ECOSEED Solution Architects

To augment many distinct efforts by private sector, government and non-profit organisations to fight poverty through formal corporate employment and SMEs opportunities, ECOSEED seeks to coordinate, monitor and evaluate these strides. We focus on the following population groups: Graduates, Entrepreneurs, intrapreneurship, Informal sector, Scholarship Agencies, Academic institutions and SMME Funders.  Unlike the recruitment agencies, the model adopted by ECOSEED will not only cater for formal hire but rather internships, learner attachment placements, academic sponsorship and establishing linkages for service providers to connect and serve the labour market comprehensively. In Lesotho government sponsors higher education and reimbursement of such grands is a challenge that poses a threat to sustainability of the model.

Unemployment is the problem challenging skilled labor, youth in particular. The advent of disruptive technology magnifies the problem. Wold bank and https://www.theglobaleconomy.com, youth unemployment between ages 15-24 since 1991 to 2019; the average rate is 30.99, minimum of 23.48 in 2019 and highest record of 37.94 in 1997. The indicator improvement has been rapid due to donor funded initiatives and engagement of private and public sector. But from 2012 to 2019 the indicator has changed insignificantly highlighting challenges on strategies and interventions. The industrial revolution and services automation, global health pandemics, volatile market for private sector posed by economies of scale as explained by Michael Porter's five competitive forces remain challenges. According to an article (DOI: 10.4236/me.2018.95060) Lesotho's growth is driven by substantially expanding public activities especially government spending. With few job opportunities and private sector investment the government tax collection stays low hindering sustainable development. Therefore, poverty and income inequality and other social ills remain pervasive in the face of non-inclusive growth. According to https://www.statista.com, Smart phone users were 3.2 billion in 2019. Projections anticipate 3.5 and 3.8 rise in 2020 and 2021 respectively. This shows inherent potential of mobile applications to reach masses.

ECOSEED has developed a website application resourceful with a database of service providers, openings of internships, attachment placements, academic sponsorship and SME funding opportunities. Communities will be able to share their experiences about the offering of various providers. A website will work as a solution and a prototype for a mobile application to provide mentorship, education and an information portal for opportunities and reliable service providers. All services and providers posted on the modelled platform will be researched, screened and authentic free from malice and non-deceptive to public domain. Then ECOSEED will be a research and opportunity development and resource coordination focusing mainly on modelling solutions that bridge divides in policy and implementation. On the website clients will identify providers hence saving time and increasing demand. 

The initiative aims to serve the aspiring entrepreneurs, SMMEs, Graduates and School leavers and Government initiatives to alleviate poverty through job creation and policy induction. In summary, the target population is all skilled labour and policy developers through research development and knowledge management. While we acknowledge that in the beginning the solution assumes stable and wide coverage of internet and other communication infrastructural resources, the beginning is just a prototype to be sampled over population with access to mobile devices and who afford internet. Service providers with mobile phones are in a position to be reached. By allowing the website to engage in sharing of comments through and interactive web platform, different stakeholders can exchange dialogue to built alliances, customer feedback provided publicly and allowing for mining of information in the process. Harnessing feedback and comments allows for integrated service delivery, opportunity and growth at points of service, policy development and global participation. Relevant knowledge and education will be developed, shared and seminars conducted. The informal economies has the potential to formalize their ventures meaning an increase in tax collection. The initiative has potential for lasting outcomes and to promote inclusive planning and development.

http://www.ecoseedlso.org/

The challenge is seeking for a solution to create good jobs and entrepreneurial opportunities for marginalized populations through empowerment and flattening barriers to competition and increasing knowledge of the problem area. Socio-economic structures, financial support and educational systems are falling behind the disruptive change by imposed by technology during the industrial revolution. There is therefore a need for a craft to integrate the management of knowledge and inform and uplift the most vulnerable groups through relevant and impact driven solutions to their context while also enabling opportunities for international collaborations. Technology is the solution and the challenge.

The solution is a model of learning organisation or stricture where continuous development is at the center of the innovation and seeking to engage government, society, private sector and non-profit organisations in coordinated fight against poverty and education. This brings a new dimension of an informal education to skilled labor without education in informal markets, flattening the competitive grounds and easing access to information as a resource for transformation.

Many efforts I have engaged with like recruitment agencies and funding for SMMEs, include individuals who with disjointed mandates echoing similar principles failing to make ends meet in serving the same target market. The very same structures will be stakeholders in the overall knowledge domain of the proposed solution.

Information and knowledge are somehow underrated in the development circle of bettering peoples lives by lacking the deliberate intentions to come forward and captivate the unstructured knowledge with leadership and mentorship for newbies. This is a conceptual model but then prototyped by ECOSEED and the seemingly an astonishing idea to bridge divides and use technology to manage societal knowledge and interventions.  Since there is not central database of people assisted, their failures and successes, then a lot is being missed to generate the drive and insight from each encounter.

