Spark develops education and entrepreneurship so that young and ambitious people are empowered to lead their post-conflict society into prosperity. We build the capacity of local economic and educational institutions so they can empower their own populations. The organisation actively mobilises support for this within Dutch Society, especially with economic and educational institutions.
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SPARK in Zimbabwe
During the end of January and beginning of February SPARK travelled to Zimbabwe in order to meet potential partners and to prepare a youth entrepreneurship
pilot in the country. Marieke Pluk describes what she thought of the trip and why
it is an interesting thing for SPARK to be involved in.
Traffic in Harare, a sign of better times for the country
What was the main point with the trip?
The goal was to meet with
potential partners to discuss their role and interest a youth entrepreneurship
pilot in Zimbabwe. The pilot will be based on Spark's Business Start-up Center
(BSC) concept: job creation through support to micro, small and medium
enterprises.
Who did you meet
with?
I met with managers and CEOs of
Zimbabwean companies; among others a construction company, a mobile phone
operator and a private agricultural college. Companies are interested to
generate more business by stimulating entrepreneurship within and outside their
enterprises. Our interest is to create jobs.
For example, the mobile phone
operator wants to increase their market share by turning the airtime seller on
the street into a small business owner, providing jobs to several airtime
sellers. The BSC can enroll these airtime sellers in the business skills
training programme, offer them a chance to develop a business plan, and get
access to a micro-loan. Besides the companies, I also met with a young
entrepreneur, the Ministry of Economic Planning, the Dutch Embassy, and the
enterprise development section of Hivos, who have their regional office in
Harare.
What kind of positive difference can SPARK make in the
country?
By bringing knowledge and
resources of the private sector together within the BSC concept, SPARK can give
encouragement to the long suffering Zimbabwean entrepreneur. On top of direct
job creation, we have a second agenda point: by implementing this project
successfully, we hope to bring back the trust of the international (donor
community) in the Zimbabwean SME sector.
What was your
impression of the country and the people?
It definitely feels like things
are moving, one year ago the streets of downtown Harare were deserted and shops
were empty. Now there are traffic jams during rush hour and shops are selling
again. People are kind, speak good English, and are generally well educated. Now
that the US Dollar has been introduced people can rely on a currency and make
plans and investment again. The political situation is of course not ideal and
SPARK will take a risk with this project, but if we are successful the impact
for the entrepreneurs we will be very positive.
What will the next step in the project be?
The project proposal was
finished a week after my return and we sent it to a Dutch foundation for
co-funding (63%) of the pilot project. The next step will be to convince them to
participate. Apart from the three Zimbabwean companies that are already on
board, we need to lobby for the official commitment of another four.
Attentive students at a mechanical farm engineering class at Blackfordby College of Agriculture
