Sweet Spot
(Our Projects)
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What happens if you have
passion and knowledge
but no market for your business?
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Or,
knowledge and a market but
no passion for your business?
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Or,
a market and passion but
no knowledge about your business?
Passion and knowledge, but no market means you’ll love what you do, and do it really well, but not have any money. Or you’ll do it really well and make lots of profits (knowledge + market), but not love your work. And lastly, with a market and passion, but no skill, you may have a poor quality product and therefore low profits despite the market.
One of our popular sessions in Grow Leadership helps our participants understand just this. They work on finding their Sweet Spot, or what they are passionate about, have the skills to do, and a market exists for the product or service.
As an organisation, the sweet spot is when donor priorities and values align with what we love and excel at - helping young people find their passions and start businesses by changing their mindset through the Grow Leadership Programme. In the past our consultancy work for other agencies has generated rich programme learning through the chance to develop training materials for different contexts - from wood cutters to engineering students, government officials and forest extension officers. Now, equipped with all that learning, we are focused on deepening our impact within the Iringa community.
IRINGA
Grow Street
2023-present
Since 2012, RLabs has been supporting unemployed youth in Iringa and recently opened its doors to street children, aged 12 to 18, who are excluded from school due to poverty and family instability.
We see an urgent need to help equip these children with the skills and tools to not only secure a sustainable source of income, but also find their passion and develop other soft skills to succeed in life. The Grow Street programme helps these children discover business opportunities they are passionate about, work towards creating sustainable businesses, and learn to manage money. A special high energy adaptation of Grow Leadership, it includes hands-on challenges and extra modules on growing up, making safer choices, and interpersonal skills, as well as individual business coaching. Zlto is used as a tool to reinforce smart appearance and good behaviour.
IRINGA
ZLTO
2023-present
An award-winning digital app developed by RLabs South Africa, Zlto is a reward system which encourages self-development and positive community actions. After earning Zlto points, participants can cash them in for necessities– clothing, a meal, soap, body oil, etc. Currently being piloted as a physical leaderboard to track points, Zlto will continue to be refined through the design thinking process in 2024 to best be adapted for a rural setting.
Zlto points proved hugely popular in its pilot during Grow Street where children living on the street were highly motivated to attend training consistently and use RLabs’ Computer Centre for personal development in order to win rewards.
IRINGA
Grow Next Level (GNL)
2023-2024
Grow Next Level builds from Grow Leadership, using both group training sessions and individual business coaching to support business owners. Having started a business from scratch, young people often need guidance to refine and grow their business. RLabs’ business coaches help young people make sure they are working on what they are really passionate about, identify their target customers, implement basic financial record keeping, and map out strategies for growth. GNL continues to build growth mindset so that the young entrepreneurs can overcome the many setbacks thrown their way.
By using a combination of group and one on one learning, participants are able to discuss with and learn from their peers, while still receiving individualized and personalized business advice.
IRINGA
Grow Leadership Training
2020-present
Iringa is home, where RLabs originated and where the team is still based. Through support from The Egmont Trust, 1,410 young people have gone through Grow Leadership training. This project has a special focus on reducing girls’ vulnerability to early pregnancy and HIV infection by empowering them to achieve financial independence and take control over their lives.
Results:
• 1,410 youth have started businesses
• Baseline: 6% of young women participants had an income above the national poverty line
• Midline: 72% of young women participants had an income above the national poverty line
• Median income has increased from 0 to 26,000 TSH/week
• 563 Youth Savings and Loans Associations (YSLA) members have saved 188 million TSH since they began two years ago
TANGA
Mindset Change and Entrepreneurship Project
2022-2023
With support from Fondation Botnar, as part of Tanga Yetu, 1,036 young people were trained in Grow Leadership. Known for both its food and fashion, Tanga’s cultural diversity also lent itself to unique innovation opportunities. RLabs developed and ran a special Innovation Boot Camp specifically for Grow participants who started businesses within the food and tailoring industries. The boot camp culminated in a local fair hosted by RLabs allowing each business to showcase their innovative products to the local community.
Results:
• 283 youth started a new business or improved an existing one
• Baseline: 42% of participants have an income above the national poverty line
• Midline: 72% of participants have an income above the national poverty line
• 18 Youth Savings and Loans Associations have saved (to date) a total of 11.6 million shillings
MBEYA
GRREAT
(Girls’ Reproductive Rights and Empowerment Accelerated in Tanzania), 2020-2023
In partnership with UNICEF Tanzania and through funding by Global Affairs Canada, we adapted our Grow Leadership model to include education around nutrition and adolescent sexual and reproductive health (ASRH). Engaging out of school girls in the Mbeya and Songwe regions, the young women were not only empowered to start businesses and form Youth Savings and Loans Associations (YSLAs), but they also began developing innovations around nutrition and ASRH into their businesses.
Results:
• 9,843 young women (and some young men) trained in Grow Leadership
• 2,646 young people have joined 165 YSLAs, saving 26.6 million shillings (to date)
• SMS-based learning platform for entrepreneurship skills developed by girls
• Innovative ideas from apps to monitor satisfaction with family planning services to engaging motorbike taxi drivers as ASRH ambassadors
Southern Highlands
Grow Leadership Training for Small and Medium Forest Enterprises
2016-2021
RLabs has been a valued service provider for the Finnish-Tanzanian Participatory Plantation Forestry Programme since 2016. RLabs’ participatory methods added significant value to Land Use Planning and Entrepreneurship training for forest-related businesses. In 2021, we designed the SME Development Manual for small businesses in the forest value chain, in which we piloted an innovative concept of mapping business capacity in terms of mindset. The initial self-assessment involves business owners identifying areas where they are running their businesses on ‘auto-pilot’ or by habit/‘mazoea’, and mapping what it would be like to run it from a commercial mindset. RLabs has also conducted several rapid assessments of small and large SMEs to inform PFP programming.
Western Kenya
Grow Leadership Training for Graduates
2022-2023
With young people graduating from vocational and agriculture colleges without jobs or the soft skills to create businesses, GIZ’s Agrijobs 4 Youth Programme aims to empower young graduates in Western Kenya to make use of their technical skills by starting their own agri-businesses. In this partnership, RLabs is running weekly training online for bright and committed students from Egerton University in Nairobi to act as mentors for college graduates. The mentors will provide entrepreneurship and mindset training to help graduates recognise the opportunity to create their own enterprises. The training has covered growth mindset, asset-based community development, transactional analysis, facilitation skills and more.
Iringa
Programmatic Development & RLabs Cafe
2020-2023
Unrestricted funding is often the vital glue that holds a programme together, funding overheads and unfunded portions of key staff salaries, gaps between grants and the parts that are hard to fund. Supporting RLabs since 2020, funding from Segal Family Foundation enabled RLabs to pilot a number of different programme approaches before settling on a focus on the Grow Leadership training. Segal also co-funded the renovation of the RLabs Cafe in Iringa with the Human Development Innovation Fund (2020-21).
WHO WE’VE PARTNERED WITH
Owl
River
Story
Movement