Our solution is a new business model riding over web based solutions and mobile applications. Due to a rapid increase of owning mobile phones and having it around all the time, then the solution becomes close to the people and communities as possible. This is where the solutions draws international relevance, gets accessible by everyone everywhere and the model seeks to respond to the strategic management of fragmented efforts by aiming to get popular and showing return on investment by partnerships and adoption by individuals while enjoying their comfort elsewhere.

Web technology platforms are taking lead and mobile applications proving to be growing fast and adopted by everyone to simply physical movement to access services or transact over a purchase. An idea around digital market goes noticed around the debate will become a major pillar and strategic focus during the roll-out of the solution.

We are piloting the model as we speak in writing to you. I have organised the Ministry of Social Development through the National Manpower Secretariat (NDMS) which offers bursaries to higher education, and they are interest and are seeking a presentation to demonstrate how the model will work.  The Ministry of Education was also identified as being the close stakeholder where the students or potential clients are groomed. We want to guide them through challenges in the tertiary level and acquiring sponsorship. We also want to perform advanced career opportunities for placement of graduates in attachment and internships to have a taste of the corporate world. 

Currently we have succeeded to mobilize and acquire clothing for children 0-12months in order to respond to the COVID-19 lockdown denying mothers access to buying of clothes to the newborn and under 1 year old children during the cold winter season in Lesotho. We managed to collect 268 clothes items in 3weeks. We distributed clothes to the Ministry of Social Development, Ministry of Health and individuals needing our services.

We are hopeful that this model works it is just a matter time, resources and mentorship on our side. After lockdown ceases and covid-19 cases we hope our pitch presentation gets us more contracts and activities.

Our theory of changes involves activities as inputs, output and outcomes.

Activities

• soliciting working relationships and partnerships with government, NGOs, Private sector and Academic institutions.
• Conduct seminars and public speaking activities to raise awareness, built the brand and business identity.
• Support individuals with CV writing, Business Proposals, Project Management, Monitoring and Evaluation,  after service support, Risk Management of projects and market segmentation.
• Blogging to increase knowledge and critical thinking of target population to create a community of business thinkers and knowledge base to reference and map crafting of solutions.

Outputs

• Increased networking and skills development through interactiveness and diversified view points.
• Availability of trustworthy service providers to the interest of those serving and being served.
• Coordinated efforts of funds to promote entrepreneurship and SMMEs, and the management of knowledge and information to that effect.
• Improved development of policies and educational curriculum addressing country contextual issues and international gaps.
• Availability of verified and researched information with regard to developmental growth.
• Improved product knowledge and consumer insights and market trends for relevant offerings and business continuity

Outcomes

• Compliant service providers and respect to their service and product offerings
• Increased demand creating opportunity for service provision.
• Increased collection of revenue and tax by new entrants and high profitability
• Knowledge of impact by service sector
• Better quality of education and employable graduates and skilled labor
• Professional conduct by business acumen with sense of accountability and with healthy investment profiles
• Regulated benefits and improved remunerations for employable labor force
• Safe engagements for society with service providers who can be help accountable
• Opportunities for international recognition and improvement of Information Technology and Data Science skill sets.

• Currently we are serving about 250 clients.
• One (1) year plan is to serve 2000 people
• Five (5) year plan is to serve 500000 people

We plan to employ 150 full time staff at the end of five years and 2500 temporary staff. We hope to have a 85% success rate in businesses that thrive of which 55% should be Urban population and 30% be Rural population due the market congestion. We strive to improve the agriculture sector through advanced methods of agriculture. Technology and investment will cut across as basic knowledge offered  to every client.

The solution will directly impact almost 85% of the skilled and employable labor force in five years within Lesotho. However, indirectly the initiative will transcend generation X, Y and X with little impact on generation of baby-boomers. This because the solution is technology savvy and requires some quick knowledge of web browsing and familiarity with mobile applications.

Giving the above generation an opportunity to knowledge and development, it is equivalent to investing in the future and shaping the course of the future. There is a strong assumption for duplication of the initiative in a more adaptable way to respond to the growing needs which will improve on the current model and future seems so bright too the naked eye.

Integrating the solution with social media platforms increases the coverage and realization of different persona to serve. Trends and comments by the target population will be the striking point for future developments aided by by the then artificial intelligence and internet of things of the time.

Barriers may be perceived from old policies that do not allow free participation of new ideas within the existing government structures and policies and perhaps private sector. Again, the behavioral change is another issue to try and soften over time and built trust from the community. Financial challenges may be imposed with an attempt to recruit more staff but the model with generate some revenue from services provision to well established organisations through research work and modelling. The proceeds will be used to sustain operational activities of the company. The academic institutions should be welcoming to the proposal and a few of the corporate or private sector.

