By Dominique Akens, Diamon Lockett, Shaurya Nanavati, Jamie Nichols, Courtney Reed, Chloe Vieira (FEMBA Class of 2018)
Our Global Access Program field study focused on increasing support for after-school programs in South Africa. We addressed some of the country’s problems stemming from its broken education system, gang violence, teenage pregnancy, HIV/AIDS prevalence and unemployment.
Supported by UCLA Anderson’s Center for Global Management, we partnered with two clients — Boys & Girls Clubs of South Africa and The Learning Trust ― who believe after-school programming can fill gaps in the education system and help lift South African children out of poverty. We operated on the assumption that involving more youth in after-school programs (“ASPs”) would make them safer, strengthen their educational performance and broaden their post-educational opportunities.
We embarked on a thesis project that was markedly different from those of our Fully Employed MBA GAP peers, whose projects traditionally entail finding new growth opportunities for corporate clients, typically technology companies. Our team has over 20 collective years of experience in the nonprofit and education sectors, and we felt strongly that our thesis project should reflect our interest in social impact. We developed a map of after-school programs in the Gauteng province of South Africa, researched effective after-school programming methods and recommended strategies to build the sector and reach more youth in the country.
During our six-month consulting engagement we interviewed non-governmental organizations, government officials, academics, donors and educational advocates. While in South Africa, the team conducted 37 interviews with individuals in Gauteng and Western Cape provinces and toured several after-school program sites that included a computer center, a garden, a robotics lab, a skate park, a soccer pitch and an art studio.
We conducted interviews guided by the hypotheses we formulated as team ahead of the trip. We were interested in determining the activities of impactful after-school programs; estimating social return on investment; creating advocacy material to summarize ASP impact on South African communities; collecting data on ASPs to assist in collaboration efforts; and making recommendations on next steps and gaps in data. Our research led us to a better understanding of the critical activities that contribute to positive outcomes for youth who attend after-school programs.
While in South Africa, we also visited the overpopulated, impoverished townships in Johannesburg and Cape Town. Townships are zones that were formally designated for occupation by non-whites during South Africa’s apartheid era from 1948 to 1991. It was sobering to witness the relatively diminished quality of life township communities are made to endure. These townships stand in stark contrast to the urban areas where we dined as a group, went on sightseeing excursions and stayed in comfortable Airbnbs. Riding through the townships en route to our various interviews, we observed locals buying and selling goods, washing clothes or walking home from school, exposing the reality of life for South Africans as well as revealing opportunities for us to contribute to social change via our research project.
As with any GAP project, our team was required to call on all of our skills as business students and to learn about another culture. Working with a nonprofit client meant that we strayed from the traditional market entry business plan deliverable, by creating theories of change for the sector and social return on investment calculations. Given that this was an in-country project and the goal was not U.S. market entry, it was also especially important that the team understand the complex history of South Africa and think critically about how to address its specific challenges.
We are grateful to the UCLA Anderson School of Management, the Global Access Program and the Center for Global Management for allowing us to pilot a social impact GAP project. We hope that the final product will be a stepping stone for our client and for the after-school space in South Africa.
This is extraordinary! I appreciate the clarity in the delivery of this writing as it effectively paints a picture that allows the reader to feeling of actually "being there!" I'm especially motivated by this team's objective to explore the outcome when the focus is not to reach out to corporate oriented programs geared towards those who "have, but instead, to those provinces where the basic needs of life are not a given! Imagine the outcome if educators worldwide, provided access to the windows of the world to these students in need! I marvel at the potentials that become their's when suddenly, their eyes are open to life's endless possibilities!! Brilliant!!
Posted by: Gentry Akens | 12/06/2017 at 11:01 PM