Youth Sceal (ESAFODAZ), an example of sustainability and success.

‘’Esafodaz initiative is a business incubator with the overarching aim to create economic growth and positive social impact by empowering women at grassroots level through training on the basics of entrepreneurship, personalized mentoring prior to launching their business and access to support services for their business.’’ ​ Esafodaz is a predominantly female organisation and has a big social media platform which is of immense use since its the easiest way to target a lot of potential clients and the business seems to be booming allowing more women to have an income.

‘’Esafodaz.com, an e-commerce platform to support entrepreneurs from vulnerable regions in Mauritius to gain more visibility and secure more sales hence generating more disposable income and consequently improving livelihood. ‘’ By helping these women to rehabilitate their lives esafodaz has a great business plan as well as a kind of self profit generation organisation. Since the entrepreuneurs are mostly from regions that are less developed economically, Esafodaz is increasing the employment rate as well as the living situation of these women. The sales tactic is very smart and sustainable since the women do not have to think too much about it, Esafodaz takes care of the products and the sales, the women just have to make the products. It’s a very simple and effective system that can be looked as an example to other NGOs wanting to create sustainability which seems to be a common negative aspect when it comes to NGOs.

Esafodaz has as objectives a lot of things planned, notably,

• Create an operational and successful ecommerce platform to sell products and services from grassroots entrepreneurs and social businesses. (www.esafodaz.com)  ​
• Foster collaboration between entrepreneurs in Esafodaz Network to enhance their products and add more value to the market. ​​
• Provide constant online visibility and professional product marketing positioning. (Esafodaz Instagram page and www.esafodaz.com) ​
• Harness grassroots innovation through a social business incubator develop economically viable products which are showcased and sold through an e-commerce platform.​

Activities done by Esafodaz: Recruitment of entrepreneurs, Delivery business trainings, Development of business plans, provide business support services, conduct market research .

Develop marketing materials for entrepreneurs, showcase products on ecommerce platform, promote products on ecommerce platform and develop online campaign .

The project partner/s of Esafosaz,’’ Decentralised Cooperation Programme – European Union’’.

Communication partner: DIIZZ Interactive​

In terms of Beneficiaries, Esafodaz has 20 women and 5 mean as direct beneficiaries, thus 80% women. Indirect beneficiaries, 40 women and 20 men, thus 80% women. And indirect beneficiaries is 12 500 people approximately in which 80% are women. So a very female dominated ratio.

Risks identified by Esafodaz,

•  Lack of a combination of education, work experience, vocational and technical skills​
•  Lack or limited access to technology due to affordability, lack of knowledge, and/or social norms ​
•  Women more likely to start enterprise in sectors with low effective demand leading to lower profits​
•  Less favorable profile with investors since women own small businesses and do not have adequate collateral​
•  Low financial market participation.

General Entrepreneurship Constraint​

•  Lack of technical and business skills​
•  Occupational segregation​
•  Use of cheap technology resulting in high production costs and lack of competition​
•  Limited market opportunities which leads to lower profits​
•  Limited access to finance due to absence of financial markets, high collateral requirements and interest rates, and additional bank charges​
•  Lack of financial products and services for MSMEs.

ESAFODAZ is a key example as a sustainable forward NGO, the path they chose is excellent. Many NGOs lack funding to make the projects they have in mind a reality but Esafodaz took a different path and is trying to generate their own profits with the helps their own beneficiaries with the use of Technology. In today’s world where everything is related to social media, Esafodaz took the right decisions to be the success story they are and hopefully will continue to be in the future.  ​