We strive or have started to initiate partnerships highlighting our model and the appreciation is good thus except delays caused by bureaucratic arrangements in the governing of companies both in private public sector. So we have commenced initiatives to engage public is activities that require community support without financial aid. This has grown the company brand and identity to some level. So referencing the work engagement in our negotiations will perhaps yield confidence to our potential partners. We have decided to host a website and advertise legitimate individuals and companies free of charge to test the model for a period of one year through member contributions.  We have provided free consultations to 3 companies which have testimony to the effectiveness of our business existence.

3 - Full time staff (Directors)

2 - Part time Staff (Finance and Public Administration Officers)

Our team is vested with Directors who have more than 7 years of experience in implementation of community based projects for non-government sectors. Both Directors have obtained the undergraduate degrees and are soon completing Master's Degrees one in MBA-Management Information Systems (Founder) while another in Statistics (Co-Founder).

ECOSEED Founder has obtained a B.Eng in Computer Systems and Networks at undergraduate level, supervised two multi-million projects in partnership with the Lesotho Ministry of Health (MOH). On project was more ICT infrastructural equipment and configurations while another was more on the software development for strategic Information (SI). Both projects are used nation wide in Lesotho to support voice (VoIP), data (Internet and HMIS aggregate and patient level data) and mutli-media for TeleHealth to respond to covid-19. The founder has been trained for Project management through PMP and again completed a Project Management Module convincingly towards the dissertation which leads to completion of the degree by August 2020.

The founder has completed numerous certifications towards social enterprise and is YALI alumni under Chort 1 - Civic Leadership. The director is assuming a Middle Management Position in Digital Health Informatics in non-profit organisation. The directors are generation Y and Other part time staff are generation X.

The other part-time staff are generation X with substantial experience and qualifications in public relations, human resource management and financial literacy acquired from local accredited institutions holding undergraduate degrees (Accounting and Political Science).  

We are still at infancy stages of partnerships but have worked with the following:

• Ministry of Social Development
• Ministry of Health

In talks with:

• Ministry of Finance
• Ministry of Education
• Vodacom Lesotho
• National University of Lesotho
• Botho University
• Lesotho Revenue Authority
• Basotho Enterprise Development Corporation (BEDCO) Lesotho

Our services:

• Modeling of social innovation solutions
• Strategic leadership and management
• Data and Knowledge management
• Business Process Modeling 
• Digital/Web Marketing

How do we provide our services

• We use online services by receiving requests through our online forms
• We post and updates service providers information through our advertisement platform
• We draft proposals to engage in consultancy services
• We blog and discuss national issues through social media and our website

Why our services are necessary

• We ensure that the management side of businesses incorporates use of technology to streamline efficiency and provide scalability
• We encourage evidence based decision support by use of facts or data and researched models.

Our value proposition

We strive to create the impact in society through bridging gaps creating opportunities for development and growth. We achieve through a hybrid model of revenue generation and donations. We pride in research to understand the market segments and other businesses value propositions.

We provide integrated services whereby there is social impact and consulting service provision to ensure long sustainability. The model also adopts provision for donor funding whereby projects can be delivered through our organisation or carry out research on some question to improve business offering or introduced a new product or service. This creates a shareholding opportunity as investment relying on the potential growth prospects of other businesses. We also provide fee for service as once off or value added services.

We believe that solving problems and serving more people makes money come in. Partners and investment are our strong hold for financial leverage and sustainability.

To create partnerships, generate revenue and seek mentorship support from professionals with well researched and sometimes tested methods.

To help us develop and strong portfolio and business profile of ECOSEED for consideration during bidding for consultancy work locally an dinternally. And also sharing of experiences and ideas fast tracks and catalyses prompt solutions and improves the craft.

MIT faculty to help us improve knowledge as knowledge is an enabler to creativity and professional development.

Our proposed solution and initiative focuses on bridging gaps between service provision and demand creation. The demand available requires relevant skill sets which it is often difficult to know who is a reliable service provider and where to access their services. Advertisement costs and platforms favor the giants and ostracizes the new entrants and informal sectors with skilled labor. We have created a web based platform to advertise evenly all skilled labor forces and provide opportunity for skills development and informal education through researched work and knowledge gathered on the technology platform. 

The efforts will allow placement of attachment to scholars and internships to graduates to have a fill of corporate setting and discover gaps where they could be of service. The providers can showcase their work and be help accountable for service provision which will in turn create competition at the benefit of continuous improvement, networking and leverage entrepreneurship through living testimonies. 

Ultimately, policies can be improved to accommodate the disruptive changes yielding economic throughput, promoting educational outcomes and financial literacy and poverty reduction.