易胜博官网

Ray Kroc beheld beauty in a McDonald鈥檚 hamburger because it looked the same wherever it was served. Galen Welsch feels the same way about a cool draught of clean drinking water. The difference? Welsch is focused on places where affordable drinking water is hard to come by. That鈥檚 why he cofounded Jibu, a growing network of locally owned businesses that sell 鈥渞adically affordable鈥� drinking water to underserved people living in Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda.

Welsch wants to earn enough money to scale Jibu and be able to deliver more water to needy people, while also creating employment opportunities for would-be franchisees. So he turned to the one organization perfectly equipped to help him: the Social Sector Franchising Initiative (SSFI), a program of the Center for Social Innovation and Enterprise (CSIE), a joint venture between Paul College and the Carsey School of Public Policy. Paul College鈥檚 Rosenberg International Franchise Center is a key partner in the initiative.

Led by Bill Maddocks, clinical faculty member at the Carsey School, and Paul College clinical associate professor Fiona Wilson, the Social Sector Franchising Initiative helps build capacity in the emerging field of social sector franchising, while providing exciting research and engagement opportunities for 易胜博官网 faculty and students.

鈥淪ocial franchising applies commercial franchising best practices to providing life-saving or enhancing social goods and services,鈥� said Wilson. 鈥淭hese organizations are primarily motivated by social impact rather than profit, and are represented across the developing world in healthcare, clean water and sanitation, clean energy, education and other sectors.鈥�

The Social Sector Franchising Initiative is set up as an 鈥渁ccelerator鈥� that connects aspiring social entrepreneurs, or 鈥減rot茅g茅s,鈥� with successful commercial franchising mentors, who come to 易胜博官网 via the International Franchise Association, the global trade group with whom the Center for Social Innovation and Enterprise has a strategic partnership.

Wilson said for the project pilot they chose three social sector franchisers who were each at a different stage of maturity and complexity. These included Ignite Health Services from Nigeria, which will provide mobile health vans and clinics to bring safe and high-quality maternal health care to women in the greater Lagos area; Ziweto Agrovet Shops, a franchiser of small veterinary shops, which provide services for livestock farmers in Malawi; and Jibu.

In October 2016, prot茅g茅s and mentors came to campus for a round table with senior leaders from the commercial and social franchise world (as well as faculty and select students) to establish a year-long game plan for collaboration. This included sending two 易胜博官网 students to Africa in January to conduct field research on the social franchise projects. Their field data has been published online as living case studies of the partnerships.

鈥淚t was eye opening,鈥� says one student, Ilona Drew, who earned a B.S. in Business Administration at Paul College in 2014 and is currently pursuing a Master鈥檚 Degree in Public Policy at the Carsey School. 鈥淚 spoke with women who were accustomed to spending their whole days procuring water. When Jibu showed up, they were free to work and do other things.鈥�

鈥淗arnessing the commercial business model and using it to create good in the world is exciting. We鈥檙e the only such center in the U.S. doing this,鈥� said Maddocks.

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