Runnovate

Runnovate is committed to ending poverty in rural Kenya and later on, Sub-Saharan Africa. In Kenya, 40% of people in rural areas live in extreme poverty, compared to 28% of those in urban and peri-urban areas. 60% of the workforce in the rural areas are in the informal sector and are therefore faced with the challenge of low economic mobility and unstable incomes. Runnovate provides resources, mentorship and training on social innovation and entrepreneurship so that young people can generate income by solving challenges facing their communities. We collaborate with local organizations and businesses to organize training where we cover aspects ranging from defining the problems in the community to designing and implementing solutions while involving support from mentors. Our solution, which can be implemented globally to bring sustainable change, impacts lives by empowering members of marginalized communities to be actively involved in the development of their communities.

In Kenya, 40% of people in rural areas live in extreme poverty, compared to 28% of people in urban and peri-urban areas. Out of the 22.5 million people who live on less than $1.90 per day in Kenya, 15 million are in rural areas. 60% of the workforce in the rural areas are in the informal sector and therefore face the challenge of low economic mobility and unstable incomes coupled with lack of resources, mentors and training. While 45% of Kenyans in urban areas have attended high school, only 22% of people in rural areas have a high school education. With limited access to electricity and the internet, access to information and education opportunities outside of formal setups is limited.

Runnovate provides resources, training and mentorship on social innovation and entrepreneurship to young people in rural areas in Kenya. Our mission is to empower the youth who will then solve challenges facing their communities. We collaborate with local organizations and businesses to organize training where we take the participants through the design thinking process, from defining the problems in their communities to designing and implementing solutions with support from mentors. Our program participants each receive a smartphone, solar power equipment for lighting and charging the phones, and internet package so that they are able to participate in virtual learning in addition to our in-person training.

Our target population is young people in rural areas from low-income households and aged between 18-30. The dropout rate is higher in rural areas as only 22% have completed high school. There is therefore a large percentage of the rural population that does not hold high school diplomas and without the skills to prepare them to enter the job market. Most, therefore, resort for informal jobs that do not provide stable incomes or opportunities for upward mobility. Starting from June 2018 to present, we have interviewed over 200 people from a rural village in Bungoma County in Kenya. We tested different ideas with a sample of our target population and gathered feedback that has helped refine our current solution. Three members of our team are from the target population which provides us with a channel for constant feedback and communication throughout the process of developing our solution. Our solution provides access to tools, support and resources to help address the needs of our target population who will then engage in income-generating activities while at the same time solving the challenges facing their communities.

Runnovate works with under-resourced populations in rural areas to make knowledge on entrepreneurship and innovation accessible and to provide learning resources and support from mentors. Access to information about entrepreneurship and innovation is often limited to people who have gone to college and/or those who have internet access and stable electricity, both of which are limited in rural areas. Our solution is well-aligned with the challenge “Good Jobs and Inclusive Entrepreneurship” because we are reaching out to an often neglected group yet one with a high potential of using innovation and entrepreneurship to create sustainable change in their communities.

Runnovate’s solution is innovative in the way that we approach providing access to resources and training on innovation entrepreneurship to a target population (young low-income individuals in rural areas ages 18-30) that is usually neglected when it comes to education and entrepreneurship. Our program participants each receive a smartphone, solar power equipment for lighting and charging the phones, and internet package so that they are able to participate in virtual learning in addition to our in-person training. Other solutions, such as Centonomy Entrepreneur, that provide training on entrepreneurship and innovation often focus on college students and/or working people who have stable electricity and internet access. There are also organizations like Better Minds that provide internet access and opportunities for online learning in rural areas but they focus on primary school children. We are therefore the only ones who are tapping into our specific target population with a unique approach to cater for the unique needs, limitations and aspirations of our target population. 

Runnovate also focuses on creating community-driven social change by actively collaborating with local businesses, schools and organizations and getting mentors from the community in order to create sustainable impact. Our regular Runnovate solveathons create a space for stakeholders to listen to solutions by participants and also contribute to the implementation of the solution through seed funding and mentorship.

The core technology that powers our solution is providing internet and electricity access to low-income youths in rural areas so that they can utilize both online and in-person resources for learning. Most of the people in our target population have limited or no internet access and electricity. All participants will be given a smartphone so that they can access online resources at any time and solar panels for light and phone charging. We will be relying on innovative learning methodologies, including both in person and virtual learning sourced from selected websites, YouTube and apps in order to deliver effectively. We will also invite guests, speakers and mentors both virtually and in-person as a way of expanding our network despite geographical limitations that hinder development in rural areas. Therefore, through providing internet and electricity access, we will combat learning limitations created by poverty and geography.

Our solution involves making internet access possible to young people in rural areas and then training them to use the internet as a learning resource for entrepreneurship and innovation. In today’s world, and this spiked greatly during the coronavirus pandemic, people are using online resources to acquire new skills and make themselves more marketable or start their own businesses. With a 78% high school drop out rate in rural areas in Kenya, caused by various reasons such as under-resourced and understaffed schools, online learning provides a great opportunity for young people to equip themselves with skills that will help them out of poverty.

