South Africa Workshop for Social Entrepreneurship - 2008/Reflections/National Collaborative Project on Student Social Entrepreneurship

Bob Hawkins

Introduction
The World Bank Institute has developed a collaborative framework containing a common set of objectives within which social entrepreneurial projects can be facilitated. The set of objectives will allow for peer reviews of projects, electronic capturing of data regarding communities and projects and allows for a means of identifying the most promising ideas with a view to potentially funding these.

The framework will be implemented in four phases: Phase I will be the inception phase, followed by Phase II (Project Proposal) Phase III (Prototype) and finally Phase IV (Final Business Plan Submission)

Phase I: Inception
During this phase students will assess:


 * Their understanding of the target community and who to approach when assessing the need of the community

Students will be expected to post a short memo on their blog outlining the challenges faced and which organisations they envisage can assist them on their chosen project as well as prioritise the identified needs of the community.

Phase II: Project Proposal
During this Phase students begin to identify the challenges and problems within their chosen community. They would be expected to present a concept note detailing the stated problems, methodology, resource utilisation and proposed action plans to be implemented over the duration of the project. It is probable that at this point that peer reviews take place, inviting comment and input.

Funding and Follow-up:

 * The student teams with the highest points in each cohort would have their ideas reviewed by a panel of private, NGO and public representatives.
 * The best 20 ideas would receive R30,000 to develop the idea further or for their partner institution to develop the idea.