Ubuntu.Lab Institute

Ubuntu.Lab will use the Elevate Prize funding and support to scale up our existing infrastructure and bring about pan-African transformational change by supporting the prototypes that are ready for scaling up, such as the Permaculture gardens, rural women poultry farming, Healing trauma, Economic Empowerment and Collective ecosystem management. Lessons developed from these prototypes will be shared across the continent so that other change makers can adapt them to their unique circumstances. We will also train and equip more African leaders and change makers with the skills, knowledge, tools and platforms to bring about sustainable, community-based social change.

We anticipate that at least 35 new social impact organisations will be created across the continent and 3,500 change makers will be trained in 28 African countries per year.

This applied leadership development program--based on the Ubuntu Philosophy and implemented at scale--will enable Africa's change makers to unlock transformational change in their own countries and across the continent. Africa's change makers will demonstrate holistic and systems thinking approach in their efforts to solve complex social, political, environmental, and economic problems. 

Collaboration will take place across national boundaries through a peer support network of change makers in Africa.

Ubuntu.Lab  believes in the inherent power of Africans to bring about social, economic, and political transformation on the continent. So what constrains Africans from unleashing the kind of change that the continent requires?

There are many contributing factors, but the core challenge that we seek to address is one of indigenous leadership development: there are simply too few African leaders who are equipped with the right skills, knowledge, tools, and platforms to bring about transformational change. 

Based on our cumulative experience of nearly 25 years in developing and cultivating African leaders, our vision, towards which we are working, is the creation of a pan-African community of change makers who will become community leaders, build action confidence in their communities, and create sustainable social enterprises for lasting social change.

Our goal is to take our model of applied leadership development to scale-–so that we prepare, equip, train, and network a new generation of African change makers.  

When I first met other African change makers, while working on an MS. degree in Ireland, I realized the importance of building authentic relationships aimed at the same vision of a better Africa. We can now achieve that vision without having to travel across continents.

We have learned from the legacy of the post-colonial order in Africa that societal transformation will only happen when thousands of people become aware of the need for profound change and take action to make a difference in their own society.  

 The change makers empowered through our program will create and develop prototypes for social enterprises, whose goals include: food production, mental health, financial literacy, social justice, election integrity, fighting governmental corruption, creating sustainable income streams, increasing self-determination and lifting people out of poverty.  

The core of our approach is to expand the pan-African civic infrastructure which we have already created to act as  a continent-wide accelerator for developing community-based social change from the bottom up, building community networks and hubs to increase action confidence.

 We are now in the 4th cohort of Ubuntu lab, with 1230 registered participants to date.  We  started with  participants in 19 countries, the second cohort had 24 countries, and we now have 28 countries involved.  Our intent is to expand to all 54 African countries.  Our objective over the next three years is to train more than 10,500 participants and 1,050 facilitators in a pedagogy of social change.

The Ubuntu.Lab believes that transformational change can be accelerated in Africa by:

·       Promoting a pedagogy of social change that equips change makers with the right skills, knowledge, tools, and platforms.

·       Nurturing innovative social change prototypes to tackle the continent’s most pressing problems.

·       Linking change makers in a network of peer support that cuts across national boundaries and is truly pan-African.

·       Reconnecting African change makers with indigenous knowledge systems and philosophies like Ubuntu in order to catalyze change that respects our planetary boundaries.

Our approach makes use of the Ubuntu and Theory U processes as a transformational paradigm shift; using community-based methods to address the challenges the continent faces.  Being community-based helps to build action confidence and empowers people to do things that they wouldn’t do by themselves.

 Even before Covid we had created a  pan-African digital infrastructure which connects people; enabling them to share ideas and solutions, with peer learning and peer coaching to help change makers step into their potential by being part of a community.  Born with a “scalability gene,” we are uniquely positioned to foster grassroots social change.   Our use of a “train the trainer” model keeps the costs for increasing participation small.

Since this leadership development programme and platform were created in 2018, Ubuntu.Lab has built an impressive track record of achievement. In a relatively short period of two years, we have:

·       Trained more than 200 facilitators across the continent in the systems approach and the Ubuntu philosophy. These facilitators are serving as change agents in their own countries and extending their learning at a local level.

·       Graduated more than 700 participants in 24 countries. These change makers have created social change projects to bring about transformation in their own communities and reach out to  programme alumni in other African countries. 

·       Generated 20 new projects or prototypes of social change in the fields of education, agriculture, business entrepreneurship, and mental health.

Much of the impact of an enterprise like Ubuntu lab is inevitably indirect and long-term in character.  However, we currently measure outputs--e.g., number and growth in participants and programs, number of countries participating.  We also do both quantitative and qualitative evaluations after each session and have started a program to support the prototypes.  We are constantly seeking to improve our  professional evaluation of outcomes and impacts and welcome advice and expertise on this matter.