As LEAP Africa reflects on 20 years of influence in the youth development space, it is imperative to rethink the future of leadership as we position ourselves as thought leaders within the youth ecosystem.
The theme for this year’s SIPA Conference Reawaken, Redesign and Re-emerge: Africa Beyond Potential will initiate conversations pertinent to a reimagined approach to leadership and innovation on the African continent. As more young people and youth led organizations emerge in solving youth related issues, there is a need for increased transgenerational partnerships through mentoring, coaching and other activities. The LEGACY edition of SIPA will foster such collaborations at various levels.
Managing Principal, Sovereign’s Capital
Henry Kaestner co-founded the Faith Driven Entrepreneur and Faith Driven Investor ministries, and has been a catalyst behind both movements. He and his team seek to serve faith driven entrepreneurs, investors, funds, partners, and advisors through content, community, and connections.
Henry is also a Co-Founder and Partner at Sovereign’s Capital, a private equity and venture capital management company that invests in faith driven entrepreneurs in Southeast Asia and the U.S. from its offices in Silicon Valley, Durham, Nashville, Chattanooga, Atlanta, and Jakarta, Indonesia. Prior to co-founding Sovereign’s Capital, Henry was Co-founder and previous CEO, and then Chairman, of Bandwidth (NASDAQ:BAND) and its sister company, Republic Wireless (which spun out of Bandwidth in 2016). Together the companies have grown from $0 to more than $600 million in revenue.
Henry is a member of the broader Church in the Bay Area, attends Venture Christian Church in Los Gatos, CA and serves as an elder in the Presbyterian Church of America. Henry lives in Los Gatos with his wife Kimberley and their three sons.
Head, Global Prosperity at the Clayton Christensen Institute for Disruptive Innovation
Efosa Ojomo was selected as one of 30 thinkers in the 2020 Thinkers50 Radar list, the world’s most reliable resource for identifying, ranking, and sharing the leading management ideas of our age. He researches and writes about how innovation can transform organizations and create inclusive prosperity for many. In January, 2019, longside the late Harvard Business School professor, Clayton Christensen, he published the book, The Prosperity Paradox: How innovation can lift nations out of poverty. Christensen was the world’s foremost thinker on Disruptive Innovation and was a mentor to Efosa Ojomo.
Efosa leads the Global Prosperity research group at the Clayton Christensen Institute for Disruptive Innovation, an innovation-focused think tank based in Boston and Silicon Valley. Over the past several years, his work has been published and covered by the Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review, The Guardian, Quartz, Forbes, Fortune, The World Bank, NPR, and several other media outlets.
He speaks and consults often on how organizations can develop a culture that fosters market-creating innovations, and has presented his work at TED, the Aspen Ideas Festival, the World Bank, Harvard, Yale, Oxford, and at several other conferences and institutions. His TED Talk on Innovation and Corruption has garnered over 2 million views. In a Wall Street Journal review of The Prosperity Paradox, Rupert Darwall writes that the book provides “a better way to fight poverty” as it returns “the entrepreneur and innovation to the center stage of economic development and prosperity.” Click here to view a list of some of Efosa’s published work.
Efosa graduated from Vanderbilt University with a degree in computer engineering and received his
MBA from Harvard Business School.
Chairman/COO, Africa Health Holdings.
Sangu is CEO of CarePoint (formerly Africa Health Holdings) focused on “building Africa’s healthcare future” and Chairman of Golden Palm Investments Corporation. Delle has been named a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader, a 2022 Eisenhower Fellow, Africa’s “Young Person of the Year”, a 2014 TEDGlobal Fellow, a 2013 Soros Fellow, one of Forbes’ top 30 most promising entrepreneurs in Africa, and one of Euromoney’s “Africa’s Rising Stars”.
Sangu is a Trustee of the Peddie School, an Advisory Board member of Harvard University’s Center for African Studies and a member of Harvard Medical School’s Global Health Advisory Council. Sangu graduated with a BA, a JD, and an MBA from Harvard University,a Masters from Oxford University and a PhD from the University of Birmingham (UK).Sangu is the author of “Making Futures: Young Entrepreneurs in a Dynamic Africa” which was published in September 2019. He is a mental health activist with a TED Talk on the stigma of mental health which has garnered over 2 million views.
Co-founder/COO, GirlTrek.
Vanessa Garrison is the co-founder of GirlTrek, the largest public health nonprofit for African-American women and girls in the United States. With more than one million neighborhood walkers, GirlTrek encourages women to use walking as a practical first step to inspire healthy living, families, and communities. As women organize walking teams, they mobilize community members to support monthly advocacy efforts and lead a civil rights-inspired health movement.
Beyond walking, GirlTrek’s active members support local and national policy to increase physical activity through walking, improve access to safe places to walk, protect and reclaim green spaces, and improve the walkability and built environments of 50 high-need communities across the United States. Prior to co-founding GirlTrek, Garrison worked within the criminal justice space, helping formerly incarcerated women access critical services. She began her career working in digital media with Turner Broadcasting System. Inc. in Atlanta, where she managed digital media projects for some the world’s most recognizable news and entertainment brands, including, CNN, TNT and Sports Illustrated.
As the co-founder of GirlTrek, Vanessa is among the top 1% of social innovators in the world to receive fellowships from Echoing Green and The Aspen Institute. She has been featured by CNN, NPR The Washington Post, The New York Times and named “Health Hero” by Essence Magazine. In 2018 she was appointed to the national board of the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy and her Ted Talk, “When Black Women Walk” has more than one million views. A native of Seattle, WA, Vanessa earned a B.A. in World Arts and Culture from the University of California, Los Angeles.
The fellowship year ends with the Awards ceremony. The year-long fellowship culminates in an Awards ceremony to recognise outstanding fellows and to induct a new cohort. The Awards ceremony celebrates youth at the forefront of social change across Africa leveraging innovative approaches. At SIPA, LEAP showcases and awards exceptional fellows in the following categories:
Three fellows who have distinguished themselves during the course of the fellowship year and recorded significant growth in their enterprises
One alumni who has achieved significant growth and impact and has continued to maintain the organizational systems and structures developed during the fellowship
One fellow who has translated the learning and professional insights acquired from the fellowship programme into upholding financial accountability, transparency and sustainability in their social enterprise.
“Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.”
Sharon Begley
Registration is free, Physical space is Limited.
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