The problem that we are solving is poverty in rural areas in Kenya. Our key activities will be providing training on social innovation and entrepreneurship to young people from low income backgrounds in rural areas in Kenya. We will also be having monthly solveathon challenges for the participants. The resources that we will provide will include solar chargers, smartphones, internet and computers. As a result, the young people will be equipped with skills and resources to come up with solutions that can solve the challenges facing their communities. With support from mentors and seed funding, great ideas with high feasibility potential will be implemented. This will in turn provide a source of income for the youth, create employment opportunities and empower people in rural areas to be actively involved in the development of their communities. The impact that we aim to achieve is to reduce poverty in rural areas. 

We currently serve 20 people who have been actively involved in our MVP. In one year, we are planning to serve at least 100 people through our in person and virtual training. In five years, we plan to directly serve 1000 people and indirectly reach more than 3000 people through extended impact of those that we will be directly serving. 

Our goal within the next year is to have all the infrastructure required to take at least 100 people through our training program. We plan to fund at least 10 entrepreneurial ideas and provide mentorship and support along the implementation journey. We plan to organize virtual solveathons every month where we will invite program participants to share their ideas and get feedback. We will also invite other people to contribute in coming up with feasible solutions to various challenges facing communities in rural areas. We are also planning to use our website and our social media handles to provide access to information about social innovation and entrepreneurship to young people. 

Within the next five years, we are planning to reach more than 1000 young people who will use the tools that we provide to improve their livelihoods. Our goal is to collaborate with investors, organizations and governments to invest and support at least 150 great ideas from low-income youths in rural areas who would have gone through our program. We plan on developing a curriculum on social innovation and entrepreneurship that can be used to replicate our idea in other rural and marginalized areas in Sub-Saharan Africa. The impact that we aim to achieve is to create a movement of young people who will be at the forefront of creating sustainable economic growth in rural areas.

Our biggest barrier is that rural areas in Kenya are under-resourced and often neglected and therefore basic infrastructure such as tarmacked roads do not exist or they are not well maintained and there are even areas where bridges have been destroyed but the government has not taken any action to repair. The challenges due to poor infrastructure make it so hard to carry out basic activities like transportation in rural areas which strain our ability to effectively accomplish our goals. 

We also face technical barriers especially in terms of internet access. Internet connection in rural areas is usually poor in that even when people have smartphones and data bundles, they may still struggle with issues related to connectivity. Since our solution relies on having internet access, this poses a bit of a challenge.

For poor infrastructure, we are actively working with local groups, mainly made up of local businesses, that are pushing for elected members of parliament to work on building and/or improving infrastructure in local areas. 

We are currently working with internet providers to find ways of getting improved connectivity in rural areas. We have reached out to other organizations working in rural areas to find out how they are able to have internet connectivity. We are looking to partner with organizations like Sasai WiFi Finder that are setting up hotspots all over Africa so that they can set up hotspots in the areas we will be working in. 

Full time staff-3

Part-time staff-5

Jolleen, the founder, lives in a rural area in Bungoma County and has seen first hand the challenges facing her peers who have not been able to access opportunities that would help them escape poverty. She has worked as a social innovation lab associate at Swarthmore College's social innovation lab and therefore she has led her peers in college through design thinking training. Through a class on social innovation and social entrepreneurship, she has worked with local entrepreneurs in Philadelphia. 

Frank and Kelvin, who are part of the full time staff members have a record of community service and have been involved in various projects that have helped poor people like building libraries. 

We are currently working with the Lang Opportunity Scholarship program at Swarthmore College and the Social Innovation Lab at Swarthmore College. These two organizations have provided training and mentorship on social innovation, social entrepreneurship and funding for research, community assessment and pilot program.

Runnovate will use grants and donations to start off. However, after we become established, we will be charging a subsidized enrollment fee for participants of the training programs and the monthly solveathon attendees. We will also be offering our offices as cyber cafe service centers where locals can use the computers to print, scan, photocopy or use our internet for a small fee. We will also offer advanced digital training for a fee for locals interested in upgrading their digital skills. We will use income sharing agreements to encourage the participants to contribute back to the program once they start earning revenue. Lastly, we will look into raising investment capital once we have enough proof of concept.

The peers and funders that Solve provides will offer us mentorship and help us advance our initiative. For the barrier of young high school leavers having no access to the internet, MIT has the capacity to help us address this issue. This can be possible if they collaborate with internet service providers and set up hot spots in the rural areas that will provide fast and affordable internet. Solve has a rich network that will really be crucial in providing strategic advice for us. Amongst the network, we will be able to get advice on which internet accessing gadgets are the best and which solar charging systems are sustainable. The cash prize will go a long way in ensuring that Runnovate is able to acquire resources necessary for it to run its operations. This money will be used in setting up curriculums, funding of entrepreneurial ideas, setting up a lab that will be used in teaching of young people and acquisition of smartphones and solar charging systems.