Kenya hosts Africa Shared Value summit

Once again, the Africa Shared Value Summit is set to bring together some of Africa’s brightest leaders to discuss how business can tackle social issues through the Shared Value business model.
The 2019 Summit will take place 23-24 May 2019 in Nairobi, Kenya, tackling the topic of collaboration, building Shared Value ecosystems and how collective impact can drive Africa’s economic growth.
The Africa Shared Value Summit raises awareness of and advocates for the successful strategic implementation of the Shared Value business model – profit with purpose – in Africa.
In 2019, the Summit tracks will centre on four of Africa’s most important industries: agriculture, healthcare, manufacturing and green energy. As in previous years, purposeful alignment with the UN Sustainable Development Goals will be a major theme.
“The only way we will realise those Goals is by engaging the private sector, not only as philanthropists but as business people trying to build businesses that can scale and be sustained and solve these problems,” said Mark Kramer – who will be returning next year as a featured speaker.
A world-renowned economist and co-creator of the Shared Value business model, Mark is the co-founder and Managing Director of FSG and the author of influential publications on Shared Value, collective impact, strategic evaluation, and impact investing.
The organisers of the Summit, Shift Social Development and the Shared Value Africa Initiative, are also pleased to announce the first headline sponsor of the 2019 event – Kenyan telecommunications powerhouse Safaricom.
Through a dedicated, top-down approach to implementing Shared Value throughout their business operations, including constant innovation of new products and services and a commitment to supporting ethical businesses throughout their supply chain, the company contributes 6,5% of Kenya’s GDP.
As Safaricom Chairman and Non-Executive Director Nicholas Nganga noted in the 2018 Safaricom Sustainable Business Report, “Sustainable business make good business sense not just because it results in profit, but more importantly, uplifts communities. … commercial, business-driven approaches are required to create the lasting economic growth needed to address social needs and empower communities.”
Each year, the Summit brings together some of Africa’s most influential business leaders to develop the conversation around how business can create sustainable profit through a commitment to social impact.
The Shared Value business model is at base a competitive strategy that leverages societal and environmental challenges to enable businesses to discover new opportunities, optimise their value chain and build ecosystems that build mutual growth for all stakeholders in a community, country or region.
This is an opportunity for other East African companies to come on board as sponsors and position their brand as a Shared Value thought leader in Africa.